Canada unveils UN resolution blasting Iran's rights record

UNITED NATIONS — Iran was under attack on two fronts Thursday as a Canadian-led assault on the Islamic republic's human rights record added to international frustration over Iran's latest nuclear fuel proposal.

Western powers seeking to make Iran roll back its nuclear program privately balked at Iran's reported idea to resume uranium imports in exchange for exporting its current enriched uranium stock.

This unfolded as Canada deposited a draft resolution at the United Nations that implicitly criticizes the UN's array of human rights investigators, saying they need to get proactive about exposing human rights abuse in Iran.

"Today, at the United Nations General Assembly, Canada will table the toughest resolution on the human rights situation in Iran," Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said in the House of Commons just ahead of the UN filing.

"For the first time, under this government, we are calling on the investigators to focus on Iran's appalling human rights record."

The United States and five other big powers have long led the international focus on Iran's suspected bid to develop a nuclear bomb. But Canada has emerged as a catalyst for UN scrutiny of Iran's human rights record since the 2003 torture and murder of Canadian-Iranian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi while she was in Iranian custody.

The draft resolution calls on UN investigators of extra-judicial executions, torture, free speech suppression, persecution of human rights activists, arbitrary detention, and enforced disappearances to "pay particular attention" to Iran.

It notes Iran has offered a "standing invitation" for investigation by any of the UN experts, but has "not fulfilled any requests from these special mechanisms to visit the country in four years."

The text reflects past Canadian-led resolutions in identifying torture, flogging, amputations and stoning as "serious ongoing and recurring human-rights violations" in Iran.

Diplomats at the Canadian mission to the UN began distributing the draft, asking countries they think will support it not only for their vote, but to actively help lobby to bring other governments on board.

The call for more UN investigator involvement comes amid criticism that many of the "special rapporteurs" spend a disproportionate amount of time probing alleged abuses in advanced democracies, while ignoring countries where the worst abuse takes place.

The UN investigator on the plight of minorities, Gay McDougall, last week wrapped up a visit to Canada, which means half of her eight in-country investigations have been in advanced democracies.

The UN's housing rapporteur, Raquel Rolnik, is currently probing the United States.

Diplomats familiar with the thinking behind the Canadian-led Iran draft say the extra-judicial executions rapporteur is listed first because his presence in Iran is considered to be most urgently needed. The rapporteur, Philip Alston, was this week commenting on how the United States may be breaking international law on extra-judicial killings when it dispatches drones to wipe out terrorist targets in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Listed second on the draft is Manfred Nowak, the UN special rapporteur on torture. He was kicked out of Zimbabwe Wednesday after he'd gone there to investigate alleged attacks on Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's supporters by militants linked to President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party.

In Vienna, the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency was consulting with the world powers and Iran Thursday after the country failed to fully accept a UN-brokered plan to have most of its fuel for a medical-research reactor processed outside the Islamic republic.

The deal aimed to allay concern Iran could enrich the fuel to bomb-making levels.

After Iran missed last week's deadline to accept the deal, Iran's IAEA ambassador, Aliasghar Soltanieh, said Thursday "technical and economic concerns" surrounding the supply of fuel remained unaddressed.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the U.S. needs to see "a formal response from Iran."

According to diplomats and the Iranian media, Iran wants to ship out its stock piecemeal, rather than all at once, as the original deal seeks. It also wants the right to simultaneously import highly enriched uranium.

Western diplomats balked, arguing such provisions could result in Iran increasing its stock of enriched fuel.

Norway and Sweden worked closely with Canada in writing this year's human rights measure, which also reflects input from human rights activists.

Earlier resolutions have stopped short of saying the special investigators should focus on Iran, saying only the Islamic republic should co-operate with UN human rights mechanisms.

This year's text also heavily criticizes Iran's "harassment, intimidation and persecution" of protesters and others who were caught up in Iran's crackdown in the wake of the disputed re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June.

Drafts are tabled in a UN committee that deals with human rights matters, before passing to the General Assembly "plenary" for action later in the year.