TEHRAN – Iran reacted strongly to a resolution by the United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday which extends the mission of its Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the country, saying the resolution lacks “professional basis” and is “confrontational.”

“In the eyes of the Islamic Republic of Iran and most of the Human Rights Council’s member countries which did not support this resolution at various levels, this resolution lacks necessity, legal validity and professional basis,” Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Friday.

The Human Rights Council on Friday extended the mandate of Asma Jahangir, the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, for a further period of one year in a resolution on the situation of human rights in Iran, adopted by a vote of 22 in favor, 12 against and 13 abstentions. 

Earlier Tehran asked the UN Human Rights Council to put an end to the mission of Jahangir, calling her report on the situation of human rights in Iran politically motivated.

At the 34th session of the Human Rights Council held in Geneva, Jahangir presented a 40-page report on human rights conditions in Iran, which accuses the country of numerous violations.

The UN rapporteur accused Iran of a range of violations, including executions of juveniles, imprisonment of religious minorities, and torture of political prisoners, accusations that Tehran rejects. 

Qassemi also said such a "confrontational policy and destructive and failed approach" is pursued through the "exertion of pressure on other countries to support these selective and spiteful resolutions by taking advantage of various political and economic levers" and will regrettably undermine the credibility of the UN human rights mechanisms.

It would also discredit countries that seek to tarnish the image of independent countries, including Iran, which refuses to follow the neocolonialist policies of certain Western states, he added.

Such countries also want to cover up their human rights violations, crimes against humanity and brutal killings in the region and across the world, he emphasized.

AK/AK