Skip to main content

Current hot topics in Iran

Since the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review in last October, when Iran had the opportunity to declare what actions it has taken to fulfil its treaty obligations and to note other states’ recommendations on how to improve its human rights records, nothing has changed.

Inequality and discrimination remained major problems, which can be caught out in relation to both ethnical and religious minorities. Members of religions not recognised by the constitution are persecuted and their rights are still being systematically violated in the country. 
A good example for that is the Baha’i community. Various discriminatory measures have been applied in various parts of the public arena against them, amongst other things; the regime barred Baha’is from accessing higher education in universities by considering them “un-islamic”. The authorities have also targeted the members’ private homes and sacred sites. A Baha’i family in the city of Yazd reported that security forces have searched its home three times in the past year.

Right to Life and Liberty
amnesty.org
Despite Iran has repeatedly been reminded by other UN member states to respect its commitments and abolish the death penalty, the number of executions, including of women and political prisoners, is still increasing. At least 60 individuals have reportedly been executed in January alone, with a considerably large number of people currently on the death row. Over February, Amnesty International moved mountains to stop the authorities to execute Saman Naseem, a juvenile offender. Although his execution didn’t take place officially and openly, sadly, we don’t know anything about his whereabouts and we still fear that Saman might have been hanged secretly.

Arbitrary arrest, detention and torture
Iran is still not a safe haven for fact-hungry journalists. Indeed, some newspaper reporters have been held in prison for months without knowing why and what they committed. That happened to Jason Rezaian, a Washington Post’s Tehran correspondent, who was formally charged in January, but his charges are yet to be made public. He was allowed to meet his lawyer in the beginning of March, though that defender is not the one his family chose to represent him. 

taghato.net
Many prisoners (political or not) still face inhumane treatment while they are in jail. A recent case, which gained big attention over the last week, is that of Atena Farghadani. First, she was detained last August for her peaceful activities, and was also held in solitary confinement for 15 days. During that time, she was exposed to beatings and degrading body searches by female prison guards. After being released in November on bail, she was rearrested in January this year, possibly in reprisal for a video message that she had published after being  freed. That video explains the ill-treatments she had previously been subject to. Now, Atena Farghadani is in critical conditions, as she has been on wet hunger strike for weeks, without any medical attention. 

Women
Women in Iran remained subject to widespread discrimination under the law and in practice and to violence in the public arena. Since veiling became compulsory, hundreds of women and young girls have faced assault and detention by the State for not complying with the dress code. In October last year, several young women were attacked by unknown perpetrators. Mahdieh Golrou, who took part in a peaceful protest outside Parliament in October 2014 to condemn the violence against women and the acid attacks, has been detained since, for her peaceful activism.
In recent years, especially last year, several discriminatory policies have been implemented in universities such as gender-based segregation and gender quota systems. Indeed, the phenomenon of gender segregation has lately emerged in workplaces and even at concerts, too.


These were just some of the main human rights issues currently overshadowing the Islamic Republic. As we could see, sadly, people’s rights are violated on a daily basis. But, we still have to hope that the next session of the UN Human Rights Council in March 2015 will bring changes and find the way to induce Iran to respect its people’s rights.

For Urgent Actions, please visit the following websites:
UA 11/15 - Mahdieh Golrou: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/MDE13/002/2015/en/
UA 49/15 - Atena Farghadani: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/MDE13/1094/2015/en/
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Is it worth icing the "candyman"?

There is nothing new about the Islamic Republic ranking second for number of executions , after China. But the fact that the official number almost reached 300 (to be precise: 289) in 2014 is harsh.  It is also obvious that this number and the statistics shown in previous years are certainly below reality, since there are no publicly available data on capital punishment carried out in the country. Reliable sources informed Amnesty International that the figure might be even bigger than 740. According to some ethical principles, all, but only guilty people deserve to be punished, and of course, in proportion to the severity of their crime .  And what does the international law say about the death penalty? It calls on states to guarantee that “Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life .”   The law also provides that “In countries which have not abolished the death ...
Read more

How should Cameroon fight Boko Haram?

The Cameroonian security forces don't take into account how many lives they sacrifice when it comes to eradicating the Islamist group, Boko Haram. Amnesty International revealed in its new report that t he military offensive against Boko Haram has resulted in widespread human rights violations against civilians in the Far North region of the country. During search-and-cordon operations, security forces  often arrest people on the basis of very little information or assumptions and sometimes they detain whole groups. In February 2015 for example,  in Kossa,  32 men were arrested based on accusations that the village was providing food to Boko Haram. Most were later released, but one man died in custody. After being arrested, people are far too often held incommunicado at illegal detention sites in military bases, before being transferred to the official prisons. And, as Amnesty International learnt, in secret detention, torture is not a rare method to encoura...
Read more

The ideology of Boko Haram and the Islamic State

Boko Haram had announced the group's pledge of allegiance to the Islamic State on 7 March 2015, therewith aligning itself with the IS in the global Jihadist movement. The IS welcomed the news and promptly accepted a pledge of allegiance to the group , according to an audiotape purportedly from its spokesman. "We announce to you to the good news of the expansion of the caliphate to West Africa because the caliph... has accepted the allegiance of our brothers [..]”  – IS spokesman Mohammed al-Adnani said in the message. However, this video appearing on IS-affiliated websites could not be authenticated. Although the nature of exact links between the two armed groups are still unclear, it can be confirmed that their ideologies and operations show similarities, despite some remaining differences. (Source: www.dw.com) The ideology of the two armed groups The ideology of both groups is based on a premodern theological tradition that wants the establishment o...
Read more