India on Friday voted against a United Nations Human Rights Council resolution that censured Iran’s crackdown on the recent anti-government protests.
The resolution, also demanding an end to “brutal repression” by Tehran, was passed by the 47-member council. While 25 members of the council voted in favour of the resolution, 14 abstained. Seven, including India and China, opposed it.
Ambassador of Iran to India Mohammad Fathali on Saturday thanked New Delhi for its “principled and firm support” of Tehran “including opposing an unjust and politically motivated resolution”.
“This stance reflects India’s commitment to justice, multilateralism, and national sovereignty,” Fathali said.
The protests, which began on December 28, initially focused on discontent about rising inflation. However, they later expanded as protesters in more than 100 towns demanded an end to clerical rule.
On Friday, the council in its resolution said that it “deplores the violent crackdown of peaceful protests” resulting in thousands of deaths, and urged the Iranian government to “respect, protect and fulfil its human rights obligations”.
The resolution asked Tehran to take measures to end and prevent extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearance and arbitrary arrests.
The toll in the crackdown on the protests is at least 5,000, AP quoted activists as saying on Friday.
The United States-based Human Rights Activists News Agency was quoted as saying that the toll includes more than 4,700 protesters, over 200 demonstrators affiliated to the Iranian government, 43 children and 40 civilians who had not participated in the unrest.
This would make the protests the deadliest unrest in Iran in several decades.
More than 26,800 persons have been detained by the authorities in a widening arrest campaign, AP quoted the US-based human rights group as saying.
On Wednesday, the Iranian government said that the toll was more than 3,100. More than 2,400 of those killed in the protests were civilians and security personnel and the remaining, Tehran claimed, were “terrorists”.
On January 8, the Iranian government snapped internet access and telephone lines, largely cutting off the country from the outside world. The authorities have accused the US and Israel of inciting the unrest.
The restrictions were eased on January 13, AP reported. However, text messaging services were still down and internet users were only able to connect to government-approved websites locally.
The internet shutdown has made it difficult for international human rights groups to independently verify the toll.
On Friday, to deepen scrutiny of Tehran’s actions, the UN body also extended for two years and broadened the mandate of the independent investigators gathering evidence to ensure accountability for human rights violations in Iran.
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