We come before the Human Rights Council today to condemn the ongoing human rights violations that continue to occur in Darfur, Myanmar, and Iran. We urge this Council, as the main human rights body of the United Nations, to do more to stop these violations.

We wish to thank the Council for recognizing the human rights emergency taking place in Myanmar by calling for a special session of the Council in the fall of 2007 to address the matter. We must also, however, caution against complacency. Many of the same conditions that led to that important special session continue to exist today. The arbitrary arrests and torture of peaceful political activists continues. The crackdown in September led to the deaths of dozens, but dozens more have disappeared and are still unaccounted for. This council should continue to pressure Myanmar to stop abusing the human rights of its citizens.

We would also like to discuss the deteriorating situation of human rights in Sudan. Various reports coming out of Sudan point to an increase in attacks on civilians. Sudan is once again bombing villages by air, and government supported militias are looting whatever is left of the villages and raping and killing innocent civilians. The death toll in the past few months has risen into the hundreds, with thousands more forced to flee. This council must not sit idly by as the situation spirals down. We urge this council to condemn in the strongest of terms a genocide that is ramping up again.

Finally, we condemn the ongoing human rights abuses perpetrated by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Reports on the systematic persecution of numerous minority groups, women, and political opponents in Iran are ongoing while incidents of executions by stoning, and executions of child criminal offenders have continued and homosexuals are executed for their sexual orientation. Worryingly, a new draft penal code has been proposed that would impose the death sentence for apostasy. We are not surprised that such a barbarous regime's leadership would continue to make genocidal statements about Israel and Holocaust denial in the face of international condemnation and disgust.

It is unfortunate that the Human Rights Council has not followed in the footsteps of the recent General Assembly adoption of resolution A/C.3/62/L.43 which condemns such violations. In fact the council has moved in the opposite direction by ending the 1503 procedure which considered the human rights situation in Iran. We strongly urge this Council to correct its past mistake. The situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran is deserving of a special procedure and a special rapporteur. We are asking you today to right a wrong and help protect vulnerable populations in Iran, in addition to the need to protect people in Sudan, Myanmar, and in areas currently in crisis in other parts of the world.

Thank you, Mr. President.