All of Iran's friends at the UN

In a packed session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on 15th of Feb, 2010, Iran’s human rights record was reviewed by the members and some member states rose to congratulate (?!?!) Iran on its feats, while another group brought up valid issues related to the abuse and violation of rights by the Islamic regime.

Those who supported IRI and IRI's abysmal human rights records and went so far to actually congratulate them on issues including “women’s rights” (?!?!) were:
-- Srilanka (Long record of abuse of human rights and slaughter of Tamilians)
-- Zimbabwe (Widespread reports of systematic and escalating violations of human rights under Mugabe and his party)
-- Sudan (An Alqaeda & terroristic strong-hold)
-- Bolivia (Recipient of millions of dollars from IRI for various infrastructural projects among others, much like pan-handlers)
-- Kuwait (Fear of islamic fundamentalist may have prompted them. fear of retaliation by IRI? In June 2007, Kuwait became among the worst offenders in human trafficking )
-- Vietnam (A country known for restrictions in freedom of speech, press, assembly, as well as child labor, ... etc)
-- China (The biggest violator of human rights in the world)
-- Armenia
-- India (An invertebrate and feeble nation in international politics, simply incapable of making any stance on anything whatsoever)
-- Algeria (Another Islamic fundamentalist nation, well known for corruption, restricted in civil liberties and women's rights and religion ...etc)
-- Bahrain (Fear of regional retaliation by IRI?)
-- Venezuela (AN's brother-in-arms and another recipient of vast fortunes from IRI)
-- Lebanon (Muslim brotherhood? Hizbullah's influence on the vote?)
-- Nicaragua (Another crooked, corrupt Central American and supplicant to IRI)

Hardly a set that invokes “respect for law or humanity” in your mind. Some are literally the “who’s who” of the most corrupted, controversial countries or even terroristic activities. Most probably the group that "lends bread to each other" (as we say in Farsi) so when the time comes up to pull their human rights record, they can rely on their unholy alliance. Sort of a "You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours".

However, there are two nations that confound me: Japan and Brazil, who just ignored IRI's vast human rights abuses and actually congratulated this brutal regime and at best, were ambiguous on the matter!!! Both Japan's & Brazil's comments were both congratulatory and critical which was neither here nor there. That's just too intriguing to digest.


On the other hand, countries like France, Italy, Austria, Australia, Mexico, Holland, Czech republic, New Zealand, Slovakia, Slovenia, Israel, Romania, Luxemburg, England, Spain, Ireland, Denmark and the United States brought up various human rights abuse issues, illegal imprisonment, torture and rape of prisoners, violation of religious minority rights, ... etc