Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran - Research Paper Example

Human Rights in The Islamic Republic of Iran Table of Contents Contents Page 1. Abstract 3 2. Introduction 4 3. The ‘Guardians’ of Iran 5 4. Human Rights and Sharia 5-7 5. Women’s Rights 7-8 6. Children’s Rights 8-9 7. LGBT Rights 10-11 8. Religious Rights 11-13 9. Freedom of expression 13-14 10. Torture, Beatings, Arrests, and Executions 14-15 11. Political Dissent 16-17 12. Conclusion 17-19 13. Bibliography 20-24 1. Abstract Iran is one of the topmost Human Rights violators across the world. For the past several years, Iranian authorities have been engaged in the brutal repression of Iranian civil society. Labor activists who seek to form independent trade unions, women’s rights activists( especially those involved with the ‘Campaign for Equality’ who work for just treatment under family law) students, reporters, bloggers, and those who support cultural rights for Iran’s ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities are all targets of the establishments regime of suppression. Vigilante groups like the Ansar-e Hezbollah, with strong ties to the Guardian Council, enforce their version of appropriate social behavior through intimidation and violence. Hundreds of people are incarcerated on vague charges including “propaganda against the state” or “endangering the security of the state.” There are no legal recourses for these detainees who are tried and convicted unjustly. Many detainees have reported of torture and coercion to make public confessions, which are then used against them in trials. Moreover, Iran executes more people than any other state in the world except for China. The Islamic Republic of Iran executed at least 346 people in 2008. It is also continues to execute juvenile offenders despite international outrage and efforts to curb this shameful practice. 2. Introduction Iran’s latest presidential election on June 12, 2009, took place against a backdrop of discrimination, worsening repression of dissent and violent unrest. This was in fact the expected scenario in a country with a long history of human and civil rights violations. Although a member state of the United Nations, the Iranian government restricts the work of human rights groups and continues to deny that it is guilty of many violations of the basic Human Rights established according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) According to the government of Iran the Human Rights charter is in conflict with the Islamic Law (Sharia) and therefore as an Islamic state Iran is not bound the charter. Violence against women is common and they face constant legal and societal discrimination. The Iranian Republic discriminates against religious and ethnic minorities especially the Bahais. Homosexuals and lesbians are penalized as homosexuality is criminal. Transgender persons are not penalized (as trans-sexuality is deemed a medical condition) but still suffer from societal stigma. Workers rights, including freedom of association and the right to organize and bargain collectively are restricted and any attempt to engage in such activities is severely punished. Freedom of the press is severely curtailed and all media is highly censored. Political dissent is not tolerated and even non-violent protests and gatherings are immediately crushed by the Iranian police. Child labor and juvenile execution are serious offences that persist in the Islamic Republic. In 2008, the United Nations General Assembly expressed "deep concern” for Irans human rights record - particularly "cases of torture; the high incidence of executions and juvenile executions ... ; the persecution of women seeking their human rights; discrimination against minorities and attacks on minority groups like the Bahais in state media ..” (UN report 2008) 3. The ‘Guardians’ of Iran The greatest political office in the Islamic Republic is that of the Supreme Leader, there have been two Supreme Leaders, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran) and his successor, Ali Khamenei. All decisions and the true power to implement policies in the Islamic Republic of Iran lie with ‘Guardian Council’. Selected by the Supreme leader the Guardian Council consists of twelve judges, six religious jurists and six laymen. The Council reviews all parliamentary legislation to make certain that it conforms to Islam and Iran’s Sharia-based constitution. The Council supervises elections, and retains the right to approve or disqualify candidates based on religious and political ideology. This council plays a major role in condoning the Human rights violations in Iran. Vigilante groups under its aegis terrorize the populace with patrols and random checks to ensure that there is no violation of the Sharia and are empowered to hand out arbitrary punishment to deemed offenders. (Head, no date) 4. Human Rights and Sharia Of the many excuses and justifications made by the Islamic Republic of Iran (for violation of human rights), their most fundamental argument is that the UDHR is in conflict with their religious principles. In 1984, Sai Rajaie-Khorassani, (Iranian representative to the UN) stated that the UDHR was a secular document based on Judeo-Christian beliefs that were unacceptable to Islamic principles and thus the Islamic Republic of Iran was not bound by the same. (Gontowska, 2005) Sharia as interpreted by the Republic of Iran calls for inequality of rights between genders, religions, sexual orientation, as well as for other internationally criticized practices such as stoning as a method of execution. (Moe, no date) The Iranian Penal Code maintains five categories of crimes to which various punishments can be applied these are -: Hudud, Qisas, Diyah, Ta’zir and preventive punishments. Hudud comprise crimes against divine will, the punishments for which include the death penalty by stoning/crucifixion, amputation, flogging, imprisonment and exile. Qisas is payback in kind, broadly similar to “an eye for an eye” theory of revenge. Judgments are subjected to the decision of the victim, who may ask for the guilty party to suffer the same fate or may accept financial recompense (Diyah), particularly in the case of murder or physical injury. Ta’zir comprises of crimes that incur discretionary punishment applied by the State that are not derived from the Sharia law. (UN Report, 2008) The Iranian constitution calls for equal rights among races, ethnic groups (article 19) ; gender equality (article 20); protection of the rights of women (article 21); freedom of expression (article 23); freedom of press and communication (article 24) ; freedom of association (article 27). All o f the above are subject to modifiers such as "unless they attack the principles of Islam”, "unless the Law states otherwise”, "as long as it does not interfere with the precepts of Islam.” which effectively reduce these laws to insubstantial mumbo-jumbo. (ICL, 2004) Following traditional Sharia punishments, thieves are amputated, adulterers are stoned to death or flogged, but murderers can go free by paying blood money. According to Sharia a boy is adult by the age of 15 and a girl by age 9 and so many children are tried and convicted as adults, with some receiving harsh sentences including the death penalty. All of the above are cruel and inhumane activities that are sanctified by the religious and political leaders of Iran in the name of the Sharia. 5. Women’s Rights Iran’s achievement in raising educational standards, particularly of girls in urban areas is commendable. Over 60% of university entrants are now women. Some modest successes in women’s rights has been achieved, for example the raising of the minimum age for marriage for girls from nine to 13 (but the age for boys is 15); and allowing divorced mothers to keep offspring of both sexes for longer. Yet the position of women in the Republic of Iran is still most deplorable. According to Zahra Eshraghi, granddaughter of Ayatollah Khomeini: "Discrimination here [in Iran] is not just in the constitution. As a woman, if I want to get a passport to leave the country, have surgery, even to breathe almost, I must have permission from my husband.” (Freeman, 2005) The Iranian legislation does not accord the same rights to women as to men in all areas of the law. For example women cannot leave their homes without the permission of their husbands/fathers. Adult women must wear the Hijab (women are required to hide their hair and body) at all times, and are punishable by law if they are not properly covered. A NBC Today Show report by Matt Lauer (May 2008) reveals that more than one million Iranians (usually women) have been arrested in the period of May 2007-May 2008 for breaking the state dress code. Skewed inheritance laws ( women inherit half or less than men in various circumstances) and the fact that evidence given by a woman in court is considered only worth half that given by a man, further illustrate the subjugation of women in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The government enforces gender segregation in most public spaces, sports and other activities. The Islamic Republic also condones customary violence against women. Honor killings (the murder of women for suspected sexual offenses), usually by their own relatives or by the religious police are frequent forms of public punishment for Iranian women. Women are publicly burned or stoned for having dishonored the family by sexual misconduct. In a two-month interlude in 2003 alone, forty-five young women were reportedly murdered in such killings in Iran’s Khuzestan province. (Agence France Presse) The Guardian Council’s (Iran’s powerful religious body) rejection of the parliament’s proposed implementation of the UN’s Convention on the “Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women” makes Iran one of only six UN member states not to sanction the convention. (Fridman & Kaye, 2007) 6. Children’s Rights The prohibition on the death penalty for crimes committed by juvenile offenders (persons under age 18 at the time of the offense) is well established in international treaty and customary law. The overwhelming majority of states comply with this standard: only five states are known to have executed juvenile offenders since January 2005: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Pakistan, and Yemen. More than one hundred juvenile offenders and possibly double that number are understood to be on death row, awaiting the result of a judicial petition, or in some cases, the result of negotiations for pardons in exchange for monetary compensation. (The Last Holdouts, 2008) The Islamic Republic does exempt children from criminal responsibility, but defines children as a boy under approximately 15 years or a girl under approximately 9 years of age ( world over children are defined as someone less than 18 years of age) . According to Iran’s penal code, girls as young as nine can be executed by hanging or stoning for “morality crimes,” such as adultery. (Boustany, 2007) The bulk of juvenile executions in Iran are for morality crimes or for intentional murder. Morality crimes include any type of sexual activity outside the bounds of heterosexual marriage. Intentional murder, which includes “cases where the murderer intentionally makes an action that is inherently lethal, even if he does not intend to kill the victim,” is considered to be a crime punishable by retribution in kind (Iranian Penal Code, arts. 205, 206. ) In Iran, grave flaws in the justice system regularly result in unfair trials, inclusive of cases where child offenders face the death penalty. These flaws include: lack of access to legal counsel; abuse in pre-trial detention; accepting confessions extracted under coercion as legal; the use of detention centers other than the official prison system; refutation of the right to call defense witnesses; not giving sufficient time to the defense to present its case; and imprisoning defense lawyers if they object to unfair proceedings. (Amnesty International, 2007) In 2006, the Iranian Parliament purportedly passed a bill establishing special courts for children and teenagers. However, it has not yet been approved by the Guardian Council. As of July 2008, Stop Child Executions Campaign has recorded over 130 children facing executions in Iran. (SCE, no date) According to Amnesty International At least eight juvenile offenders were hanged in 2008, including at least one who was under 18 at the time of his execution. And At least one juvenile offender Mola Gol Hassan (Afghan national) has been executed so far in 2009. (Amnesty International, 2009) 7. LGBT Rights “The punishment for sodomy [lavat] where penetration has occurred is death, and the method of execution is at the discretion of the Sharia judge.” (Article 110, Islamic Republic Penal Code) Iran is one of seven countries in the world that apply the death penalty for homosexual acts; all of them justify this punishment with the Sharia which deems homosexuality as a crime. Sharia does not recognize the concept of sexual orientation, and thus from a legal perspective there are no homosexuals or bisexuals, only heterosexuals committing homosexual acts. In fact any type of sexual activity outside of a heterosexual marriage is forbidden by the Sharia. Gay Iranian couples are often afraid to be seen together in public, and report that LGBT people were widely stereotyped as being sex-obsessed child molesters, rapists, and diseased ridden degenerates. Whereas homosexuality is considered a sin, trans-sexuality is classified as an illness subject to cure. Trans-sexuality in Iran is legal if accompanied by a sex change operation; nevertheless, trans-sexuals still report public intolerance. As homosexuals are treated far more harshly under the law, some men undergo sex change operations to avoid cruel penalties that include detention and/or execution. (Hays, 2008) Currently, Iran has the most gender change operations in the world other than Thailand. Sex changes have been legal since the late Ayatollah Khomeini, passed a fatwa authorizing them nearly 30 years ago. Transgendered people are treated as suffering from a medical condition and hormone therapies and operations are legal and have full government support. However despite the governments policy, trans-sexuality is still a proscribed topic within Iranian society and no law exists to protect transsexuals from discrimination. 8. Religious Rights The official religion of Iran is Islam and the Twelve Jafari School. The Iranian Constitution mandates that other Islamic schools are to be granted full respect, and their followers have the freedom perform their religious rites; Zoroastrian, Jewish, and Christian Iranians are also recognized as religious minorities. However The Baháí Faith, (Irans largest non-Islamic religious minority) is not recognized and is victimized by the government as a political and anti-national group (FIDH, 2003) There have been news of incarceration, persecution, intimidation, and intolerance based on religious beliefs. According to Iranian law, Bahai blood or anyone’s who marries or aids a Bahai or gets mixed up with them can be spilled with impunity (mobah). Recognized religious minorities are permitted by the Government to institute community centers and certain cultural, social, sports, or altruistic associations that they sponsor themselves. This is not applicable to the Baháí community, which since 1983 has been deprived of the right to gather officially or to maintain organizational institutions. As the Baháí Faith has no clergy, the refutation of the right to form such organizations and elect officers menaces its existence in the country (Iran, 2005) Numerous Bahais have been incarcerated and more than 200 were executed by the Islamic government in the1980s. In May 2006, Iranian security officials detained fifty-four Bahais, several in their teens and twenties while working on a community plan. No charges were filed, and the majority of the prisoners were released within six days. (Goodstein, 2006) Seven Bahai community leaders are at present detained without charge or trial in Evin prison. Detained in March and May 2008, they have not been granted access to legal counsel and have received only one visit from relatives. Recent arrests include the detention of eight Bahais (later released) on the island of Kish, seven in Tehran (of whom one was released) and two in Mashhad. (Amnesty International, 2009) Iranian Christians, numbering roughly 79,000, comprise both ethnic Persians and non-Persians. Although Evangelical Christians are the most severely maltreated, Christians from all sects are discriminated against, as proved by the banning of Christian book-stores and the publishing of Christian literature. Muslim converts to Christianity also risk the legal penalty for “apostasy,” or conversion from Islam, which is death. (Iran, 2005) The Jewish community has also faced governmental discrimination. The government requires that, in harmony with the schedule of other schools, Jewish schools stay open on Saturday, hence breaking Jewish law. Jews are frequently denied the multiple-exit permit usually issued to other citizens and face various obstacles from officials while traveling abroad. With the exclusion of certain business travelers, the establishment requires Jews to obtain authorization and pay additional fees before each round trip abroad. (Iran, 2006) There were no reports of government persecution of the Zoroastrian population in 2006; however, they were unable to convene a Spiritual Assembly to manage their religious affairs for fear of official reprisal, and there were reports of prejudice in employment and education. (Iran, 2006) 9. Freedom of expression The Iranian administration controls all broadcast media, while autonomous media, chary of government crackdowns, resort to self-censorship. Iran’s loosely worded Press Law forbids the publishing of ideas converse to Islamic principles. The penal code criminalizes unformulated acts such as insulting religion, spreading misinformation against the state, and creating civic anxiety. In 2006, Iran ranked 166 out of 168 countries in the Reporters without Borders Press Freedom Index. Since 2000, Iran’s state courts have successfully paralyzed the reform movement, closing down dozens of pro-reform newspapers. Since 2002, eighteen newspapers, including at least ten reformist newspapers, have been closed or banned by judicial decisions. (Commission on Human Rights, 2003) The government has also restricted the operation of television networks. The Tehran office of Al Jazeera was closed by the administration in April 2005 for supposedly inflaming riots in southern Iran; the network was the first to report ethnic turmoil in the Khuzestan province near the Iraq border where almost 200 people were detained. (Brook, 2005) The Internet has grown quicker in Iran than any other Middle Eastern country; it has become a major player in the Iranian media scene. Nearly seven million Iranians are now estimated to be online, and the internet is developing into a serious alternative source of news. But the regime has censored innumerable websites it considers "non-Islamic” and harassed and locked up online journalists. Reporters without Borders (2006) also believe 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”. Where the government cannot officially stop sites it uses sophisticated blocking software to thwart access to them. The formation of independent trade union bodies, which was banned after the Islamic Revolution, remains prohibited in Iran and those who attempt to form such bodies risk detention and prosecution.  10. Torture, Beatings, Arrests, and Executions The Iranian judiciary is an appendage of the state and does not act as an independent body. The Supreme leader appoints the head of the courts, who in turn selects senior judges. General courts regularly try defendants in closed sessions, accept forced confessions (obtained under torture), and deny contact to legal advice. the government also maintains extra-constitutional courts known as the Revolutionary Courts. The Revolutionary courts try crimes against national security, narcotics smuggling, and acts that undermine the Islamic Republic. Verdicts by the Revolutionary Courts are absolute and cannot be appealed. The government also runs Special Courts for the Clergy, again extra- constitutional, and answerable to the Supreme leader, wherein reformist clerics are tried. Decisions by the Special Courts are absolute and cannot be appealed. The lack of legal transparency is compounded by the torture that occur both in official and unofficial Iranian prisons, where torture is frequently used. (Fridman & Kaye, 2007) According to Abrahamian (1999) torture has been a longstanding tradition in Iranian prisons and the various methods employed include: whipping, sometimes of the back but most often of the feet with the body tied on an iron bed; the qapani; deprivation of sleep; suspension from ceiling and high walls; twisting of forearms until they broke; crushing of hands and fingers between metal presses; insertion of sharp instruments under the fingernails; cigarette burns; submersion under water; standing in one place for hours on end; mock executions; and physical threats against family members. Of these, the most prevalent was the whipping of soles, obviously because it was explicitly sanctioned by the sharia. Simple gatherings of political nature are crushed immediately by the Iranian police who are inclined to respond to political demonstrations by brutally beating and arresting protesters, who are then tortured, sexually assaulted, and denied medical treatment in prison. The Iran student riots, July 1999 were ignited by an attack of Hezbollah vigilantes on a student dormitory in retribution for a small, peaceful student demonstration against the shutting down of the reformist newspaper, Salam. (Ebadi, 2006) The most recent example is the governments crackdown in the wake of June 29 elections; as of July 30, 2009, scores of protestors have reportedly been killed and hundreds arrested and detained without due legal process. 11. Political Dissent The Islamic Republics constitution, effective from December 1979, reduces elections to a fallacy of democracy. Voters decide, but only among candidates whom the ruling Guardian Council has extensively screened and pre-selected. The establishment considers election results as an expression of public opinion. The most effectual role that voters can play is to assist the ruling parties settle matters when they disagree on candidates. Hence there is no guarantee that the official results reflect the authentic votes; if one party is stronger there is naught to stop it from cheating, as happened during the 2005 elections that made Ahmedinejad President. (Boroumand, 2007) On June 12, 2009, presidential elections were once more held in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Once again Ahmedinejad was raised as president in opposition to the popular candidate Mir Hossein Mussavi. The Iranian people took to the streets to protest peacefully against electoral fraud. The regime responded by cutting off communication inside Iran, impounding foreign journalists, and giving free power to the Bassij paramilitary force and Ansar-e-Hezbollah to beat up and fire at protesters. Over the years, the Islamic Republic’s authorities have systematically denied authorization for the peaceful gathering of dissidents; have arrested thousands of protesters; have tortured thousands of prisoners, hoping to extract false confessions; and have convicted them for such crimes as war against God, being agents of America, or un-Islamic acts. This bizarre process during which victims are, hence, transformed into criminals is all too familiar to Iranian dissidents and their relatives. (Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation, 2009)) Iranians are denied the rights to speak and combine freely for nonviolent purposes, and otherwise to partake in the political life of their country whatever their beliefs, religion, or sex. Iran’s jails hold a number of peaceful citizens whose only crime has been the attempt to participate in reformist activities. These detainees include Heshmatollah Tabarzadi (leader of the Iran Democratic Front) who served more than 5 years for political activism., Abbas Khorsandi, (leader of the Iran Democratic Party) who is serving sentence for "creating an illegal group,” and Asgar Akbarzadeh, on the above charges including the fault of having taken part in Azeri cultural events. (Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation, 2009)) Mohammad Sadiq Kabudvand, (leader of Human Rights Organization of Kurdistan) who was detained since July 2007, is serving sentence of 11 years’ imprisonment following a 2008 conviction for “propaganda against the system” and “acting against state security by establishing the Human Rights Organization of Kurdistan”. He has been deprived of visits by his family and lawyer for prolonged periods, and medical treatment delayed. 12. Conclusion Thirty years after the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran the human rights situation in the country remains poor. The constitution itself (through the Supreme Leader and Guardian Council) restricts people’s right to change their government, controls the electoral system and stifles political dissident. Governmental abuses include extrajudicial killings and summary executions (with closed trials); disappearances; extensive use of torture, public flogging and stoning; cruel prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and imprisonment; lack of due process; unjust trials; contravention on citizens privacy; and restrictions on freedom of expression, press, assemblage, organization, religion etc. Religious minorities have come under escalating repression by hardliner elements of the judiciary and security departments. The Government confines the work of human rights and women’s rights activists. Women face legal and social discrimination and domestic violence against women is not punishable. Limited lessening of restrictions on freedom of expression for the duration of the reform period under former President Khatami raised hopes of a continual improvement in the human rights condition, though the situation was not very bright. However, accession to power of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejadin 2005 and once more in 2009 has crushed all hopes of reforms. Under President Ahmadinejads government, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s human rights record has declined markedly. While the global communitys interest has focused on nuclear concerns, Iran has not been reprimanded properly for its violations of UDHR. Iran’s human rights record today is miserable. Iran continues to execute juveniles, hassle activists and human rights supporters, and demonstrates no lenience toward activists; it has intolerant of any form of dissent, opposition or structured protest. Accusations such as ‘propaganda against the Islamic Republic’, ‘acting against national security’ and ‘organizing illegal gatherings’ have become more and more common. (Annual Report, 2008) 13. Bibliography Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation (2009) “Authorization Denied: The high cost of the public expression of dissent in Iran” Abrahamian, Ervand (1999) Tortured Confessions: Prisons and Public Recantations in Modern Iran, University of California Press Agence France Presse, (October 27, 2003) “Over 40 Women Murdered in ‘Honor Killings’ in Two Months in Iran,” Amnesty International (2007) “Iran: The last executioner of children” Accessed on: 24 Aug 2009 Read More