Iran’s judiciary official blasts US as world's ‘biggest human rights violator'

The secretary of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights and the Judiciary chief’s deputy for international affairs has blasted Washington for claiming to be a defender of human rights while violating that both inside and outside the US.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday on the sidelines of a seminar titled “American human rights; assassination, sanction, and savagery,” Kazem Gharibabadi said that the US has committed the biggest crimes against humanity in history.

“The Americans have committed the biggest crimes against humanity by attacking and occupying different countries,” he said, naming Iraq and Afghanistan as examples.

The US measures in Iraq have claimed the lives of more than 2 million innocent people, including half a million children, he said.

Gharibabadi added that bombs dropped by American drones in seven countries have killed more than 48,000 people.

Pointing to the extensive violation of human rights inside the United States, especially with regard to African-Americans, he noted that some 1,800 women are killed annually in the US while some 4,000 people die inside American prisons every year.

“The US has a dark history of human rights, but introduces itself as its flag bearer,” he stressed, noting that human rights is only a tool for America to pursue its foreign policy goals.

US not qualified to talk about human rights, must answer for violations: Gharibabadi

Senior Iranian rights official says the US is in no position to talk about the issue of human rights given its far-and-wide and ongoing violations.

US not respecting cultural diversity

The judiciary official noted elsewhere in his remarks that the US accuses others of violating human rights because it does not recognize and respect their cultures.

There are many cultures in the world, but the US is ignoring this cultural diversity, seeking to impose the Western lifestyle on others, he said, adding, “[then] it labels those who do not go in line with them as countries that violate human rights.”  

Iran is not opposing human rights as it is a member of seven different human rights conventions, he said, noting that defending the oppressed is among the causes of the Islamic Revolution.

Gharibabadi said there are different versions of human rights and one cannot reject them arbitrarily, but the discord arises when the West tries to impose its own standards on Iran, noting that Iran believes in human rights as a sacred issue that is rooted in divine religions, especially in Islam.

US human rights abuses

America in the 21st century saw its police kill off a young black man George Floyd.

There are numerous regimes across the world that politically have no problem with the US and as a result, Washington is turning a blind eye to their human rights violations, added the official.

US and Khashoggi’s case

Human rights activists have long blasted the US for not adopting any tangible measure against Saudi Arabia after the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Khashoggi was lured into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018 to obtain documents he needed to marry his fiancée. He was killed and dismembered in the consulate and his remains were never found.

In the months before his death, Khashoggi had turned into a vocal critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the de-facto leader of Saudi Arabia who has overseen a harsh crackdown on rivals and dissidents.

Saudi officials blamed “rogue agents” for the journalist’s death.

US intelligence agencies acknowledged in a report in February that MBS authorized the team of Saudi security and intelligence officials that killed Khashoggi.

US President Biden, however, said in March he was not going to hold the prince accountable for the murder.

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