CANADA TO INTRODUCE UN RESOLUTION CONDEMNING IRAN'S HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD

[kweerwolf]

Canada's Foreign Minister, Pierre Pettigrew (right), announced late yesterday that his country will introduce a resolution at the UN condemning Iran's record on human rights. Pettigrew said that "Iran has not lived up to its international human rights obligations and has not conformed with past UN resolutions on this matter. We believe this must change," according to a Reuters dispatch.

Pettigrew had previously criticized Iran for its July 19 public hanging of two gay teens in the city of Mashad. On August 15, Pettigrew issued a statement condemning the “deterioration” of the human rights situation in Iran, in which he specifically referred to the hangings of the Mashad gay youths (shown at left), saying, “We condemn the recent hanging of two teenagers and encourage Iran to respect its obligations as a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,” and he criticized the “persecution of minorities in Iran.” Iran is a signatory party to the International Conventions on Civil and Political Rights as well as on the Rights of the Children, which both forbid executions of minors.

Also playing a role in Canada's decision to introduce a new UN resolution condemning Iran was the torture and murder by Iranian authorities of a Canadian photojournalist of Iranian origin, Zahra Kazemi (left). The Kazemi case made headlines for weeks in Canada after the stunning revelations in March of this year by Shahram Azam, a former staff physician in Iran's Defense Ministry who defected to the West. Azam said he'd examined Kazemi four days before his death, and had found evidence of a very brutal rape; a skull fracture, two broken fingers, missing fingernails, a crushed big toe and a broken nose; severe abdominal bruising, swelling behind the head and a bruised shoulder; and deep scratches on the neck and evidence of flogging on the legs.

Canada's decision to introduce this new UN resolution condemning Iran's deplorable human rights records gives the global gay community the perfect opportunity to capture world attention for the unfolding, lethal anti-gay pogrom in Iran. It's about time that U.S. gay groups -- who have done almost nothing to protest the widespread, snowballing "moral crusade" of newly-elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government against gay people -- finally end their silence and mobilize in support of Canada's UN resolution by specifically denouncing the enormous gay tragedy taking place in Iran today. If you're a member of or contributor to HRC, the NGLTF, or IGLRC, now is the time to let the leaders of these groups know that you expect a full-throated, activist campaign by them to protest and mobilize against the campaign of arrests, Internet entrapment, beatings, torture and hangings on trumped-up charges of gays, lesbians, and the transgendered by the Ahmadinejad regime. And that campaign must include expressing outrage at the regime's continued execution of minors, as well as of its treatment of women.

http://direland.typepad.com/direland/2005/10/canada_to_intro.html

I am so proud of our neighbor to the north. Canada seems to be ahead of the U.S. on so many issues! It really makes me wonder sometimes whether it's better to stay here and fight Satan's forces (a.k.a. the religious reich) or to pack up and move north.

[bullimiami]

1. has canada introduced a resolution condemning the bushco for torture and

war crimes in iraq, afghanistan, guantanamo, haiti or elsewhere?

i believe canada was also complicit somewhat in the bloody coup that overthrew haitis democratic government and put the bastard squad back in control.

im not proud of them, im saddened by them. on its own condeming iran is a hollow gesture.

[applegrove]

2. Canada has investigated "rendering". Our branch of Amnesty International

is very vocal on all the human rights abuses (where American branch of Amnesty cannot be vocal because Amnesty imposes a black-out on local branches when criticizing their own government). We do what we can. How can we investigate abuses when we are not there? We are only in Afghanistan. We had that horrible murder of a journalist in Iran and we have been working on that for years.

The biggest & best thing Canadians did was refuse to follow the U.S. into Iraq.