Human rights has been sabotaged by the United States and its allies, says the head of Iran's Human Rights Council, noting that the Islamic Republic is trying to free human rights of politicization. RNA - Mohammad Javad Larijani said Wednesday that Iran was advocating a reading of human rights that was based on Islamic principles instead of the double-standards that the West has been using to fulfill its own agenda.
"Human rights is a victim of the sabotage of the United States and a number of countries in the world," Larijani told Press TV on the sidelines of a rights event in Tehran called Islamic Human Rights and Human Dignity.
"So there is a need to free this item [and] an important issue [is] to put it in the service of humanity," he said, noting that all nations need to be respected for their achievements and contributions to humanity.
"This is part of the drive of the Islamic Republic of Iran to place human rights in its actual position, free it from politicization and double standards and also to promote human rights based on Islamic sentiments," he added.
Iran's human rights different than that of West: Iran's judiciary chief
Addressing the same event earlier in the day, Iran's Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi said Iran's definition of human rights was fundamentally different from the one promoted by the West.
"The human rights that we speak of and the human rights they speak of are different in terms of the main principle which is the human perspective," Raeisi said.
"Today, the Westerners present their human rights protection claim through documents and resolutions while oppressed nations do so by [raising awareness about] human rights violations," he added.
Referring to the plight of oppressed people in Palestine, Bahrain and Yemen, Raeisi said all nations should be allowed to decide their own fate.
"The issue we have today in Bahrain is that some people want to determine their own fate but they won't let them," he said. "In Palestine they won't let them."
"Why wouldn't they let Yemenis make a choice and choose their future and the type of their government?" he asked.
He argued that the same people who claim to be advocates of human rights were the biggest violators.
"There is a selfish and arrogant group in the world that won't allow nations to enjoy basic human rights," he said.
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