Western nations slam Iran over human rights record

For your information, we hereby publish the following news from The Associated Press:

The United States and Norway pressured Iran to make good on its pledge to improve human rights, crafting a statement that won the backing of all 27 European Union nations and more than two dozen other countries.

The statement, delivered by Norwegian Ambassador Bente Angell-Hansen, expressed concern over a "lack of progress in the protection of human rights in Iran," especially since the widespread arrests and bloody crackdowns against dissidents that followed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election on June 12, 2009.

Iran’s shortcomings include "the violent suppression of dissent, detention and executions without due process of law, severe discrimination against women and minorities including people of Baha’i faith, and restrictions of expression and religion," said the statement. It was agreed to by 56 nations, less than a third of all U.N. member nations.

"We cannot let this Human Rights Council session go by without marking the one-year anniversary of these events this month," they said.

Iranian Ambassador Hamid Baeidi Nejad had interrupted Angell-Hansen and used a procedural maneuver to quash the statement during a morning session.

Also protesting on behalf of Iran was the Organization of the Islamic Conference. Pakistani Ambassador Zamir Akram, speaking for the 56-nation organization, said it was unfair to single out one country in a discussion that was supposed to be about a landmark human rights conference in Vienna in 1993.

Iran’s official news agency said Tuesday that Tehran objects strongly to a statement over the weekend by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton about Iran’s human rights record and a "climate of fear" since the election.

Ashton said the EU believes Iran‘s human rights situation "has gravely deteriorated," with many Iranians suffering "violence, imprisonment and repression at the hands of the Iranian authorities over the last year."

Iran‘s foreign ministry told Spain