The DA has petitioned international relations and co-operation minister Ronald Lamola to report the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for human rights abuses. <\/p>\n
The party believes Iran is undergoing a revolution, with people rising up against what they allege is \u201cliving under decades of violent oppression by an autocratic dictator\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a letter written to Lamola, which this publication has seen, DA spokesperson on international relations and co-operation Ryan Smith describes the response from Iranian authorities as \u201cbone chilling\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe response from Iranian authorities to quell the civil uprisings and reaffirm brutal state control is nothing short of bone-chilling. As we speak, the death toll from the violent crackdown by the Iranian government led by Iran\u2019s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is reportedly nearing 3,000 as rampant anti-government protests and demonstrations sweep the country.\u201d <\/p>\n
Smith condemned the use of \u201cblatantly deadly oppression\u201d against civilians by a sitting government as \u201cone of the most egregious forms of human rights abuse witnessed in the world\u201d.<\/p>\n
To this effect, the DA argued that the current state of affairs brings into question South Africa\u2019s relationship with Iran. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe use of such blatantly deadly oppression … brings into sharp question South Africa\u2019s relationship with such a barbaric actor on the international stage. <\/p>\n
\u201cSouth Africa\u2019s role is especially crucial in this regard given Iran\u2019s recent accession to BRICS+ and the ANC\u2019s own very public and unapologetic proximity to Iran, which has found worrying expression in South African foreign policy despite being wholly incompatible with the values for which our republic stands.\u201d <\/p>\n
Instead, the DA suggested that South Africa ought to take a stand because of the historical significance and similarity to our own struggle for liberation. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn many ways, the Iranian uprisings echo South Africa\u2019s own struggle for freedom, including the Sharpeville massacre of 21 March 1960 and the Soweto uprising of 16 June 1976, when peaceful civilian protest was met with brutal state violence. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt those moments, the international community stood with the people of South Africa, not with the apartheid regime. Today, Dirco and the ANC face the same moral test: whether they stand with the people of Iran or with those who repress them.\u201d <\/p>\n
Smith added that the liberties enjoyed by South Africans were largely due to sacrifices made by South African civilians who gave up their lives for freedom, democracy and human rights \u2013 and the solidarity expressed by the international community at the time. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe principles of freedom, democracy, and human rights enshrined in the South African constitution compel minister Lamola to execute his sworn duty, as the custodian of our foreign policy, to protect any and all global citizens against autocratic regimes which seek to stifle their right to freedom. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is our duty to them to ensure that our country uses its voice in all international fora to speak out against any regime that seeks to stamp out freedom at the violent expense of human life.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The DA has petitioned international relations and co-operation minister Ronald Lamola to report the Islamic Republic of Iran…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[14428,14427,14430,13899,131,14429],"class_list":{"0":"post-23420","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-da-petition-unhrc","9":"tag-iran-human-rights-abuses","10":"tag-iranian-protests","11":"tag-ronald-lamola","12":"tag-south-africa","13":"tag-south-africa-iran-relations"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}