US urges Iran to fulfill human rights pledges ahead of anniversary of postelection crackdown

US urges Iran to fulfill human rights pledges

GENEVA — The United States on Thursday urged Iran to make good on its pledge to improve human rights in the country, almost one year after the government’s bloody crackdown on postelection protests.

Washington’s envoy to the U.N. Human Rights Council said Iran was still discriminating against minorities and failing to safeguard freedom of expression and assembly.

“We urge the government of Iran to uphold all of its international commitments and to account honestly for its human rights record, particularly over the past year,” Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe told the Geneva-based council.

Iran appeared before the council as part of a regular review of its rights record. The government has accepted 123 recent recommendations made by other countries while rejecting 45 and reserving judgment on 20.

“We are pleased that Iran was willing to participate at all,” Donahoe told reporters outside the meeting, but added: “Empty promises are not enough.”

Speaking in Bridgetown, Barbados, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday that she hoped the new U.N. sanctions imposed Wednesday would lead to improved human rights conditions in Iran.

“The sanctions that were passed by the United Nations yesterday are designed to target those who are behind government actions that have increased human rights abuses, like the Revolutionary Guard,” she said. “We hope that there will be a response, a positive response from the Iranian government to their people’s own aspirations.”

Rights groups, who also spoke out during the meeting in Geneva, complained that Iran hasn’t allowed any U.N. investigators to visit in recent years and isn’t fulfilling its obligations under international treaties.

A report issued Wednesday by Amnesty International accused the government of trying to silence dissent, including by hanging five Kurdish activists in May, to send a “clear message” to opposition groups seeking to revive street demonstrations on the election anniversary.

Violent protests that erupted after the June 12, 2009, re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prompted widespread arrests and crackdowns against dissidents by the authorities.

The head of Iran’s delegation, Mohammad Javad Larijani, rejected the U.S. criticism of his government, saying it was mostly “ill-founded and without any substance.”

Associated Press Writer Matthew Lee in Bridgetown contributed to this report.