iran unfiltered

Mohammad-Javad Larijani, the head of Iran's High Council for Human Rights (and possibly suffering from the Fredo Corleone syndrome as he plays third fiddle role to brothers Ali and Sadegh, heads of the Majles and judiciary, respectively) has uncovered the West's latest excuse (after the nuclear issue) to destabilize Iran: human rights.

Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, says that she will make a formal visit to Iran next year.  We'll believe it when we see it.

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reports the welcome news that Iran has withdrawn its candidacy for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, which would have made a mockery of the council (many will argue that it is rubbish regardless, especially if it is anything like its predecessor body).

The upshot of Iran's withdrawal, though, is that, as foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast claims, it will now be a candidate for one of Asia's seats on an international women's rights council and will have the continent's support in securing that seat.  Radio Zamaneh writes that this council is the International Commission for Protection of Women's Rights, although the lack of a website for such a name suggests that maybe the relevant council is called something else.  Regardless of the name and specifics, given the Islamic Republic's track record on women's rights its candidacy for any such body is a cruel joke.

With the start of the second month (Ordibehesht) of the Iranian calendar year, HRANA (Human Rights Activists News Agency) has compiled impressively detailed lists of the regime's various human rights abuses during the course of the just-ended month.  The overall tally: over 38,000 recorded human rights violations.

Human Rights Watch reports on the Iranian regime's recent coordinated attack on human rights groups.  The group's deputy Middle East director Joe Stork says:

"Yet again, the government has drawn upon its tired playbook of foreign espionage and conspiracy theories to silence the few remaining critical voices in the country.  This smacks of a desperate tactic to find one more excuse to attack human rights activists." 

Sam Shoamanesh and Trita Parsi have written a piece in which they propose several measures, both internal (such as reforming the press laws and ratifying the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court) and external (such as the UN General Assembly passing relevant resolutions), for improving the human rights situation in Iran.  Many if not all of these, especially the "internal" recommendations, fall into the category of aspirational measures that stand little chance of being implemented, but as we've said before there is still value in articulating them and injecting them into public discourse.

The National American Iranian Council's Trita Parsi, accused by some quarters of being an Islamic Republic apologist, wrote a convincing op-ed piece last week in the Financial Times in which he calls on the West not to focus exclusively on the nuclear issue while ignoring Iran's human rights abuses.  While (thankfully) many voices have already made the same plea, Parsi adds a very useful bit of analysis: Iran's regional aspirations make it more susceptible to pressure.  As he explains:

[C]ountries aiming for leadership roles have no choice but to safeguard their records. Just as the Iranian government’s violent reactions to election protests further de-legitimised it at home, international focus on Iran’s abuses will serve to weaken its regional leadership credentials.

Tehran knows this. This is partly why Tehran spends diplomatic capital seeking to water down resolutions condemning its human rights record at international bodies. It is also why it is quick to deflect attention from its own record by criticising Washington’s abuses and Israeli violations.

Contrast this to the behaviour of North Korea or Myanmar, which mostly ignore condemnation of their human rights records.

Just this week we've seen Parsi's examples above in action, as the regime's representative Mohammad-Javad Larijani tried to defend its record at a session of the UN Human Rights Council while in the same speech criticizing the US's abuses (in Guantuanamo and, bizarrely, as a leader in "violence against women"); if he'd been able to throw in an attack on Israel, we could have checked off all three examples in the span of a six-minute speech.

Iran has rejected a number of proposals put forth by the UN Human Rights Council as part of its review this week of its human rights record, which included:

- To ensure the immediate release of illegally detained persons.

- To immediately halt the execution of juveniles and political prisoners.

- To repeal or amend all discriminatory provisions against women and girls in national legislation.

- To end its sever restrictions on the rights to free expression association and assembly; and to end the harassment and prosecution of journalists and bloggers.

It has rejected 44 proposals in all while accepting 123.  Given the utter toothlessness of the Council in enforcing implementation of pledges (countries are supposed to report back themselves), it's puzzling why Iran wouldn't accept more when in practice it can so easily ignore them.

The UN Human Rights Council held its review session today on Iran in which the regime's delegation attempted to defend its record amid harsh criticism from the West.

Here is the speech by Iran's representative Mohammad-Javad Larijani (brother of Majles Speaker Ali and judiciary head Sadegh):

It includes this remark:

"Iran is becoming one of the prominent democratic states in the region."

Amusing self-praise given how (un)democratic the Middle East is; Larijani might want to come up with a better example next time.

State-run Press TV's report mentions that Iran's record was defended by Syria, Cuba and Venezuela, which again shows how little hope human rights observers should have for a meaningful outcome from this UN body.

Meanwhile, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran argues that the council must hold a special session on Iran and appiont a special envoy to investigate Iran's abuses further.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi has launched an impassioned plea for international help to combat Iran's rampant human rights abuses since the stolen June election:

Tomorrow will be too late. Tomorrow we will face tragedy. Please help us. Before Iran becomes another Zimbabwe, please think of a solution.

In particular, while signaling her opposition to economic sanctions (which will hurt the people), she calls for political sanctions such as the downgrading of diplomatic ties and the denial of visas to any government officials, which will "demonstrate to the Iranian people that human rights is respected and considered (as being) of the utmost importance by you".

Ebadi's remarks, at an event organized by human rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, were part of her campaign (see also this letter) to highlight Iran's terrible human rights record ahead of a review this week by the UN Human Rights Council.  A quick glance at the membership of this council reveals that it includes such serial abusers as China, Cuba and Egypt, so don't hold your breath that it will take any kind of meaningful action against Iran.

On a broader level, Ebadi's speech demonstrates again that she is being increasingly vocal and assertive in her criticism of the regime, which is a good sign for the opposition movement.

The European Union and US have issued a joint statement on human rights violations in Iran:

The United States and the European Union condemn the continuing human rights violations in Iran since the June 12 election. The large scale detentions and mass trials, the threatened execution of protestors, the intimidation of family members of those detained and the continuing denial to its citizens of the right to peaceful expression are contrary to human rights norms.

Our concerns are based on our commitment to universal respect for human rights. We are particularly concerned by the potential for further violence and repression during the coming days, especially around the anniversary of the Islamic Republic's founding on 11 February. We call on the Government of Iran to live up to its international human rights obligations, to end its abuses against its own people, to hold accountable those who have committed the abuses and to release those who are exercising their rights.

In its World Report 2010 publication, Human Rights Watch documents the Iranian government's abuses since the June election and the group's Middle East director concludes:

The systematic and brutal targeting of demonstrators and government critics by security forces shows that the regime's crackdown is nothing but an attempt to silence voices of dissent.  Iran's post-election unrest is now a full-blown human rights crisis.

The report's introductory essay also describes a little publicized but significant action taken by the government in its campaign of repression:

In June 2009, following the disputed presidential elections, the Iranian government adopted new regulations that severely limit the independence of the Iranian Bar Association, giving the government control over a lawyer’s right to practice. Until then, the Bar Association, which has the exclusive power to grant or deny licenses to practice, had resisted government efforts to rein in lawyers who defend human rights.

The full chapter on Iran is here.

An Islamic theocracy prides itself on upholding religious values.  Among them, apparently, is beating of defenseless women who have gathered to mourn their children.

According to Payk Iran, Tehran's "Mourning Mothers" -- mothers who have lost politically active children due to state violence -- gathered this Saturday in Laleh Park for their weekly vigil and protest.  They were attacked, beaten and punched by the security forces.  Always protective of their Islamic faith, the goons felt their faith was best served by punching old ladies in the face. 

Here is a sample peaceful gathering of these middle-aged women:

Human rights group Amnesty International has released a report on post-election abuses in Iran, calling the recent and current human rights situation as bad as at any time in the past 20 years - which is really saying something given the Islamic Republic's consistently appalling record on that front.

The report provides an excellent, thorough picture of developments in Iran during and particularly after the June election, and it concludes by urging the Iranian regime to take the following steps:

- Facilitate, as a matter of urgency, visits to Iran by the UN Special Rapporteurs on torture and on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions to allow independent international scrutiny of the human rights situation so that their assessments and recommendations contribute to ensuring that those responsible for ordering or committing violations are held to account.

- Release all prisoners of conscience: those imprisoned in Iran because of their political, religious or other conscientiously-held beliefs, their ethnic origin, their language, their national or social origin, their sexual orientation or other status who have not used or advocated violence or hatred.

- Review the cases of all prisoners arrested for political reasons during the election period, including those sentenced after the unfair “show trials”. Release those who have not yet been tried unless they are to be charged with recognizably criminal offences and given a prompt and fair trial.

- Reform key areas of the administration of justice to ensure that the Basij are not used for policing and to clarify precisely which bodies have the power of arrest.

- End unlawful killings by security forces by ensuring all bodies responsible for law enforcement adhere to international standards on the use of force and firearms.

- Ensure that no one is arbitrarily arrested or detained and that evidence obtained under torture and other ill-treatment is not admissible in court.

- Repeal laws which criminalize the legitimate exercise of the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly and bring them in line with international standards.

- Introduce an immediate moratorium on executions and end the cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment of flogging. 

There's little if any chance that the government will take any of these steps - and certainly not based on demands from a non-government human rights organization - but it's still valuable for groups like Amnesty to inject them into public discourse.  And just the documentation of human rights violations by itself is an important, worthwhile endeavor. 

The full report is here.

A creative protest campaign has sprung up on Facebook and the Iranian blogosphere in which young Iranian men post pictures of themselves wearing women's headscarves.

The NY Times explains the background.

"Two days after student protests across Iran demonstrated that the dispute over June’s presidential election is not over, Iranian bloggers responded with fury to reports by the country’s state-supported media that a prominent student leader had been dressed as a woman when he was arrested on Monday in Tehran."

No wonder this government has to resort to violence and thuggery.  Its other ideas to combat the young protesters consistently and humiliatingly backfire.