Ahmadinejad Calls for Promotion of Human Rights Based on Justice

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on the member states of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to define and promote real human rights based on spirituality and justice in the world. Addressing the opening ceremony of the NAM ministerial meeting on Human Rights and Cultural Diversity here in Tehran on Monday, the Iranian president underlined the need for the international community to respect human rights, and said that both human rights and cultural diversity have divine roots.

He said religions forbid their followers from exerting dominance on others and from ignoring human rights under any kind of condition.

Ahmadinejad further expressed regret over violation and misuse of human rights by certain states, reminding that the Zionist regime of Israel occupied Palestinians’ lands 60 years ago while it was supported by certain powers.

He said that during the last 60 years, the Israeli regime has made several million Palestinians homeless, killed several thousand Palestinians and targeted Palestinian leaders while enjoying support from certain veto-wielding powers.

The president also pointed to the current conditions in Iraq, and reminded that although the US invaded Iraq under the pretext of toppling Saddam Hussein’s regime and finding Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), US troops do not withdraw from the war-torn country now that the dictator has been overthrown and no WMDs have been found.

He said there resides no reason for continued deployment of the US troops in Iraq, adding that although “Saddam has gone and no WMDs have been found in Iraq the US forces continue occupation of Iraq, triggering violence in a country in which hundreds of innocent people fall victims to the conflict every day.”

Ahmadinejad also expressed deep regret that some misuse the high goals of human rights in the name of international campaign against terrorism, saying that such powers are actually violating human rights through their different measures, including establishment of secret prisons and abduction of every person they like, even at the airports and without any legal jurisdiction.

He further called on the participants to revise the theoretical bases of human rights to prevent unilateralism in defining and practicing of human rights by certain states and to separate human rights from political intentions and objectives.

The president also expressed the hope that the meeting would find a proper and effective mechanism for the materialization of the said goal.