(CNSNews.com) – Two weeks after Iran’s bitterly disputed election, despite days of protests, state violence and a rising death toll, the United Nations Security Council remains silent and the world body’s Human Rights Council has not called a meeting.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s position on the crisis has also provoked comment. It was only after a full week of street demonstrations and the deaths last Saturday of at least 10 protestors that he put out a statement, on Monday, declaring himself to be “dismayed by the post-election violence, particularly the use of force against civilians, which has led to the loss of life and injuries.”

He urged “an immediate stop to the arrests, threats and use of force.”

The Security Council, meanwhile, has not met to discuss the election or ensuing violent crackdown.

Asked Thursday whether the U.S. may pursue the matter at the Security Council, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said only that the administration was “discussing a lot of different options multilaterally and within the government.” He said the subject would come up during multilateral meetings in Italy and Greece.

A meeting of the Group of Eight foreign ministers in currently underway in Trieste, Italy. The Greek island of Corfu hosts an Organization for Security and Cooperation gathering and a NATO-Russia meeting this weekend.

But with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warning his G8 counterparts against isolating Tehran – he called Iran’s contested election “an exercise in democracy” – a tough-worded statement from that quarter seems unlikely.

Still, the host foreign minister, Italy’s Franco Frattini, voiced optimism Thursday that a unified stance by the G8 ministers was still possible.

Of the five permanent Security Council members, all but China are also members of the G8. China has sent a vice foreign minister to the Trieste talks, so in theory the P5 could hold a high-level discussion on Iran. (Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is not attending due to her fractured elbow, and is being represented by Undersecretary William Burns.)

On Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called during a visit to Canada for an “urgent” Security Council meeting to discuss the situation in Iran, saying the developments “demand a decisive response from the international community.”

In Geneva, the Human Rights Council, the U.N.’s main rights watchdog, is not due to hold a regular session until September 14. But since its establishment in mid-2006 it has called 11 “special sessions” to discuss pressing situations – five of them relating to Israel and ending with condemnations of the Jewish state.

The council’s spokesman did not respond this week to queries about whether there has been any discussion about holding a special session on Iran. Calling a special session requires support of at least 16 council members.

The Bush administration shunned the 47-member council. It did not stand for a seat, symbolically withheld funding and eventually stopped participating in its sessions even in an observer capacity, citing its “pathetic record.” It criticized the body in particular for focusing disproportionately on Israel while – in President Bush’s words at the U.N. General Assembly last September – “routinely” protecting human rights violators.

The Obama administration, arguing that the council was flawed but could be improved from within, reversed that policy. After election last month, the U.S. on June 19 took up a seat on the council for the first time.

While the council has not stirred, individual U.N. human rights officials have voiced concern about the situation in Iran, among them High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay and officials with responsibility for freedom of expression, human rights defenders, arbitrary detention, extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, and torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

The European Center for Law and Justice (ECLJ), a Strasbourg-based body affiliated with the American Center for Law and Justice, on Tuesday sent an appeal to U.N. rights officials, urging them to pressure Iran to comply with international human rights law.

“Contrary to Iran’s claims, it is not anti-democratic for the global community to insist
that Iran allow the protestors to peaceably assemble and express their opinions,” wrote the ECLJ’s Nathanael Bennett and Gregor Puppinck.

They said Iran had violated rights standards laid down in both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both of which it has “unequivocally and voluntarily ratified.”

ECLJ and ACLJ chief counsel Jay Sekulow said in a statement the regime’s actions clearly violated international law.

“The United Nations has a responsibility to member nations who respect and cherish human rights,” he said. “The Iranian government must be held accountable.”