(CNN) -- A key United Nations committee has approved a draft resolution expressing "deep concern at serious human rights violations in Iran," including torture, persecution of ethnic minorities and violence against women.
The General Assembly's Third Committee, which handles humanitarian issues, passed the resolution 80-44 Thursday in New York, with 57 abstaining from the vote, according to minutes from the meeting released by the United Nations.
The resolution could be adopted by the General Assembly next month.
Canadian representative John McNee sponsored the measure, arguing that there has been a "very regrettable" deterioration in Iran's human rights situation in the past year.
Iran's representative, Mohammad Javad Larijani, criticized the move, saying the United States was "the mastermind and main provocateur behind a text that had nothing to do with human rights," according to U.N. meeting minutes.
The draft resolution approved Thursday also includes the high incidence in carrying out the death penalty and increased persecution against members of the Baha'i faith in its list of human rights concerns in Iran.
It also notes "particular concern" about what it calls a failure of Iran's government "to investigate or launch an accountability process for alleged violations following the presidential elections" in June 2009.
In September, the Obama administration cited "mounting evidence" of repression of the Iranian opposition when it added more sanctions against Iranian government officials, members of the Revolutionary Guards Corps and others accused by the United States of being responsible for human rights abuses.
CNN
