GENEVA: Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi on Friday launched an impassioned plea for international action to stop a government crackdown on the opposition.
“The time has come for the government to listen to the people,” she said in Geneva. “Tomorrow will be too late, tomorrow we will face a tragedy in Iran. Please help us,” she added, alleging growing human rights abuses and Iranian leadership’s defiance of the country’s own law book.
“Please help us to extinguish this fire in our homes,” she added.
Ebadi spoke the day after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and police reportedly clamped down on opposition protests during the anniversary of the 1979 revolution that toppled the Shah of Iran.
The 47-nation UN Human Rights Council in Geneva is due to publicly scrutinize Iran’s overall human rights record on Monday under a regular review process.
