Reaching to a critical United Nations report, Iran’s High Council for Human Rights has justified capital punishment in terms of “cultural diversity.”

The council, which is part of the Iranian judiciary, said in a statement that a report by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, which is to be presented to the UN’s Human Rights Council meeting in its 50th regular session from June 13 to July 8, 2022, was politically motivated. The council criticized the UN for not consulting Iran during the report’s preparation.

Kazem Gharibabadi, secretary of the council, tweeted earlier in the week that the report was “copy-pasting the unsubstantiated allegations churned out by Javaid Rehman” and that it “tarnishes the UN credibility.” Rehman, a British-Pakistani law professor, has been the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran since 2018.

In his report submitted June 16 – covering June 11, 2021 to March 20, 2022 – Guterres expressed concern over excessive force used against dissidents and protestors, a high number of executions, and arbitrary arrests of activists and journalists.

The council said Iran had “provided detailed and reasoned comments and arguments regarding each paragraph and the allegations made in the previous reports of the Secretary-General and the Special Rapporteur.” The authors had paid little attention to Iran’s input, the council asserted, with Tehran’s comments “minimally reflected in the final report.”