TEHRAN, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Iran on Monday held the final round of a national moot court to simulate taking proceedings against enforcers of unilateral sanctions and those who comply with them, the official news agency IRNA reported.
The session was held by Iran's Institute of Judiciary in cooperation with the country's High Council for Human Rights (HCHR) and the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences of Allameh Tabataba'i University in the Iranian capital Tehran.
Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Ali Bagheri Kani and HCHR's Secretary Kazem Gharibabadi attended it.
Alena Douhan, UN special rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, also delivered a speech at the session via videoconference, according to a statement published on the HCHR's website.
Speaking at the session, Bagheri Kani said sanctions were the "biggest crimes against humanity," and were a collective punishment and proof that those pursuing and promoting unilateralism did not respect humans' rights, the IRNA reported.
He said Iran was among the countries under the U.S. "cruel" sanctions, stressing that making efforts to restore the country's rights was a national duty.
For his part, Gharibabadi said sanctions were considered weapons of war and even more destructive than a war due to their substantial impacts and being a collective punishment against the targeted country's people, according to the HCHR's website.
He emphasized that sanctions violated all rights of the targeted country's people, including their rights to development, welfare, education, housing and health.
The HCHR's secretary noted that in Douhan's report, it had been said the sanctions had impacted Iranian people's all human rights.
Iran has been under U.S. sanctions for the past four decades. The sanctions intensified following the U.S. unilateral withdrawal from a 2015 nuclear deal in May 2018, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. ■
