Iran Press/ America: The issue of racial discrimination is not new in the West, especially in Canada and the United States. In fact, the history of these countries is intertwined with the issue of racial discrimination and persecution of natives and people of color, especially blacks and various minorities.
Despite claiming to protect human rights in recent years and emphasizing the right to equal access to facilities, these countries have in practice inhumane treatment not only of people of color but also of ethnic and racial minorities and immigrants.
The most significant threat to human rights is hypocrisy, politicization and double standards," said Zahra Ershadi, deputy director of the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations. She added that when news of human rights abuses, especially the rights of Indigenous and African descendants, are published in the media, Canada and the United States are the main suspects.
In his remarks, Ershadi referred to indigenous human rights abuses by Canada and the United States and the Canadian authorities' history of discrimination against Indigenous peoples and their cultural genocide, including mass graves discovered in Canada. Iranian diplomat expressed great concern over the reports received in this regard to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Poverty among Indigenous children in Canada is 69 percent, compared to 13 percent for all children in the country, according to the Committee on Indigenous Violence.
Ershadi pointed to structural racism in the US judicial system, adding that in the United States, indigenous children were transferred to residential schools away from their families, where they felt their way of life was "rudimentary" or "sinful."
The Deputy Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations concluded by stating that the responsibility of these crimes and the perpetrators should not be forgotten and that justice should be done to the natives.
One of the clearest examples of inhumane treatment of Indigenous peoples is the discovery of dozens of mass graves in Canada. In 2021, several mass graves containing hundreds of young children were discovered in boarding schools in different parts of the country.
