But on Tuesday the former prosecutor, Seyyed Alireza Avaei, now Iran\u2019s minister of justice, appeared at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, one of nearly 100 ministers and dignitaries to speak at the start of its main session this year. The reaction inside and outside the council was outrage.<\/p>\n
Sweden\u2019s foreign minister, Margot Wallstrom, and a handful of European diplomats left the council chamber in protest.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Had the meeting been held in a European Union member state Mr. Avaei would have not been permitted to attend. The European Union penalized Mr. Avaei with a travel ban and assets freeze in October 2011 for \u201chuman rights violations, arbitrary arrests, denials of prisoners\u2019 rights and increase of executions.\u201d<\/p>\n Outside the United Nations offices, several dozen Iranian opponents of Iran\u2019s government, mostly from Switzerland and France, noisily denounced Mr. Avaei\u2019s appearance, the 1988 \u201cmassacre\u201d in which he played a prominent part and the repression of critics and dissidents.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Avaei seized the opportunity to denounce what he called the domination and manipulation of international human rights mechanisms by countries like the United States.<\/p>\n He said the council should apply \u201ccherished principles of objectivity, impartiality, transparency and consensus\u201d to thwart what he described as those countries\u2019 double standards and the politicization of the council\u2019s proceedings.<\/p>\n Defending Iran\u2019s record, Mr. Avaei said the government had thoroughly revised its penal code and criminal procedures to increase safeguards and rights of the accused.<\/p>\n He also said amendments to Iran\u2019s strict narcotics laws, the basis for most of the country\u2019s executions, were reducing the use of capital punishment.<\/p>\n Although executions in Iran have fallen in recent years, the number still carried out remains among the world\u2019s highest.<\/p>\n Concern also has increased recently over the deaths in detention of several protesters arrested at anti-government demonstrations. The most prominent case is the death of an Iranian-Canadian environmentalist, Kavous Seyed Emami<\/a>. Days after his arrest, apparently on suspicion of spying, the authorities told his family that he had committed suicide.<\/p>\n In January, the United Nations human rights chief, Zeid Ra\u2019ad al-Hussein, criticized Iran for flouting the international prohibition on executing people who were juveniles when they were accused of the offenses for which they were detained \u2014 five in 2017 and three in January, with at least 89 more waiting on death row.<\/p>\n Mr. Avaei\u2019s speech at the council came just as the United Nations released an annual report by Secretary General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres on human rights in Iran, detailing a wide range of abuses.<\/p>\n Courts continue to sentence defendants to punishment by flogging and amputation, freedom of expression remains sharply restricted and rights advocates and journalists face harassment, intimidation and imprisonment.<\/p>\n Mr. Avaei\u2019s appearance was \u201can insult\u201d to the memory of victims of his trials and to human rights defenders, said Impact Iran, a coalition of nongovernment groups monitoring human rights in Iran.<\/p>\n \u201cBy choosing a major violator as Iran\u2019s voice on human rights,\u201d it said in a statement, \u201cIran is also making a mockery of the Human Rights Council and showing contempt for the U.N. human rights system as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"