Agence France Presse - The UN General Assembly on Tuesday voiced "serious concern" about what it said were widespread human rights abuses in Iran and appealed to Tehran to ensure full respect for those rights.

The 192-member body voted 72 in favor to 50 against with 55 abstentions to censure Iran for its human rights record.

The resolution slammed Iran for its "harassment, intimidation and persecution" of human right defenders, political opponents, religious dissenters, journalists, clerics, academics, union members and labor organizers.

It expressed concern at the "continuing use of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment such as flogging and amputations" and at "public executions ...and stoning".

It also decried "the continuing violence and discrimination against women and girls in law and in practice" as well as "the increasing discrimination and other human rights violations" against members of ethnic and religious minorities, including Arabs, Azeris, Baluchis, Kurds, Christians, Jews, Sunni Muslims and members of the Bahai faith.
The resolution urged the Iranian government to end all those practices.
 
Iran's leading opposition leader Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran welcomed passage of the assembly resolution.

In a statement, she stressed the need to refer the Islamic Republic's human rights dossier to the UN Security Council and called for "the prosecution of its leaders by an international tribunal.