UN Rights Body Creates Post of Investigator for Iran

VOA breaking-news

Friday, March 25th, 2011 at 2:45 am UTC

Posted 4 hours ago

The top United Nations human rights body has established the post of special investigator for rights abuses in Iran.
The Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council approved the resolution Thursday with 22 votes in favor, seven against and 14 abstentions. Four of the 47 member-nations did not vote.
The Associated Press reports that an outside expert is to be appointed to the position later this year.
The council expressed concern over Iran's crackdown on opposition figures, its increased use of the death penalty and other abuses.
Tehran rejected the resolution, which was championed by the United States and Sweden.
Iran is not a member of the council and has not admitted international human rights experts into the country for at least a decade.
In Washington, White House National Security Adviser Tom Donilon welcomed the decision as “a historic milestone that reaffirms the global consensus and alarm about the dismal state of human rights in Iran.”
The U.N. Human Rights Council was established in 2006 as a successor to the widely criticized U.N. Commission on Human Rights. The United States became a member in 2009.