UNITED NATIONS. CANADA TO BLAST 'POOR' IRAN HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD AT UN

Canada planned to dress down Iran by presenting a resolution at the United Nations to address Tehran's "poor regard for human rights," officials announced.
"Iran has not lived up to its international human rights obligations and has not conformed with past UN resolutions on this matter," Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew said in a statement on the resolution to be submitted to the UN General Assembly. "We believe this must change."
Canada has seen "no credible evidence of any improvement in the human rights situation in Iran," he said. The announcement is the latest volley in a relationship strained since 2003 over the murder in Iran of Canadian-Iranian photographer Zahra Kazemi while in custody. It came days after an Iranian judicial official accused Canada and Britain of supporting bombing suspects in the country's Arab-dominated Khuzestan.
The latest UN resolution would be Canada's third in three years accusing Iran of not fully implementing its torture ban, allowing executions by stoning and ignoring UN recommendations to improve its human rights record. The UN General Assembly adopted a similar resolution in December 2004 with 71 votes in favour, 54 against and 55 abstentions.
"We have to maintain the pressure," Pettigrew told reporters outside the House of Commons, acknowledging that past resolutions had "irritated" Tehran.