Statement by the High Council for Human Rights in response to Canada's anti-Iran resolution at the UN General Assembly

In response to the approval of the resolution proposed by Canada against our country in the UN General Assembly, the Islamic Republic of Iran High Council for Human Rights issued a statement. The text of this statement is as follows:

Along with some other claimant countries that have lost credibility due to their outspoken support for the criminal, child-killing, and genocidal Zionist regime—and even facing harsh criticism from their own citizens—the racist Canadian regime, which has a dismal record in the field of human rights and engages in widespread violations of those rights, particularly with regard to the rights of women and girls, indigenous peoples, and immigrants, passed a resolution against our country in the UN General Assembly. The resolution received the minimum support of 80 countries, while 95 countries voted against it, abstained, or did not participate.

This resolution was approved at a time when the criminal Zionist regime has committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, racial and ethnic cleansing, and genocide against the oppressed people of Gaza, all while ruthlessly murdering civilians, including defenseless women and children, with the full backing of the resolution's founders.

These countries claiming to have human rights must answer: What action have they taken in response to the killing of more than 50,000 innocent people in Gaza, of whom more than 70 percent were women and children, according to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights?

Have they done anything but stifle nonviolent protests by citizens and students against the crimes committed by a regime that, according to international organizations' statistics, has killed a child in Gaza every ten minutes, slaughtered over 17,000 Palestinian children since last year, and killed hundreds of newborns soon after birth as a result of the indiscriminate bombing of homes, hospitals, schools, and refugee camps, as well as the destruction of medical facilities and health care facilities?

Shouldn't nations that claim to uphold human rights have called a special session of the Human Rights Council, formed a fact-finding committee, referred to the Third Committee of the General Assembly, and sponsored the adoption of a human rights resolution against genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Gaza because of the killing of civilians, including innocent women and children, the horrifying burning of children in front of their mothers, and the bombing of schools, hospitals, and refugee camps?

It is a bitter irony that the Canadian government, which is aware of the widespread violations of indigenous rights and the mass graves of indigenous students in this country, permits itself to comment on the human rights situation in other nations despite the West's contradictory actions in regard to human rights. To see the absurdity of this nation's human rights claims, one only needs to look at the status of women in this nation:

In Canada, women and girls make up the great majority of victims of human trafficking that are found, with 25% of them being younger than 18; The police are notified of six rapes for every 100; 60% of rape victims are under the age of 17, and 11% of women suffer physical harm as a result of being raped; 57% of Indigenous women have experienced sexual assault, and 83% of women with disabilities will experience rape or sexual assault at some point in their lives.

While only one in 20 Canadian women are Indigenous, nearly 50% of women imprisoned in Canadian prisons are Indigenous, and they face more hardships upon release and spend more time in solitary confinement. Women make up approximately 3.5% of the homeless population; each night, 6,000 women, many of whom have children, seek safety in emergency shelters; 75% of homeless women suffer from mental health conditions like anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia, and 96% have been victims of sexual assault, robbery, assault, or intimidation.

It is important to note that the deaths and disappearances of Indigenous women and girls have become a human rights issue in Canada to the extent that the country was finally compelled to declare a national emergency. In 2021, an estimated 127,082 people were victims of domestic violence, with women and girls accounting for 69 percent of these victims. In the same year, 173 women were killed, with 58 of them being Indigenous women and girls.

The rights of immigrants are also gravely violated in this country, in addition to the situation of women and girls. According to published statistics, individuals in immigration detention, including those with disabilities, were still being held in handcuffs and shackles without any restrictions in 2023. In Canada, immigration detention has no time limit; immigrants and asylum seekers are held in provincial jails for months or years alongside those who are imprisoned on serious convictions or criminal charges, and occasionally they are even placed in solitary confinement.

Furthermore, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples called on the government to immediately address and eradicate the systemic, structural, and deeply ingrained racism that affects Indigenous peoples in Canada in a report on his July visit, citing the extreme human rights violations of Indigenous peoples in 2023.

Therefore, the fact that Canada has permitted itself to comment on the human rights situation in Iran despite these horrifying human rights statistics only serves to support the claim that hypocrisy, double standards, and the selective application of human rights in Canadian and allied foreign policy have no bounds.