The Islamic republic "strongly rejects the definition and content of this resolution," spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham was quoted as saying.

　　Iran condemns politicization of human rights against independent countries and expresses regret that the UN human rights mechanism and tools are playing into the hands of Western governments for their political objectives, said Afkham.

　　The resolution has been drafted based on the websites run by Western governments and infamous and affiliated terrorist groups, she added.

　　The Canadian-drafted resolution on rights situation in Iran was approved by the UN assembly's Third Committee on Tuesday with 83 votes in favor, 36 against and 62 abstained.

　　In his report released last month, which is the first after moderate President Hassan Rouhani took office in August, Ahmed Shaheed, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, charged Iran with high cases of execution and restrictions on freedom of speech.

　　The report said that there has been "no sign of improvement" in Iran's human rights situation.

　　Shaheed has demanded a visit to Iran to find out about the realities of human rights situation in the country, which has been refused by the Islamic republic.

　　Iran has dismissed several times the reports by the UN human rights institutions, saying that they did not reflect the realities on the ground in the country.