Meanwhile, In Geneva

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The Islamic Republic of Iran is gravely concerned about the high rate of racial discrimination, related intolerance and racial profiling, especially against Muslim people and people of African origin in Ireland.”

“We know the measures taken by Irish government to address these human rights however we share the Committee on the Rights of the Child’s concerns regarding the state of health of children in single-parent families, children in poverty, Travellers, Roma children is significantly worse than the national average.”

“Therefore we would like to make the following recommendation to Ireland: to put in place a robust mechanism in order put an end to racism, discrimination and related intolerance, especially against Muslim people and people of African origin…”

A representative from the Islamic Republic of Iran speaking at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva this afternoon.

More to follow.

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135 thoughts on “Meanwhile, In Geneva

  1. human

    Brace yourself, the lefties defending the Islamic state of Iran are coming.

    The Irish people need NO advice from Iran…….

    1. dav

      A state the business and political elite of the country were quite happy to sell beef to! Right wing hypocrisy on display

  2. jack johnson

    .. Also, I wonder how many single-parent families there are the Islamic Republic ?

  3. Cathy

    While women are being denied freedom to exercise choice with regards their own health care in Ireland, we deserve all the criticism we receive.

      1. jack johnson

        From an Amnesty Report on Minorities in Iran :

        Despite constitutional guarantees of equality, individuals belonging to minorities in Iran, who are believed to number about half of the population of about 70 millions, are subject to an array of discriminatory laws and practices. These include land and property confiscations, denial of state and para-statal employment under the gozinesh criteria and restrictions on social, cultural, linguistic and religious freedoms which often result in other human rights violations such as the imprisonment of prisoners of conscience, grossly unfair trials of political prisoners before Revolutionary Courts, corporal punishment and use of the death penalty, as well as restrictions on movement and denial of other civil rights

        1. Dόn 'The Unstoppable Force' Pídgéόní

          True. But if you take that approach, no country can criticize any country for anything. Except for maybe Sweden, who are pretty lovely on most things.

          Maybe Sweden could be the UN? Then we could have Eurovision every week

          1. human

            Sweden LOL its unbelievable how you regressives hold up Sweden as the shining light of the world…… Do you love it for its constitutional Monarchy or the leftist green party minister who said the nation has no culture?

          2. Dόn 'The Unstoppable Force' Pídgéόní

            Poor widdle mad human, always so mad. Turn that frown upside down!!

          3. human

            Cant respond with logic as per usual. Your trying to be not as rabid as you used to be…. trying to rebrand yourself?

          4. Dόn 'The Unstoppable Force' Pídgéόní

            “Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”

            Nathaniel Hawthorne

          5. Tony

            Sweden has one of the highest rates of violence against women in the world. Hardly an example

          6. Dόn 'The Unstoppable Force' Pídgéόní

            And as the most recent study explains there could be a range of reasons for that, including more women feeling able to discuss this.

          7. They Tried To Make Me Go To Rehab

            Sweden is hardly a paragon of virtue as the witchhunt against Mr Assange shows.

        2. Cathy

          We need to clean our own house. Of course there are worse places. We can continue to point out the faults in Iran, India, China, etc. But the citizens of Ireland have a duty to fix Ireland’s problems too. It’s bad that Iran and India are having to remind us.

          1. classter

            Exactly.

            It stings because we know that that both Iran & India have a reasonable point in these cases.

            The fact that both countries have a multitude of human rights issues themselves is besides the point.

  4. Clampers Outside!

    “The Islamic Republic of Iran is gravely concerned about the high rate of racial discrimination, related intolerance and racial profiling, especially against Muslim people and people of African origin in Ireland.”

    “high rate”….. any stats, anyone?

    1. Owen C

      remember that guy in Cork airport who smelled of whacky tobaccy? Isn’t that enough?

        1. Rob_G

          That report doesn’t really tell anything other than that at least 148 racist incidents have occurred in Ireland.

          (which is of course 148 too many, but doesn’t really provide a barometer of how racist or not Ireland is).

          1. Owen C

            so 182 reported incidents in 2014. Or one every two days. In a country with four and a half million people. Put another way, in a town of 25,000, you’d get 1 racist incident per year. Doesn’t suggest an endemic problem.

          2. Dόn 'The Unstoppable Force' Pídgéόní

            Put another way, this is only the reported incidents so will be higher than 182

          3. Owen C

            yes. So lets say its 10x that amount. That means 10 incidents a year in a town of 25,000. Again, this is not endemic.

          4. LW

            @Owen C
            That was 182 incidents in the six month period the report covered, not the year. So that’s one a day.
            As Dón points out, these are the reported incidents, actual occurrences will be higher.
            Finally, it’s beyond ridiculous to use the total population of Ireland as the benchmark, given that the overwhelming majority are Irish – in 2014 we had 180000 non nationals resident from outside the EU, so the actual number of people of other races is lower again. But leaving 180000 as the figure, and using only the reported incidents, in your town of 25000 every year 50 people are experiencing racism. What’s the threshold where we should stop ignoring it?

  5. 1980s Man

    The Irish state apparatus discriminates against anyone who isn’t a middle class conservative from a private school education.

    I grew up in that environment, private schooled, third level educated parents and witness at first hand the discrimination against anyone outside that cosy clique. It’s not overt, it’s covert. Little nods and winks, the odd double entendre regarding where someone comes from. “Oh she loves Jacob’s Creek if you know what I mean” or “didn’t she go to the RTC for that degree… or is it a diploma you got there”. “Didn’t see her at mass for a while now”…. “She thought Bordeaux was a cheese, haw haw haw…”. “I’m not sure sailing would be his thing…”.

    1. human

      ** BETA MALE ALERT** 1980’s man sounds very paranoid…… Dude you might want to lay off the weed and grow a pair of balls.

      1. 1980s Man

        Well it is when these people control job vacancies, government policy and urban planning.

        1. They Tried To Make Me Go To Rehab

          1980s man makes a very valid point

          Only someone with direct experience of the ‘system’ can relate to this sort of insight.

      2. Daddy Wilson

        Yeah 80’s man dropped a rake of cool points for displaying his upper class guilt here.

        1. 1980s Man

          Not upper class there Daddyo, I said middle class.

          Ireland doesn’t have an ‘Upper Class’ because we don’t have an aristocracy.

          And I’m not guilty because I don’t practise discrimination thanks to the social intelligence of my parents.

          I guess some people just hate when one of their own decides not to play along and pretend everything is fine and dandy.

          1. B Hewson

            All sounds a bit smug to me 80s man. Is say you waste hours each day toiling over pointless ethical dilemmas.

    2. Rugbyfan

      Well put, it goes on and it is sickening. 50 year olds asking what school you went to and making their judgements based on your answer. Out and out snobbery. Kids in private schools grouping together based on the size of their parents house etc. A sad world.

    3. TheQ47

      Most people who were educated in this country went to a private secondary school, actually. Any school that isn’t directly run by the state (i.e., VEC/ETB run) instead of a religious order or whatever, is a private school.

      Perhaps you mean a fee-paying school.

      Just sayin’

    4. Declan

      1980’s man is your real nam Paul Murphy because you’re describing his life right there

    1. 1980s Man

      Thanks to the Shah, the American puppet who divided society, gave away contracts to the US and Britain at the expense of his own people, thereby causing the Islamic revolution.

      Read history and stop relying on the History Channel for your info.

        1. Daddy Wilson

          He can’t help being a snob, it’s how he was reared. He is trying though!!

  6. Gorev Mahagut

    In any dispute about human rights, the real question is who occupies the moral high ground. We had a bubble on land prices and all our moral ground went into NAMA and got privatised.

  7. C Sharp

    Iran is only too happy to have a country in the “west” to point at as they defend their own violations, which are manifold.

    That is not to say they are without grounds. I don’t think the racism and discrimnation against muslims is as bad as they make out, but of course it exists, and it seems to be worse in Belfast which will be conflated with the republic (this is anecdotal only, based on observations of media, so I am open to correction on this point).

    Human Rights should not be a competition nor a political football, but in international politics it usually is.

    1. Rowsdower

      This is what the entire thing is for, countries take turns having everyone else point at them and say how shit they are.

      This happens to every single member and this is probably the tamest it is.

  8. Owen C

    The use of the death penalty in Iran is so widespread that its not even that easy to get figures on just how many people they execute per year, but was almost 700 people in the first half of 2015 alone. So forgive me if I don’t take their criticisms too seriously.

    1. ReproBertie

      As long as we can discredit the critic we need pay no attention to the criticisms, justified or not.

      1. Owen C

        The criticisms are not backed up by evidence or data. They are being used to distract from the chronic human rights abuses being suffered daily in Iran. If the UN was a genuine place of honesty and justice, it would not let serial human rights abusers abuse these sort of forums.

        1. Joe Cavanagh

          You first make an ad hominum rebuttal of the Iranian criticisim. ReproBertie points this out and then you give one sentence to debating the actual argument before switching back to an ad hominum attack on Iran and the UN. They’re both valid debates but switching between both as if they’re the same kills any debate.

          1. Owen C

            If the position that Iran holds is blatantly hypocritical, then it is perfectly reasonable to note this and the likely reasons for their hypocrisy.

          2. Lorcan Nagle

            He’s also ignoring all the links LW left upthread when he made the same basic attacks.

          3. Owen C

            Hey Lorcan, just saw this now. I responded to the above. Thanks for your snotty input.

          4. Nigel

            In fairness ‘being blatantly hypocritical about another, smaller but more progressive country’s sins’ is pretty small potatoes when stacked up against Iran’s other sins. The tenor of this discussion has nothing to do with Ireland, Iran or the UN and everything to do with well-worn rhetorical postures. Everyone should be in agreement that 1. Iran is vile 2. Ireland is a bastion of freedom and democracy by comparison (and even not by comparison, we’re not THAT bad) 3. Iran may have (inadvertently?) identified genuine social problems in Ireland 4. Iran is not doing this for the good of Ireland’s health 5. The UN operates on the polite fiction that everyone in the room is a decent human being in the interests of furthering global harmony, so stuff like this happens. Be the grown-up about it and carry on. Thank Iran for their concern. Politely suggest that, since they themselves are a regime of murdering monsters, nobody’s perfect, and sit down.

        1. MoyestWithExcitement

          Not if it means ignoring our own problems. Attacking the detractors here is just about groupthink and ego.

  9. Sido

    Iran – eh, lecturing us for not being “inclusive”.
    I think you can still get the pictures of them hanging those two young teenage homosexuals on the site “Best Gore” – Along with them stringing up women for “adultery”. That sort of thing. All in all a country that knows a lot about law n’ order. And imaginative uses for the front bucket on a JCB.
    Best viewed on an empty stomach.

    This tells us all we need to know about the UN Human Rights Committee and anything meaningful about what they say.

    1. Daisy Chainsaw

      Seriously? You’re using “Yeah? Well you’re worserer!!” as an argument?

  10. some old queen

    Gay activists estimate that some 4,000 alleged gays have been executed by Iran since its 1979 Islamic Revolution. Now what was that criticism of Ireland again?

    1. MoyestWithExcitement

      That we have serious issues we have to deal with regarding human rights for women, travellers and Muslims.

      1. Sido

        Unless you believe in some sort of afterlife, You should waste as little time as possible listening to the words of propagandists, weapons grade hypocrites and their lackeys and stooges.
        Tricky, nowadays I know.
        Its a relative thing. Iran may be a despicable regime, but its probably nicer, than say, North Korea. And a better climate too.
        Then again I understand the boss of the UN Human Rights Commission is/was a Saudi politician. A regime European and American politicians, can’t say enough good things about.

        Then again if cheap virtue signalling by knocking out the same old PC palimpsests on your lappy, is what makes you feel better – have at it.

        1. Nigel

          Fun to see liberal virtue signalling about Irish social problems being shouldered aside here by conservative virtue signalling about other countrys’ social problems. ‘Virtue signaling’ is such an asinine phrase.

          1. Tony

            No, its just funny to liberals cornered into taking Irans side. Thats actually hilarious.

          2. Nigel

            Which is the hilarious equivalent of conservatives insisting that because Iran said it it can’t be true.

          3. Tony

            Or would you just like it to be? So that it would give you another reason to purse your lips and tut tut while feeling so smug?

          4. MoyestWithExcitement

            “Smug” I reckon most right wingers just have inferiority complexes.

        2. MoyestWithExcitement

          Right, Sido, and how does churning out right slogans and paranoia on the Internet make you feel? I mean, it’s literally affecting nothing in the real world apart from your own emotional state so I’m guessing it must make you feel good, right? Much easier to deny reality.

          1. MoyestWithExcitement

            I did. My homework is to talk to emotionally disturbed trolls on the Internet and observe their hilarious responses. How are you?

    2. Dόn 'The Unstoppable Force' Pídgéόní

      And that is tragic and awful and should never have happened but doesn’t cancel out discrimination in other countries.

        1. Dόn 'The Unstoppable Force' Pídgéόní

          “Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”

          Warren Buffett

  11. manolo

    Not many people taking this as an opportunity for self-questioning here. Attacking back is a strange line of defence if you think about it. I don’t think it is supposed to be a competition about which country is worse.

    Remember one of the first things the Norwegian prime-minister said after the bomb and killings in Utøya? He questioned what was Norway doing wrong, how it could improve. Follows a direct quote from the Guardian:

    “Our response is more democracy, more openness, and more humanity.” Norway, he suggested, would not seek vengeance as America had done after the 9/11 attacks.” We will answer hatred with love,”

    We could learn a bit from that in my opinion. Just saying.

    1. MoyestWithExcitement

      “Not many people taking this as an opportunity for self-questioning here. Attacking back is a strange line of defence if you think about it.”

      Ego and pride are very powerful…..and very stupid.

      1. Tony

        How can either ego or pride be very stupid? Are you an immigrant or why is your english so bad?

    2. Rowsdower

      The attacker in that case was a Norwegian citizen who very publicly stated his aims and believes.

      Its easy to seem all magnanimous about not seeking vengeance when the perpetrator is born and bred in your own country and is operating on his own.

      1. manolo

        You are over-simplifying it. I really think that more mature societies would listen to the accusation or look into attacks against them and think a bit about it before responding. Look at Sweden in 2010 after the bombs in Stockholm. Proportionally they are still taking more refugees than anyone in Europe.

        Most reactions here sound more like a yore ma competition.

        What is wrong with admitting that we have ‘opportunities for improvement’? We would be respected much more for being honest about it and showing will to question and address issues. That goes for people as it goes for governments.

    3. Lorcan Nagle

      And of course, people will focus on the countries that they can dismiss, while ignoring the ones that are harder to do so, like most of the 17 who explicitly called out Ireland’s abortion laws:

      Germany
      Canada
      Iceland
      Cuba
      Denmark
      Czech Republic
      USA
      Slovakia,
      Luthiana
      Switzerland
      Macedonia
      Slovenia
      Uruguay
      Bulgaria
      Norway
      Netherlands
      Korea
      India

      1. They Tried To Make Me Go To Rehab

        Quite Lorcan.

        No matter where you stand on the abortion issue it’s always gratifying to see poor little Provincial Pat squirm when them foreigners state the bleeding obvious about what a backward, inbred, priest-ridden, little potato-eating pissant’s premises we call a country here.

  12. Nigel

    It’s quite an achievement and a source of some pride that we are better on human rights than Iran. It really is.

  13. Rob_G

    India seems to be getting off quite lightly in the comments section.

    “65% of Indian men believe women should tolerate violence in order to keep the family together, and women sometimes deserve to be beaten.” (“International Men and Gender Equality Survey)

    – I think it’s ok to be favour of repealing the 8th, etc, but also to take criticism on our human rights record from countries like India and Iran with a grain of salt.

    1. Kieran NYC

      +1

      Does killing a woman as part of a gang rape count as part of their abortion policy?

  14. Eoghan

    “especially against Muslim people and people of African origin…”

    What’s her problem with Roma & Travellers?

    Bloody racist.

  15. shitferbrains

    This kind of crap is usually reserved for Israel. Nice to see they’re spreading it around.

  16. Junkface

    Ireland does have LOADS of problems to fix, especially options on abortion. And generally trying to run a country that takes care of its citizens. But yeah, taking civil advice from Iran & India is a bit rich. Have North Korea told us what we’re doing wrong too?

  17. Tony

    Nice to see that the liberal finger wagging has now begun to poison Iran. They now will feel the wrath of the insufferable do-gooders that have been doing my bin-laden in here for years. And lovely to see the poor liberals on here cornered into defending Iran…. Ho Ho Ho

    1. some old queen

      Well I am a liberal and I am in no way defending Iran. If I lived there one of three things would happen. Stones, bullets or rope. Those hand wringers who say ‘yes but’… can take a running jump as far as I am concerned because there is nothing in Ireland which is even a fraction of that sort of hatred. Iran has no interest in human rights let alone minority rights.

      Assuming they are not accusing each western county in sequence, I would seriously question why they are trying to infer Ireland is anti Muslim. I would be concerned about sort of message this bullsh|t sends out to the more extremists groups and question the reason for it.

  18. Rob_G

    Latest: Saudi Arabia criticises Ireland for its under-representation of women in its parliament.

    1. some old queen

      Is this a joke? From a the only country in the world that imposes a female dress code by law, and won’t allow women to drive?

  19. Mulder

    Yes think Iran and all other countries have a duty to fix Ireland`s problems as Ireland is incapable of fixing it`s own problems.
    Take yer pick, lovely health service or irish water to start.
    Send Enda and the team to Iran and they can stay as long as they like.

      1. Kieran NYC

        Also inconsistent use of racist tropes.

        He needs to go back to Trolling School. Or just get another new username and try again.

  20. Tony

    Im surprised no-on has a go at Sweden for its appalling record of violence against women.

  21. Sheik Yahbouti

    Did nobody else enjoy Little Frannie’s impassioned words on “hate crime”? It appears that members of an ethnic minority were attacked, beaten and told to go home, by members of our indigenous ‘ethnic minority ‘. A conundrum indeed :-D

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