Rooz: What is the significance of the latest UN Resolution against Iran?
Lahiji: This the fourth time that such a resolution is being discussed and passed against Iran. Although the UN’s Commission on Human Rights has been unable or unwilling to pass such a resolution, which deals with human rights violations in Iran. These resolutions, though they lack enforcement mechanisms because they are passed outside of the Security Council, are still very significant in terms of ‘international etiquette.’

Rooz: And one must also consider the importance of the Security Council for Iran now…
Lahiji: Yes. Even with the current UN Commission on Human Rights, the Islamic Republic failed to gain membership into the commission despites all of its effort, both through normal diplomatic channels and behind the scene wheeling and dealing. Small countries like Qatar, Jordan and Tunisia were able to join the commission, even though they are not doing so well in terms of upholding human rights in their own countries. But because of the Islamic Republic’s continuous and obvious human rights violations throughout the past two decades, the Iranian government has created such a reputation for itself that is does not even have enough membership rights as those small countries.

Rooz: The latest UN Resolution covers a broad range of topics, from the torture and intimidation of political and human rights activities to the discrimination against women and ethnic and religious minorities. Where does the evidence of all of this come from?
Lahiji: The background performance of a country with respect to any one of these issues is very important. For example, the Civil and Political Rights Commission, which oversees the implementation of the International Covenant for the Civil and Political Rights (signed by Iran in 1976), has repeatedly objected to Iran’s government that part of the Islamic Republic Constitution violates principles of gender and religious equality. This is because the range of freedoms afforded by the Iranian Constitution is subordinated to the observance of Islamic principles. The Iranian government has been asked to change its laws in compliance with its commitment to international treaties, but it has refused to do so. Also, in the past two decades Iran has been among the countries that have the highest rates of capital punishment. Currently Iran is second only to China, but considering that China has a population of over a billion and Iran’s population is only 70 million, Iran actually has the highest per capita rate of capital punishment in the world. Two political prisoners have died in the Islamic Republic’s prisons in the past two decades. When the Islamic Republic’s judiciary cuts stoning and flogging verdicts (even if the verdicts are not actually carried out), it means that the Islamic Republic’s penal code is in violation of the internationally accepted principles of human rights. These factors are responsible for the emergence of a broad kind of consensus against Iran.