Video – Letters from Iran
While winds of change have been blowing through the Arab world, Iranians have been forced to wait for political reform.
In 2009, in the aftermath of elections that saw Ahmadinejad’s return to power as president, millions of Iranians took to the streets to protest the result. But the demonstrations were brutally repressed and the hopes of the “green revolutionaries” dashed.
Since then Iran has closed itself off to international media, making it difficult to determine what happened to the many thousands of dissidents arrested and imprisoned during the protests, or the current scale of political opposition to the regime.
Yet this film reveals that opposition is still alive and kicking and just as eager for change as before. Letters from Iran paints a fascinating portrait of the aftermath of the Green Revolution and a country holding its breath.
Letters from Iran – YouTube.
Iran denies UN report on increasing human rights violations
 |
 |
Iran’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Eshagh al-Habib, on Thursday denied allegations in a recent UN report that human rights violations in Iran are on the rise. Al-Habib criticized the report for being poorly sourced, non-neutral and simply untrue. The report cited an increase in persecutions among political activists and journalists, detention conditions for opposition leaders and their wives, the torture and mistreatment of detainees, the significant administration of the death penalty to people under 18 years of age and “exorbitant bail requirements” for human rights defenders and religious practitioners. However, UN Special Rapporteur on Iran Ahmed Shaheed, the author of the report, stated that he was encouraged by Iran’s willingness to cooperate with him and that Iran “needs to be seen in a better light.” He further focused on the need to maintain dialogue with Iran’s political leaders in order to improve conditions in the country. The US issued a statement on Tuesday denouncing Iran’s “‘intensified’ campaign of abuse” : “Under international law and its own constitution, Iran has committed to protect and defend the rights of its people, but officials continue to stifle all forms of dissent, persecute religious and ethnic minorities, harass and intimidate human rights defenders, and engage in the torture of detainees.”
Iran has been heavily criticized for its alleged human rights abuses. Jailed Iranian journalist Isa Saharkhiz in July urged Shaheed to investigate prison conditions in Iran. In May, rights groups decried [JURIST report] Iran’s persecution of lawyers. In January, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran [official website] claimed that Iran is on an “execution binge” , killing one prisoner every eight hours. In January, prominent Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh was sentenced to 11 years in prison. Sotoudeh was found guilty of “acting against national security” and “making propaganda against the system” for which she will serve five and one years, respectively. She was the lawyer for Arash Rahmanipour, who was arrested for his role in the post-election protests on charges of moharebeh, or being an enemy of God. Rahmanipour was executed in January 2010. Also in January, Iranian chief prosecutor Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi delivered a speech at Tehran University indicating that he would prosecute opposition leaders for political unrest that took place after the country’s 2009 presidential election.
via JURIST – Paper Chase: Iran denies UN report on increasing human rights violations.
UN Human Rights Expert Delivers Interim Report
Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran Ahmed Shaheed
19 October 2011 –
There were also reports of capital punishment in juvenile cases, and the use of the death penalty for cases that do not meet the level of serious crimes by international standards, he said.
“In some cases, elements of Iran’s penal code and legal practices amount to contravention of those international laws it acceded to,” said Mr. Shaheed.
He said Iran’s record seems to have gained particular attention because of the country’s “lack of substantive cooperation with the UN human rights system and because of the existence of frequent reports of suppression of those self-correcting mechanisms that deprive Iranians from freely seeking redress or reform within the parameters of their human rights.”
The “self-correction mechanisms” that are suppressed include free and fair elections, denial of freedom of expression and assembly, allegations of depravation of the right to education, harassment and intimidation of religious and ethnic minorities, human rights defenders and civil society and religious actors.
He urged Iranian authorities to provide adequate medical access to the well-known cleric Ayatollah Kazemeini-Boroujerdi, and to consider his immediate release.
He also called upon Tehran to consider releasing all individuals listed in his report, including political leaders Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who consider themselves detainees of the Government, human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, student and women’s rights activist Bahareh Hedayat, student activist Abdollah Momeni, and Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani.
He also urged Iran to cooperate with him as he carries out his mandate. “In the absence of this, however, my course of action will be to continue to obtain information through interaction with Iranians both in the region and in other parts of the world, as well as with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other parts of the UN system.”
Mr. Shaheed said he had been informed of the arrests and prosecution of at least 42 lawyers for their attempts to provide legal counsel. Charges brought against the majority of them include acting against national security; participating in illegal gatherings; insulting the Supreme Leader; and spreading propaganda against the regime.
He took notice of the positive steps taken by the Iranian authorities, including the Government’s recent decision to release between 60 and 100 prisoners, many of whom had been arrested as a result of their participation in events related to the 2009 presidential elections.
via UN
Iran's Human Rights Violators
On 12 April and 10 October, the EU imposed sanctions on Iranian officials responsible for grave human rights abuses. This represents a further expression of the EU’s serious concern about the human rights situation in Iran. All have perpetrated violations as serious as torture and applying the death penalty on vague charges and without fair trial. A total of 61 individuals are now subject to EU asset freezes and have been denied entry to the EU.
The names of those listed and the reasons for their listing have been published in the EU’s Official Journal of 12 October and 12 April.
On 10 October, the Foreign Affairs Council of the EU announced the latest measures in a statement, that expressed the EU’s deep concern that “the human rights situation in Iran continues to deteriorate”, called for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty and deplored the “widespread repression of Iranian citizens.
Mahmoud Abbaszadeh-Meshkini
Interior Ministry’s political director
Alireza Akbarshahi
Commander of Tehran Police
Seyyed Alireza Avaee
President of Tehran Judiciary
Jaber Baneshi
Prosecutor of Shiraz
Seyyed Hasan Firuzabadi
Chief of Staff of Iran’s Joint Armed Forces
Mostafa Barzegar Ganji
Prosecutor-General of Qom
Mohammadreza Habibi
Deputy Prosecutor of Isfahan
Mohammad Hejazi
Head of IRGC’s Sarollah Crops in Tehran
Nabiollah Heydari
Head of Iran Airport Police Authority
Yadollah Javani
IRGC Political Bureau Chief
Masoud Jazayeri
Deputy Chief of Staff of Iran’s Joint Armed Forces, in charge of cultural affairs
Mohammad Saleh Jokar
Commander of Student Basij Forces
Behrouz Kamalian
Head of the IRGC-linked ‘Ashiyaneh’ cyber group
Mousa Khalilollahi
Prosecutor of Tabriz
Sadeq Mahsouli
Former Minister of Interior until August 2009
Mojtaba Maleki
Prosecutor of Kermanshah
Mehrdad Omidi
Head of the Computer Crimes Unit of the Iranian Police
Mahmoud Salarkia
Deputy to the Prosecutor General of Tehran for Prison Affairs
Hossein Tala
Governor General of Tehran Province until September 2010
Morteza Tamaddon
Governor General of Tehran Province, head of Tehran Provincial Public Security Council
Hossein Zebhi
Deputy to the Prosecutor General of Iran
Mohammad Kazem Bahrami
Head of the judiciary branch of the armed forces
Seyyed Morteza Bakhtiari
Minister of Justice, former Isfahan governor general and director of the State Prisons Organization until June 2004
Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini
Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance since September 2009
Heydar Moslehi
Minister of Intelligence
Mohammadbagher Bagheri
Vice-chairman of the judiciary administration of South Khorasan province, in charge of crime prevention
Aziz Hajmohammadi
Former judge at the first chamber of the Evin Court, and now judge at branch 71 of the Tehran Provincial Criminal Court
Hojjatollah Souri
Head of Evin Prison
Hassan Akharian
Keeper of Ward 1 of Radjaishahr prison, Karadj
Human Rights Watch – Issues Regarding IRI
Submitted by Human Rights Watch to the UN Human Rights Committee on the occasion of its Pre-Sessional Review of Iran
-
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addresses the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 22, 2011.© 2011 Reuters
This memorandum provides an overview of Human Rights Watch’s main concerns with respect to the human rights crisis in Iran, submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Committee (“the Committee”) in advance of its pre-sessional review of Iran in 2011. We hope it will inform the Committee’s preparation for its review of the Iranian government’s compliance with its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (“the Covenant”).
It has been 17 years since Iran last submitted its State Report to the Committee. During this time, the government has engaged in systematic violations of the Covenant, including extensive restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association, and the widespread use torture, ill-treatment, and unfair trials of political detainees. The number of executions, including those of juvenile offenders, has steadily risen in recent years. The government intensified its targeting of human rights defenders following the disputed presidential election of June 2009. Pressures on civil society groups have increased sharply during President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s administration, and Iran continues to discriminate against religious, ethnic, and other minorities both in law and practice.
Iransubmitted its latest report to the Committee a few months after the June 2009 presidential election and the ensuing violent crackdown against largely peaceful demonstrators and opposition activists. Violence initiated by security forces, including the basij militia affiliated with official security forces, led to the killings of dozens of demonstrators. Authorities arbitrarily arrested and detained thousands of demonstrators and opposition figures in the months after the election. Several detainees died at Kahrizak detention facility in Tehran after being subjected to torture and ill-treatment. Public street protests all but ceased by early 2010 as a consequence of the government’s crackdown, but resumed in February and March 2011 when thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to show their support for pro-democracy protests in neighboring countries and protest the arrest and detention of opposition leaders. The authorities’ violent response led to at least three deaths and hundreds of arrests. The Ministry of Interior continues to refuse to issue permits for peaceful rallies and demonstrations.
As in years past, the government, including the judiciary, has failed to hold accountable officials responsible for committing serious human rights violations. There have been no comprehensive or transparent investigations into government repression, including the killings of demonstrators and custodial deaths of detainees. Although several security personnel were tried in closed military courts for the deaths of detainees at Kahrizak, no high-level authority has yet been charged, let alone convicted, for these crimes. At the same time, the judiciary prosecuted hundreds of demonstrators, civil society activists, and members of opposition parties, some of whom were paraded on national television during several show trials on vague national security-related charges (including “propaganda against the regime”), and sentenced many to lengthy prison terms and, in some cases, to death.
Notwithstanding the numerous and serious abuses committed by state officials, Iran’s State Report does not begin to adequately address allegations concerning violation of core civil and political rights under the Covenant. There are frequently references to legal provisions in Iran’s Constitution and criminal and civil codes but no discussion of how the authorities are implementing or complying with these provisions. Rulings that may or may not address the specific issue in question are simply listed. And the portions of the report that address specific articles of the Covenant contain glaring omissions and inaccuracies, such as providing no information on Iran’s abusive revolutionary courts, which seriously distorts the current situation of human rights in the country.
Among the most serious problems with Iran’s 2009 State Report are the following:
- The report devotes little attention to the death penalty under Article 6 (right to life), even though Iran is believed to have executed 388 people in 2008, and is second only to China in the number of executions carried out annually;
- The section on torture and ill-treatment (Article 7) recounts provisions in Iranian law that prohibit the use of torture and references several cases where government officials were apparently convicted of torture, but nowhere addressing credible reports regarding the authorities’ systematic use of torture in Iran’s detention facilities;
- The section on Iran’s compliance with the prohibition on arbitrary arrest and detention (Article 9) provides some references to rulings presumably related to convictions of government officials who violated these rights, but it contains no discussion of arbitrary arrest and incommunicado detention carried out by Iran’s security and intelligence forces;
- There is significant discussion on the treatment of detainees and prisoners (Article 10), but it largely describes the systems and programs that ostensibly have been put into place. The report does not address serious problems incurred by detainees and prisoners, particularly those accused of national security-related crimes or convicted by revolutionary courts;
- The section on due process and fair trials (Article 14) fails to provide any relevant information regarding the workings of the revolutionary courts, where the state prosecutes most political dissidents and commits systematic and gross violations of the right to a fair trial;
- The report’s discussion of the right to freedom of expression (Article 19) does not address the government’s severe restrictions on peaceful dissent by using both criminal law and repressive practices;
- Regarding the rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of association (Articles 21 and 22), the report fails to acknowledge the ways in which the government systematically prevents civil society organizations – including student, women’s, labor, journalist, legal, and human rights groups – from meeting or conducting their activities.
In short, the Committee’s concluding observations with regard to Iran’s report 17 years ago unfortunately remain equally applicable today: Iran’s report provides “virtually no information about factors and difficulties impeding the application of the Covenant.”
Round-up of Sanctions imposed on Iran
Please note that the One Million Voices Campaign for Iran exclusively demands sanctions for human rights abuses. However, this is a useful summary.
Details of trade, economic and individual sanctions imposed on Iran in recent years by the United States, the United Nations and the European Union in response to both unwillingness to abide by agreements on nuclear development and more recently, human rights abuses.
* U.S. SANCTIONS:
– Initial sanctions imposed after Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy and took diplomats hostage in 1979. Iranian products cannot be imported into the United States apart from small gifts, information materials, foodstuffs and some carpets.
– In 1995, President Bill Clinton issued executive orders preventing U.S. companies from investing in Iranian oil and gas and trading with Iran. Tehran has looked for other customers.
– The same year, Congress passed a law requiring the U.S. government to impose sanctions on foreign firms investing more than $20 million a year in Iran’s energy sector. It was extended for five years in September 2006. No foreign firms have yet been penalised, although many have curtailed operations in Iran.
– In October 2007, Washington imposed sanctions on three Iranian banks and branded the Revolutionary Guards a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction. The Treasury has since added numerous other Iranian banks to its blacklist.
– The Treasury has identified about 20 petroleum and petrochemical companies as being under Iranian government control, an action that put them off-limits to U.S. businesses under the trade embargo.
– Congress approved tough new unilateral sanctions on June 24, 2010 aimed at squeezing Iran’s energy and banking sectors, which could also hurt companies from other countries doing business with Tehran.
– The 2010 law imposes penalties on firms that supply Iran with refined petroleum products worth more than $5 million over 12 months. Firms can be banned from the U.S. financial system or denied U.S. contracts. It also effectively deprives foreign banks of access to the U.S. financial system if they do business with Iranian banks or the Revolutionary Guards.
– In February 2011, Bank Refah was sanctioned for facilitating the purchase of millions of dollars worth of missiles and tanks by Iran’s Defence Ministry.
– In May, the U.S. blacklisted its 21st Iranian state bank, the Bank of Industry and Mine, as a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction for handling transactions on behalf of two previously sanctioned institutions, Bank Mellat and Europaeisch-Iranische Handelsbank.
– It also announced new sanctions on Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA and six other smaller oil and shipping firms for engaging in trade with Iran in violation of the U.S. ban, prompting fury and warnings from Hugo Chavez’s government.
– On June 11, it announced new sanctions applicable to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Basij Resistance Force, Iran’s Law Enforcement Forces and its commander, Ismail Ahmadi Moghadam. The sanctions freeze any of the targets’ assets under U.S. jurisdiction and bar U.S. persons and institutions from dealing with them.
– U.S. sanctions against Iran can be found on the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control website: here and here
* EU SANCTIONS:
– The EU has imposed visa bans on senior officials such as Revolutionary Guards chief Mohammad Ali Jafari, former Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar and former atomic energy chief Gholamreza Aghazadeh, and on nuclear and ballistic experts.
– Britain announced last October it was freezing business ties with Bank Mellat and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), both of which have previously faced sanctions from the United States.
– New EU measures approved on July 26, 2010, said European airports would bar cargo flights to or from Iran except those in which limited amounts of cargo were carried on passenger planes.
– On Aug. 12, 2010 the EU toughened its sanctions against Tehran, including banning the creation of joint ventures with enterprises in Iran that are engaged in the oil and natural gas industries and any subsidiary or affiliate under their control.
– Member states must prohibit the provision of insurance and re-insurance to the government of Iran. The sale, purchase, brokerage or assistance with the issuance of public or public-guaranteed bonds by the Iranian government, central bank or Iranian banks is banned.
– The import and export of arms and equipment that could contribute to uranium enrichment or have a “dual use” is banned.
– The sanctions forbid the sale and supply or transfer of energy equipment and technology used by Iran for refining, liquefying natural gas, exploration and production. The EU expects the effects of the sanctions to increase over time as existing parts wear out.
– The transfer of funds over 40,000 euros will require prior authorisation from the member state concerned. Sums of more than 10,000 euros not related to foodstuffs or healthcare and medical equipment will require notification.
– For the full EU sanctions decision click: (here? uri=OJ:L:2010:281:0001:0077:EN:PDF)
– In May 2011, EU foreign ministers significantly extended its sanctions and agreed to add more than 100 new entities to a list of companies and people affected by sanctions including those owned or controlled by the IRISL. Among the shipping companies targeted by the EU were Safiran Payam Darya Shipping Lines, which it said took over IRISL’s bulk services and routes and used vessels previously owned by IRISL.
– EU diplomats said the May 23 sanctions list included German-based EIH bank, which specialises in business in Iran.
* U.N. SANCTIONS:
– The Security Council has imposed four sets of sanctions on Iran, in December 2006, March 2007, March 2008 and June 2010.
– The first covered sensitive nuclear materials and froze the assets of Iranian individuals and companies linked with the nuclear programme. It gave Iran 60 days to suspend uranium enrichment, a deadline ignored by Iran.
– The second included new arms and financial sanctions. It extended an asset freeze to 28 more groups, companies and individuals engaged in or supporting sensitive nuclear work or the development of ballistic missiles, including the state-run Bank Sepah and firms controlled by the Revolutionary Guards.
– The third increased travel and financial curbs on individuals and companies. It expanded a partial ban on trade in items with both civilian and military uses to cover sales of all such technology to Iran, and added 13 individuals and 12 companies to the list of those suspected of aiding Iran’s nuclear and missile programmes. In September 2008, the Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution again ordering Iran to halt enrichment. Iran again disregarded the order.
– A Security Council resolution passed on June 9, 2010, called for measures against new Iranian banks abroad if a connection to the nuclear or missile programmes was suspected, as well as vigilance over transactions with any Iranian bank, including the central bank.
– It expanded a U.N. arms embargo against Tehran and blacklisted three firms controlled by Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines and 15 belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The resolution called for setting up a cargo inspection regime similar to one in place for North Korea.
– Annexed to the draft resolution was a list of 40 companies to be added to an existing U.N. blacklist of firms.
Reuters (Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit; editing by Mark Heinrich)
How and where to prosecute the Iranian Regime?
This has been written after the [US State Department's] named 8 individuals involved in criminal activity of the last year and a half in Iran in their initial list of human rights abusers. Looking the list of names against whom the US is imposing financial sanctions, and regardless of questions about why names such as Mr. Ali Khamenei’s and his allies are missing, or why only financial sanctions are being applied, many people raise the question of how, and under which authority, these individuals and their allies could be prosecuted?
An abstract and simplified answer, sparing the technical details of the process, follows. First, we need to mention those international authorities who, contrary to common assumption, are not authorized to try these individuals for their crimes:
1) International Court of Justice, also known as the Hague (Den Haag) Court is only authorized to settle international legal disputes between States and is not authorized in criminal cases of individuals even if they happen to be the head of State.
2) International Criminal Court, which is also located in the Hague (Den Haag) in the Netherlands, is also not authorized to investigate the crimes of the above mentioned listed names and their allies. This court, based on the Rome Statute which was signed by many members of the United Nations on 17 July 1998, and entered into force on 1 July 2002, is only authorized to exercise jurisdiction over criminal acts which took place after 2002, the year of its establishment (as a result, investigation of the Islamic Republic regime’s crimes of its fist two decades cannot be pursued by this court).
Furthermore, this court is only authorized to exercise jurisdiction over the countries who have finalized ratification of the Rome Statute. Therefore, since Iran has not ratified the Rome Statute in its Parliament yet, and until it happens in Iran, crimes which take place in this country cannot be prosecuted in the International Criminal Court (except for the case issued in the article 4 below). Ultimately, the court’s authority is of a “complementary authority” which, under certain circumstances, can exercise its jurisdiction against the consignatary countries. Due to the limitation on scope of this article these circumstances are not mentioned here.
3) There is another court in the Hague called the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). This is the first criminal court that, after ratification by the Security Council of the United Nations in 1993, was established to exclusively investigate the war crimes, genocides and crimes against humanity that took place in the 1990s in the Balkan countries. Following the establishment of ICTY, other similar courts were established by the U.N. Security Council regarding some other countries such as Rwanda and Sierra Leone, whose authority was uniquely specific to the particular circumstances of these countries. As a result, none of these specific international tribunals which are known as “third generation courts” or “specific criminal courts” (Ad hoc) have the authorities to investigate the crimes of the heads of the Islamic Republic.
4) Currently only two methods are available to address the crimes of the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran:
A) via the approval of the United Nations Security Council for the formation of special criminal court, or
B) granting special authority to the International Criminal Court under the authority contained in paragraph b, Article 13, of the Rome Statute. This requires the scheme to be proposed by member states of the Security Council.
It requires action from liberal organizations, political parties & groups, and human rights advocates, to demand world governments to take action.
Everyone must tirelessly pursue this matter.
Charges can be brought by victims (whether Iranian nationals or citizens of other countries) or their representatives in the case of criminal damages or abuse of their rights and also cases of crimes against humanity can be brought to trial in countries where international law is upheld. Most European countries and North America are members of this group, which defends International Law.
In such a case, sentences issued by these Courts can be enforced in these countries in the first place and in other countries under certain circumstances.
The important point to note is that both these paths can be pursued simultaneously by whomever is able to do so.
Moreover, it should be mentioned that criminials condemned for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes cannot escape the responsibilities associated with these crimes in relying on rights of a governing regime and/or the national law of their country. This has been established by various treaties (including the Geneva treaties, documentations of the preliminary negotiations regarding these treaties, the international judiciary procedures including stipulations of the trials of Nuremberg, Tokyo and higher international criminal courts mentioned above). It is backed by statements and resolutions of an individual or group of countries together with other sources and authorities of international law. Justice has closed the escape door for these perpetrators.
On our part, we try to prepare documentation and evidence to present to the international audience. In some cases we try to provide help to our compatriots to present their complaints in other countries. In order to succed in this task and have a real and genuine impact, we need continuous and extensive efforts by a broad group of people, as well as by political, social and human rights institutions. We should all call loudly for the trial of these criminals, such that our voices are heard everywhere. We do not doubt that these criminals will be tried in a court of justice either abroad or in the country after the fall of this dictatorial regime. The progress of this work relies on the hard efforts of every freedom-loving and justice-seeking individual. Let us include this task in our individual and social agenda until we reach a fully successful result.
Signed
Green Lawyers Movement
October 2010
Source : [Farsi] http://bit.ly/9tz7iL
