China, Russia and Iran Draft U.N. Resolution Urging Respect for Human Rights

Some of the nations accused of the worst human rights violations drafted a United Nations resolution urging all countries to respect human rights, saying their job is to "uphold the principals of human dignity, equality and equity at the global level."

China, Russia and Iran drafted the resolution for the 25th session of the U.N. Human Rights Council, stating that all nations need to build "an international order based on inclusion, justice, equality and equity, human dignity, mutual understanding and promotion of and respect for cultural diversity and universal human rights, and to reject all doctrines of exclusion based on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance."

Iran, which is not an official member of the Human Rights Council, took part in the draft resolution as part of a group of nations not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. Russia, China and Cuba will serve on the U.N.'s Human Rights Council until 2016 and are two of 47 member states.

A woman prisoner being taken away for her execution after she was sentenced to death in Beijing. (Photo via Human Rights Voices)

Cuba is sponsoring its own U.N. resolution on "international democratic and equitable order." The Cuban resolution was posted online by Human Rights Voices, a nonprofit think tank.

The socialist nation, whose citizens lack basic political and travel freedoms, stated in its draft resolution that "democracy, development and respect for human rights and fundamental freedom are independent and mutually reinforcing, and that democracy is based on the freely expressed will of the people to determine their own political, or other opinion, national or social origin,  property, birth or other status."

The Human Right Council resolution, which was drafted March 12, was issued a day after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon rebuked Iran for its human rights violations in his own U.N. report, in which he said he "is alarmed at the sharp rise in executions in the Islamic Republic of Iran."

"The new government has not changed its approach regarding the application of the death penalty and seems to have followed the practice of previous administrations, which relied heavily on the death penalty to combat crime," the secretary-general's report stated.

More than 20 democracy activists arrested in protest in Santa Clara, Cuba. (Photo via Human Rights Voices)

Ban told reporters in early March that at "least 500 persons are known to have been executed in 2013, including 57 in public. According to some sources, the figure may be as high as 625. Those executed reportedly included 27 women and two children."

The Russian Federation has recently been accused by the White House of a litany of human rights violations for its actions to annex Crimea. Senior Obama administration officials told reporters last week there was evidence suggesting "unlawful strip searches of journalists" reporting on the unfolding crisis in Crimea and attacks on anti-Russian opposition members in the region.

China continues to lock up political prisoners and enforce its one-child policy, which was recently eased but not disbanded.

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