Human rights in Islamic Republic of Iran

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Hundreds of Iranian newspapers were shut down during the last decade.
Hundreds of Iranian newspapers were shut down during the last decade.

Today, the state of human rights by the Islamic Republic of Iran continues to be generally considered a source of significant concern. Despite many efforts by Iranian human right activists, writers, NGOs and international critiques as well as several resolutions by the UN General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Commission, the government of Iran continues to restrict freedom of speech, gender equality and other forms of freedom.

Furthermore, the Islamic regime of Iran still continues to disregard the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in several aspects.

Iran has been rated by several human rights groups as one of today's leading abusers of human rights, whose leaders repeatedly remove any sort of freedom including even those granted by basic human existence.

Contents

[edit] Background

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Human rights violations in Islamic Republic of Iran can be said to derive from two elements;

  • Firstly, traditional Islam and the Sharia law: The historical petrification of Sharia law by some cultures/regimes has allowed for significant gender inequality, homosexual persecution, as well as other internationally criticised practices such as stoning as a method of execution. Furthermore, in Iran, a mentality of fatalism established through the practice of Shia Islam also helps less educated elements of the public disregard violations by attributing them to fate.[1][2]
  • Secondly, the Iranian government itself, in its continual drive to secure its own political power base, as well as to maintain centralised control over a fragmented multi-ethnic society, disregards human rights where it sees it as politically useful. This usually takes place when dealing with minorities, or with protests that are critical of the government.

[edit] History

Iran is home to the first charter of human rights [3] - the Persian Empire established unprecedented principles of human rights in the 6th century BC, under the reign of Cyrus the Great. After his conquest of Babylon in 539 BC, the King issued the Cyrus Cylinder, discovered in 1879 and recognised by many today as the first document defining a person's human rights. The cylinder declared that citizens of the Empire would be allowed to practice their religious beliefs freely and abolished slavery. This means that all the palaces of the Kings of Persia were built by paid workers, in an era where slaves typically did such work. These two reforms were reflected in the biblical books of Chronicles and Ezra, which state that Cyrus released the followers of Judaism from slavery and allowed them to migrate back to their land. Following Persia's defeat at the hands of Alexander the Great, the concept of human rights was abandoned.

In 1906 the Iranian Constitutional Revolution resulted in a constitutional monarchy. For the first time in over 2000 years, since Cyrus the Great, Iran was relying on a code of law to govern the interactions of its citizens and define their minimum freedoms.

With the arrival of Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1925, the constitutional monarchy was for all practical reasons abolished. His son, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi continued in his fathers footsteps. It was under his reign that the Iranian human rights movement drastically picked up once again and ultimately climaxed in the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Following the revolution, the subsequent Islamic Government of Iran continued to flagrantly disregard human rights and in many cases has made the situation worse.

The volume, Crimes Against Humanity: Indict Iran's Ruling Mullahs for Massacre of 30,000 Political Prisoners, was pubished by the National Council of Resistance of Iran Foreign Affairs Committee in 2001. The report contains a statement by Eric Avebury, Member of the House of Lords, Vice-chairman of the British Parliamentary Human Rights Group, written in 2001. Lord Avebury describes a major massacre in 1988, (according to Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri): "in the first few days of the...massacre...thousands were killed, and at a conservative estimate. the final death toll was in the region of 30,000."

Following the rise of the reform movement within Iran and the election of moderate Iranian president Mohammad Khatami in 1997 numerous moves were made to modify the Iranian civil and penal codes in order to improve the human rights situation. The predominantly reformist parliament drafted several bills allowing increased freedom of speech, the banning of torture, and gender equality. These were all dismissed or significantly watered down by the Guardian Council and leading conservative figures in the Iranian government at the time.

[edit] Legal foundations for human rights in Iran

[edit] The constitution

According to the Iranian fundamental law (in persian: Qānun-e asāsi):

  • The nineteenth principle : "the iranian people, no matter which ethnic group, should enjoy equal rights; colour, race, language, etc. are not a cause for different treatment." [4]
  • The twentieth principle : "all members of the Nation, whether men or women, are equal before the law and enjoy the protection if human, political, economical, social and cultural rights within the precepts of Islam." The twenty first principle: "the State is responsible to protect the rights of women at all levels within the precepts of Islam and shall take the following steps:
    • The creation of locations where the women can let her personality blossom and can take over her material and spiritual rights.
    • The protection of mothers, partitcularly while pregnant and for the education of children: protection of children without guardian.
    • The creation of a competent tribunal to insure stability and continuity of the family.

The creation of special benefits for widowers, elderly women and single women. Grant custody of children to the mother in their mutual benefit when no the is no legal guardian.

  • Twenty third principle: "the offence of opinion shall be banned and no one can be blamed or admonished because of his or her opinions".
  • Twenty fourth principle: "publications and the media enjoy free speech, unless they attack the principles of Islam or harm public stability; the Law will specify the modalities of this principle."

Still within the scope of the twenty fourth principle, the "control and interception of mail, the recording and divulgation of telephone conversations, publications of faxes and telex, censorship, the lack of transmission or distribution as well as eaves dropping are forbidden, unless the Law states otherwise."

  • Twenty seventh principle states that "parties, groups, political and union associations, islamic associations and minority religious groups are free unless they interfere with the independence, freedom, national unity, Islamic principles or with the foundations of the Islamic Republic. No one shall be prevented or forced to participate in any one of these groups.

"The organisation of meetings or protests, without any one bearing arms, is permissible as long as it does not interfere with the precepts of Islam."

The woman is considered as someone under guard and non-mature.[5] The excerpts above show a major discrepancy between the legal text and the reality in Iran, as well as a certain hypocrisy in the writting of the constitution. The latter grants freedom in certain areas, "unless the law states otherwise" or "unless it interferes with the precepts of Islam". The insitutional system granting power with the clergymen, especially the Supreme Guide, the reality is that decisions are made according to political Islamism, even as Iran is a self-proclaimed democracy.

[edit] The civil code

Discrimation between men and women in the Iranian civil code

The Iranian legislation being strongly influenced by the precepts of Islam, it consolidates the supremacy of the man, which is shown in different articles of the Iranian civil code[6]:

Excerpts:

  • Article 906 : if the dead man has no offspring, the totality of the inheritance belongs to his parents. If both the parents are alive, the mother receives 1/3 and the father 2/3 of the inheritance. If the mother has a hojab (relative who reduces her part, article 886), she shall receive 1/6, the rest belonging to the father.
  • Article 920: if the dead man's heirs are brothers and sisters of the parents or of the father, the part of the inheritance belonging to the men is twice that belonging to the women.
  • Discrimination against women in the law and in practice: a woman is granted half the inheritance of a man, like its counterpart in penal law, where a woman's life is worth half the life of a man. A woman also needs permission from her father or husband to travel.[7]
  • Article 907 : when there are multiple children, the inheritance of the sons is twice that of the daughters.
  • Article 911 : for grand-children, the inheritance is divided according to the 1:3 ratio between grand-sons and grand-daughters.

Children's rights in Iran at the international law level

Following declarations made upon ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Iran made the following comments: "the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran reserves the right not to apply dipositions and articles of the convention that would not be compatible with islamic law or with the legislation in effect in the country. (UN document C.N.321.1995 of the treaty).

[edit] Penal Code

Violations of human rights in Iran are sometimes institutionalised, wide-spread and legal in the Iranian penal code, deriving from the Sharia.

The iranian penal code distinguishes two types of punishments: Hudud (fixed punishment) and the Qissas (retribution) or Diya (Blood money or Talion Law). Punishments falling within the category of Hududs are applied to people committing offenses against the State, such as adultery, alcohol consumption, burglary or petty theft, rebellions against Islamic authority, apostasia and homosexual intercourse (considered contrary to the spirit of Islam). Punishments include death by stoning or decapitation, amputation or flagellation (punishments are usually carried out in public). Victims of private crimes, such as murder or rape, can exercise a right to retribution (Qissas) or decide to accept "blood money" (Diyah or Talion Law). [8]

A bill to set the minimum age for the death penalty at 18 years was examined by the parliament in December 2003, but it was not ratified by the Guardian Council of the Constitution. [5]

In December 2002, ayatollah Shahroudi, head of the judicial system, supposedly sent judges a memorandum requesting the suspension of stonings and asking them to choose other forms of sanctions. However, legal dispositions regarding the death penalty by stoning remain in force. [5]

[edit] Current Situation

[edit] Political Issues

Ahmad Batebi, A symbol of Irans reformist movement appeared on the cover of The Economist magazine. He has been in prison since.
Enlarge
Ahmad Batebi, A symbol of Irans reformist movement appeared on the cover of The Economist magazine. He has been in prison since.
  • Human Rights Watch reports that the Basij belong to the "Parallel Institutions" (nahad-e movazi), "the quasi-official organs of repression that have become increasingly open in crushing student protests, detaining activists, writers, and journalists in secret prisons, and threatening pro-democracy speakers and audiences at public events." Under the control of the Office of the Supreme Leader, these groups set up arbitrary checkpoints around Tehran, uniformed police often refraining from directly confronting these plainclothes agents. "Illegal prisons, which are outside of the oversight of the National Prisons Office, are sites where political prisoners are abused, intimidated, and tortured with impunity." [10]
A prominent Iranian human rights organization.
Enlarge
A prominent Iranian human rights organization.

As of 2006, the Iranian government has been attempting to de-politisize Iran's student body or make it supportive of the government by stopping students that hold contrary political views from attending higher education, despite the acceptance of those students by their universities. According to Human Rights Watch, this practice has been coupled with academic suspensions, arrests, and jail terms.[13]

===Jewish issues=== + Jews in Iran have equal constitutional rights to other Iranians. All Iraniian citizens can be criminally prosecuted for supporting Israel.

[edit] Freedom of Expression

[edit] Freedom of the Press

A Reporters Without Borders report indicates permanent restriction of the press and denounces an application of censorship found to be systematic. Iran is one of the ten most repressive countries of the world concerning freedom of the press. Journalists detained in prison are often harassed and humiliated, as was Zahra Kazemi, an Irano-Canadian journalist who died in prison. The Canadian government broke off relations with Iran following her death, suspected to have been backed by the authorities and executed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

In its report published on the 16th International World Press Freedom Day, Wednesday May 3, 2006, Reporters Without Borders denounced 37 "predators of press freedom", of which many were political leaders or armed groups. Reporters Without Borders groups Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad among the "predators of freedom".

Akbar Ganji, an Iranian intellectual and important figure in the anti-government opposition, supported a plan to change Iran in an interview with French newspaper Le Monde (6 June 2006). He denounces human rights violations in Iran: "a regime, in Tehran, that ridicules the most basic rights". With Amnesty international (see this organization's report on Iran), Akbar Ganji denounces a regime that had 94 people executed in 2005: "The fact that the penal code authorises a citizen to assassinate another if he is judged to be "impious"; the ban on writing for "opposing" journalists; the difficulty of demonstration (70 women were arrested a few days ago) or even the blanket of "authoritarianism" that ignores all private life and transforms into a political act the simple gesture of a woman taking the scarf from her head". He thinks that the only route for the country will be civil disobedience. He reminds western democracies of "their duty to denounce attacks on human rights" in Iran.

100 newspapers and other publications have been closed by the regime since April 2000. There are currently 10 journalists in prison. Reporters Without Borders considers Iran to be "the biggest prison in the Middle-East for journalists".

[edit] Control of the Internet

Main article: Internet Censorship in Iran

According to a Reporters Without Borders report, "since the closing of most [reformist] Iranian newspapers since April 2000, this means of communication has become the primary medium by which journalists and press correspondents can express themselves and call for more liberty and reforms. Irritated by this new method, conservatives, like Iranian reformers, strengthened control of this medium. Since January 2003, several webmasters and surfers have been arrested".

Reporters Without Borders also believes that it is the Iranian "government’s desire to rid the Iranian Internet of all independent information concerning the political opposition, the women’s movement and human rights” [14]. Where the government can not legally stop sites it uses advanced blocking software to prevent access to them.

According to the same source, the "conservatives' mistrust of the Web doesn't prevent its use for propaganda. Thus information sites such as Daricheh.org or Jebhe.com (note : jebhe.com no longer exists) were put in place and convey the ideas of regime hardliners. Also, the theological university Qom trains several thousand students in computer science and as internet specialists every year so that, according to a mullah of Qom, 'they will use their knowledge to serve the country and Islam'".

[edit] Religious Issues

Main articles: Status of religious freedom in Iran and Persecution of Bahá'ís

The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran mandates that the official religion of Iran is Islam and the Twelver Ja'fari school, though it also mandates that other Islamic schools are to be accorded full respect, and their followers are free to act in accordance with their own jurisprudence in performing their religious rites and recognizes Zoroastrian, Jewish, and Christian Iranians as religious minorities. The Bahá'í Faith, Iran's largest non-Islamic religious minority, however, is not recognized and is persecuted.[15] The members of the Bahá'í community in Iran have been subjected to unwarranted arrests, false imprisonment, beatings, torture, unjustified executions, confiscation and destruction of property owned by individuals and the Bahá'í community, denial of employment, denial of government benefits, denial of civil rights and liberties, and denial of access to higher education.[15]

The United Nations and its human rights bodies have passed more than 67 resolutions and decisions regarding human rights violations against Iran's religious minorities since 1980.[16] In every year since 1984, except for 2002 where the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) tried to engage Iran into a dialogue on human rights, the UNCHR passed resolutions about human rights violations against Iran's religious minorities especially the Bahá'ís.[16] Iran became the fourth country in the history of the United Nations to be on the agenda of the General Assembly because of its human rights violations.[17]

[edit] Gender Issues

As an Islamic state, Iran's legislation which is derived from a highly conservative interpretation of Islamic law re-enforces male supremacy. This can be noted in the articles of the Iranian Civil Law as well as the international conventions which Iran has agreed to be a part of. For example, in 2003, Iran elected not to become a member of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) since the convention contradicted the Islamic Sharia law in Clause A of its single article.[18]

This creates numerous problems in issues regarding rape, where the female is at fault by default. In such cases, the act of sexual penetration must be attested by at least four male Muslim witnesses of good character. The ultimate punishments are reserved to the legal authorities however the law states that false accusations are to be punished severely. [19][20]. According to these views, the principles are so rigorous in their search for evidence, that they create the near impossibility of being able to reach a verdict that goes against the suspect in any manner. [21] Legal imbalances such as this can be seen in the case of individuals such as Atefah Sahaaleh who was executed by the state for 'inappropriate sexual relations', however was most probably a rape victim.

It is worth noting that the situation of women's rights in Iran, is significantly better than many middle eastern countries in several respects. As an example the Persian Gulf state of Bahrain is a pioneer in respecting the rights of women in the arab world. However for the first time in the Arab world, a woman has chaired a parliamentary session in Bahrain in 2006. While Iranian women have served in parliament and local government, women did not have the right to vote before 2003 in Bahrain and other Arab countries in the region.[10][11][12] Iranian women gained the right to vote in 1962. In the United Arab Emirates, neither men nor women have the right to vote or to stand for election. In Saudi Arabia, men took part, in 2005, in the first local elections ever held in the country.

[edit] LGBT Issues

Main article: LGBT rights in Iran

Homosexuality and adultery are criminal acts and punishable by life imprisonment or death, and the same sentences apply to convictions for treason and apostasy. Those accused by the state of homosexual acts are routinely flogged and threatened with execution. [13]. Iran is one of seven countries in the world that apply the death penalty for homosexual acts; all of them justify this punishment with Islamic law. The Judiciary does not recognize the concept of sexual orientation, and thus from a legal standpoint there are no homosexuals or bisexuals, only heterosexuals committing homosexual acts.

For some years after the Revolution, transgendered individuals were classified by the Judiciary as being homosexual and were thus subject to the same laws. However, in the mid-1980s the Judiciary began changing this policy and classifying transgendered individuals as a distinct group, separate from homosexuals, granting them legal rights. Gender identity disorder is officially recognized in Iran today, and the Judiciary permits sexual reassignment surgery for those who can afford it. [14] In the early 1960s, Ayatollah Khomeini had issued a ruling permitting gender reassignment, which has since been reconfirmed by Ayatollah Khamenei. [15]

[edit] Corporal and capital punishment

Iranian youths Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni on the scaffold. (Mashhad, July 19, 2005).
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Iranian youths Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni on the scaffold. (Mashhad, July 19, 2005).

According to Amnesty International's 2004 report, at least 108 people were executed that year, most of whom had been detained as political prisoners. [22] Amnesty has also described cases in which adolescent children were sentenced to the death penalty. [23] Though illegal, torture is often carried out in Iranian prisons, as in the widely publicised case of photojournalist Zahra Kazemi.

Like 74 other countries in the world, Iran carries out capital punishment. As a State party to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Iran has undertaken not to execute anyone for an offence committed when they were under the age of 18, despite continuing to carry out such executions, and is one of only six nations in the world to do so. According to Article 6 of the ICCPR, "sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age.” [24].

In 2004, Iran ranked second in the world by total number of confirmed executions having carried out 159, coming behind the People's Republic of China, who committed well over 3,000. [25]. In 2005, the number dropped to 94 confirmed executions, either by hanging or stoning [26].

Death sentences are always administered for those convicted of murder, rape, and child molestation.

[edit] Treatment of Prisoners

Torture, which is not banned in Iran due to Islamic law[27][28], is often carried out in Iranian prisons, as in the widely publicised case of photojournalist Zahra Kazemi. This Canadian-Iranian woman died in an Iranian prison in 2003. She had been arrested while photographing Evin prison. Doctors examining her body determined that she died from a fractured skull and had been beaten, tortured, and raped [29]

[edit] Significant figures in the Iranian human rights movement

The following individuals represent a partial list of individuals who are currently, or have in the past, significantly attempted to improve the human rights situation in Iran after the revolution in 1979.

[edit] International Criticism of the Iranian human rights record

On 13 October 2005, the Members of the European Parliament voted to adopt a resolution condemning Iran's continued disregard of the human rights of its citizens with a vote of 49 against 43, with 89 abstentions. On 22 December,Hamid Reza Assefi, from the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, announced that Iran would suspend dialogue with the European Union concerning the ongoing question of human rights in the country.

In a National Post article dated Thursday, November 2, 2006 Iran has been listed among the 13 worst abusers of Human rights in the world by the Canadian Government. Canada has brought this to the United Nations Human rights council, a body which the country firmly rejects Iran's participation on given its horrendous human rights record. This related to the torture and death of Canada-based Iranian photo journalist Zahra Kazemi, by an Iranian prosecutor, who became a high ranking member of the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iran's was not pleased with this assessment, despite its factual accuracy. Canadian Criticism

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Sources

  1. ^ http://www.payvand.com/news/03/aug/1073.html
  2. ^ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0CE4DF1F3EF933A25752C0A9659C8B63
  3. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/documentary_archive/6034541.stm
  4. ^ (French) L'aménagement linguistique dans le monde, Jacques Leclerc, CIRAL (Centre international de recherche en aménagement linguistique), Université Laval
  5. ^ a b c (French) Eléments sur le statut juridique des femmes et la peine de mort des mineurs en IranPDF, SAFIR, 28/02/2005
  6. ^ (English) Traduction du code civil iranien par le cabinet Alavi and Associates
  7. ^ (French) Report by the special UN envoy, edited by Human Rights Internet, 2001.
  8. ^ (English) Code pénal iranien, NATLEX (consulté le 21 août 2006)
  9. ^ Report 2001, Islamic Republic of Iran, Amnesty International
  10. ^ hrw.org, Overview of human rights issues in Iran, December 31, 2004
  11. ^ Confronting State Terrorism, Asian Centre for Human Rights Review, Special Issues for 60th Session of the UNHCR, March 24 2004
  12. ^ [1]
  13. ^ http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HRW/0c66f8c906cab6ef840dc3a63f11225d.htm
  14. ^ http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19016
  15. ^ a b International Federation for Human Rights (2003-08-01). Discrimination against religious minorities in Iran. fdih.org. Retrieved on 2006-10-20.
  16. ^ a b Affolter, Friedrich W. (2005). "The Specter of Ideological Genocide: The Bahá'ís of Iran". War Crimes, Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity 1 (1): 59– 89.
  17. ^ Cooper, R. (1995). The Bahá'ís of Iran: The Minority Rights Group Report 51. London, UK: The Minority Rights Group LTD.
  18. ^ http://www.payvand.com/news/03/aug/1073.html
  19. ^ [2]
  20. ^ [3]
  21. ^ [4]
  22. ^ [5]
  23. ^ [6]
  24. ^ [7]
  25. ^ [8]
  26. ^ [9]
  27. ^ http://www.payvand.com/news/03/aug/1073.html
  28. ^ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0CE4DF1F3EF933A25752C0A9659C8B63
  29. ^ "Iranian dissident 'admits' working for US", Aljazeera.net, August 31, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-08-31.
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