In advance of next week’s first major planning session of the UN’s “Durban II” conference on racism, member states have filled out questionnaires on their actions and policies to combat discrimination. Iran’s submission, however, dodges any questions of racism in that country, which it says is blessed with “the absence of any division based on race or ethnicity in any walk of life.”
Asked by the UN to identify manifestations of racism “with a view to eliminating them in your country,” Iran sidestepped any reference to its own treatment of minorities. Instead, Tehran pointed the finger at other countries, accusing them of “defamation of religions” and Islamophobia, and devoted a large section to “gross and systematic violation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian
Territories.”
Although the UN General Assembly condemned Iran in December for its violations against Arabs, Azeris, Baluchis, Kurds, Christians, Jews, Sufis, Sunni Muslims and Baha’is, the submission by the fundamentalist regime made no reference to its treatment of these groups.
