Iran on Sunday rejected as “baseless” a recent report by the special envoy for the UN Human Rights Commission, Maurice Copithorne, reported the official Iranian news agency (IRNA).
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamid-Reza
Asefi, said the report included “baseless, repetitive and unreal allegations.”
Asefi said the report followed the same old repetitive pattern of lodging baseless allegations against Iran that had been raised over the past few years by certain Western states.
"Copithorne's report, which is politically motivated, fully conforms with futile attempts to tarnish the image of the Islamic Republic in the international arena," he said.
The spokesman said the sharp differences between the report and the realities in Iranian society were concrete proof of its lack of credibility, and reiterated that many countries worldwide confirmed a growth in Iran's political awareness and public participation.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has always been committed to safeguarding and promoting its human rights status based on Islamic norms, its Constitution and its international obligations,” he said.
Copithorne's Thursday report on human rights in Iran blamed the differences between Iran's oversight Guardian Council and Parliament for having debilitated Tehran's ability to carry forward what he described as “human rights reforms.”
He also pointed to the continued “sweeping suppression” of the reformist press and the "fearful intolerance" of dissident voices as main cases of human rights violations – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)