UN Rights Council President Supports Fact-Finding Mission On Iran

In an interview with CNN International, Federico Villegas of Argentina said Friday that the newly created fact-finding mission to investigate alleged human rights violations in Iran “can make a difference,” and expressed hope that Iran will cooperate.

During the special session on Iran Thursday, the President of the Human Rights Council had noted that it is a multilateral and democratic body where differences of opinion are legitimate, raising hope that the Islamic Republic would cooperate to carry out the mission.

“I think that at one moment or another they will realize that the Iranians across the world are asking for change and their demands for change are directly linked to human rights because they would like to see a different situation in their country in relation to human rights,” Villegas told CNN’s anchor Becky Anderson.

He went on to say that the UN Human Rights Council for the first time established a special team to run an independent investigation into the violations that are being committed on a daily basis in Iran.

The UN Human Rights Council voted Thursday to launch an independent investigation into Iran's deadly repression of protests, that has killed over 450 civilians.

The motion passed with 25 votes in favor, six opposed and 16 countries abstaining amid cheers of activists amid an intensifying crackdown in Kurdish areas of western Iran over recent days.