GENEVA — The human rights body of the United Nations voted Thursday for the appointment of an investigator to monitor and report on Iran in response to its harsh crackdown on political dissent.
The vote, by the Human Rights Council, which is based in Geneva, was 22 to 7, with 14 abstentions and 4 not voting among 47 members. It approved a resolution co-sponsored by the United States and Sweden to appoint the investigator, or special rapporteur.
It is the first time the council has appointed an investigator with a mandate to monitor a specific country since it was set up in 2006.
The resolution regretted “the lack of cooperation of the Islamic Republic of Iran” with U.N. General Assembly requests over human rights abuses.
Iran condemned the resolution as an abuse by the council and accused the United States of being “the main organizer of this campaign.”
Earlier, the council heard a report by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in which he said Iran’s rulers had intensified their crackdown on political opponents, human rights defenders, female activists and journalists and noted a “dramatic surge” in the number of executions since the start of this year.
Eileen Donahoe, the U.S. ambassador to the council, hailed the vote as a “seminal moment” for the council. She said it “had shown itself able to deal more effectively than in the past with crisis situations as well as in the case of chronic severe violators” of human rights like Iran.
The council has often been accused of subordinating human rights to the political interests of regional blocs and countries with a poor human rights record.
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