Iran Video Document: Tehran's Larijani to UN "We Are a Benchmark for Human Rights"

See also Iran Feature: The Week in Civil Society, from Women's Activism to Harsh Sentences to Cyberspace

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Mohammad Javad Larijani, the head of the human rights section of Iran's judiciary, addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, ostensibly responding to the report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran's human rights situation.

Even by Larijani's standards for defiance and bold declaration, it is an extraordinary eight-minute statement. He does not actually reposond to the 34-page report --- instead, he gives the sweeping assurance that Iran is a benchmark for political, economic, and scientific progress and then launches an attack on the Rapporteur, Ahmad Shaheed, the "Zionist mafia", and the US and other countries who guide a "terrorist apparatus".Larijani denounces the "chronically weak" UN system and concludes that Shaheed is "biased, ignorant, and perfunctory in his claims".

After Larijani finishes, he is implicitly reminded that "all members of the Council should use appropriate language that is commensurate with the dignity of the discussions...on the human rights issue".

Larijani's statement begins at the 10-minute mark of the video: