SAEDNEWS: The High Council for Human Rights emphasized that the hypocritical human rights policies by Western powers and the Israeli regime have eroded global justice.
The High Council for Human Rights has emphasized that human dignity in the modern era is under greater threat than ever before due to the unprincipled policies and positions of countries claiming to promote human rights.
The Council issued a statement on Tuesday to mark the Islamic Human Rights and Human Dignity Day.
The statement underlined that the global peace faces mounting threats from Western hegemony—including wars, sanctions, terrorism support, and climate crises—while Israeli crimes in Gaza and international inaction erode fundamental principles of human rights.
The full text of the statement is as follows:
Today, August 5th, marks the anniversary of the adoption of the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam. We congratulate all freedom-seekers and justice advocates around the world on this important occasion. We hope that this valuable document, which is based on the noble teachings of Islam about human dignity and rights, can inspire the creation of a fair and balanced international system—one where human rights are not used as political tools, but respected as genuine universal values.
The Cairo Declaration, adopted in 1990 by the member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), represented a major intellectual and legal initiative to articulate a vision of human rights informed by Islamic civilization. It also served as a critical response to dominant Western human rights paradigms that often rest on secular, individualistic, and liberal assumptions.
In 2008, the Islamic Republic of Iran proposed that this date be recognized as the "Islamic Human Rights and Human Dignity Day" across Islamic countries. This step reflected the desire of many Muslim nations to uphold their cultural identity and promote governance based on faith and moral principles.
The declaration emphasizes that human rights stem from the inherent dignity of every human being, as recognized in Islamic law, and stresses the global responsibility of the Muslim community. It reminds us that, despite humanity’s remarkable scientific and technological advancements, the need for spirituality, morality, and faith remains fundamental for the preservation of justice, dignity, and peace.
Today, it is clearer than ever that material progress and Western human rights discourse alone are not enough to ensure justice or human dignity. This is especially obvious in the actions of some Western governments—particularly the United States that support the Israeli regime despite its crimes against civilians, including women and children.
Since October 7, 2023, the Zionist regime has committed unprecedented atrocities: it has killed over 57,000 innocent civilians in Gaza 70 percent of whom were women and children injured more than 135,000 others, and used starvation and food blockade as a collective weapon against children. In its 12-day assault on Iranian soil, the regime also martyred 1,100 Iranian citizens, including 102 women (two of whom were pregnant), dozens of children and adolescents, and 14 scientists and university professors. Through systematic violations of international law, the regime deliberately targeted vital infrastructure, including hospitals, medical centers, emergency bases, and even ambulances. These crimes, committed with full financial, military, and political support from some Western states that claim to champion human rights, represent a level of barbarism rarely seen even in the darkest periods of history. They starkly reflect the Western supremacist mindset that justifies killing and aggression—and, as even the German Chancellor has admitted, outsources these “heinous crimes” to a child-killing, occupying regime to act on behalf of the West.
The hypocrisy and hollowness of the human rights claims by some Western powers have become so blatant that they can no longer be concealed behind lofty slogans. For instance, the U.S. Congress grandly honors Benjamin Netanyahu, the ringleader of a criminal gang (the Zionist regime), who is being pursued by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity—while simultaneously nominating this international war criminal for a peace prize, a move initiated by the delusional U.S. president. This is the same president who openly engages in warmongering, foreign aggression, extrajudicial assassinations of human rights defenders, imposition of illegal coercive sanctions, violations of human rights, women’s rights, and the rights of children, prisoners, and migrants, and who has withdrawn from key international treaties, human rights mechanisms, climate agreements, and has even sanctioned UN human rights rapporteurs and international judges. These grotesque spectacles represent the last desperate attempts of a crumbling system and ideology trying to hide its blood-soaked face behind the mask of democracy and human rights. How can a government that claims to defend human rights praise a criminal responsible for massacring children in their mothers’ arms? Such brazen contradictions lay bare the moral collapse of Western civilization and reflect the inversion of meaning in Western discourse, where “peace” means war, and “human rights” become a pretext for justifying atrocities.
It is deeply regrettable that human rights claimants have persistently attempted to impose their liberal and secular values—rooted in their own societies—on the world under the guise of human rights, while ignoring the cultures of other nations, including Muslim countries. The growing trend of religious insult, incitement of hatred against Muslims, and state-sponsored protection of such actions in the name of “freedom of expression” constitutes a dangerous phenomenon. Its spread intensifies tensions, hate speech, Islamophobia, and violence against Muslims, and poses a serious threat to peace, security, peaceful coexistence, and friendly relations among nations and followers of divine religions.
It is evident that, due to the unprincipled policies and positions of countries claiming to promote human rights, human dignity in the modern era is under greater threat than ever before. Cultural, political, and economic domination, wars and killings of innocent civilians, cruel sanctions imposed by hegemonic powers, support for terrorist groups, climate and environmental crises, and poverty are among the major threats to global peace and stability, whose scope is expanding to the detriment of humanity. In addition, the ongoing, large-scale, and savage crimes committed by the Zionist regime in Gaza and Rafah, along with its continued aggressive and terrorist actions in other countries, and the full support of so-called human rights–advocating states for these atrocities, as well as the failure of international human rights mechanisms to stop them, have seriously undermined the very ideals of peace, justice, human rights, and human security.
Now is the time for Muslim nations and all freedom-seeking peoples of the world to join hands, united in the liberating cause of Palestine, and stand together in shared pain and mutual threats. Unity is the key to the strength and empowerment of the Islamic Ummah and regional nations—just as the adoption of the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam was born out of consensus and collective solidarity.
