Iran at the UN Human Rights Council

They decide to send a delegate who is a notorious rights violator.

Awesome. Thankfully, the Iran researcher for Human Rights Watch offers some solutions:

So what was the Iranian government thinking? Perhaps it was still stung by its failure to be elected to the council, which aimed to exclude the most blatant abusers. Or maybe this was the regime’s shock and awe strategy: shock the Iranian people with how little their government cares about human rights, and awe them with its utter impunity.

If Mr. Mortazavi were removed from office and prosecuted, as he should be, there would be no shortage of witnesses to testify. But because this is unlikely, many Iranians hope the new council will develop international mechanisms to bring men like him to justice, rather than facing him as a delegate at its sessions.

As a first step, the council should support the appointment of a United Nations special rapporteur on Iran to monitor and report publicly on human rights abuses and to see that the government’s present lack of accountability does not translate into an even more extensive crackdown on political dissent and social freedoms.

Further, the members of the Security Council and Germany, which are engaged in nuclear negotiations with Iran, should include human rights concerns on their agenda. As a confidence-building measure, they should demand that Iran improve its human rights record — and that it cease protecting violators like Mr. Morta- zavi.