Dr. Shaheed's Statement to the General Assembly

Statement by Mr. Ahmed Shaheed
SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON THE SITUATION OF HUMAN
RIGHTS IN THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN

66th session of the General Assembly
Third Committee
Item # 69

19 October 2011
New York

Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentleman,

Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to address you at the Third Committee of the 66th session of the General Assembly. Before I introduce my first interim report, I wish to thank the President of the Human Rights Council for appointing me as the Special Rapporteur on the situation of the human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for the support and assistance rendered to me so far.

This is my first appearance before this distinguished body, and I am thankful for this opportunity to present the key points raised in my first submission on the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Without prejudice to the matters I wish to raise before this body and with the Iranian authorities, I would like to convey that I share the concerns addressed in the recent report of the Secretary-General, as well as with the recommendations contained therein.

I officially began my work on August 1st, at which time I wrote to the Iranian authorities in the Islamic Republic of Iran to seek their cooperation in the discharge of my mandate. I also offered to travel to Switzerland during the month of August to meet with Iran’s Permanent Representative in Geneva, but was unsuccessful in obtaining this meeting. I later received a letter from Iran’s Permanent Representative in Geneva on 19 September 2011, which conveyed his willingness to exchange views on my work and to discuss my proposed methodology. However, I was unable to obtain this proposed meeting with him during my visit to Geneva during the week of October 3rd. Let me also add that I submitted a draft of this initial report to the Iranian authorities for comments with a deadline on 2nd September, which was extended on two occasions, but I did receive comments by the time I was required to sign off on the report for submission.

The methodology that I propose in this first report details the initial steps that I have and will continue to undertake in order to facilitate my mandate. To date, my efforts to monitor and investigate the human rights situation in Iran have consisted of meeting with Iranian nationals that reported violations of their human rights, or the rights of other members of Iranian civil society. I also reviewed a number of reports from reputable non-governmental organizations that document the human rights situation in the country. I have selected fifty-eight of the cases produced by these efforts for this report. A preponderance of these cases speak to inadequate observations of those rights guaranteed by the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, all of which Iran has ratified without reservations. While I believe that the legal framework to protect certain human rights exists in Iran, the reality is, there are systemic deficiencies in implementation and enforcement of the county’s international and national obligations. In some cases, elements of Iran's penal code and legal practices amount to contravention of those international laws it acceded to in the aforementioned treaties.

It is true that no country is immune from criticism of its human rights record. However, the record of the Islamic Republic of Iran seems to have gained particular attention, because of its lack substantive of 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.

These include allegations of obstructing free and fair elections, denial of freedom of expression and assembly, allegations of depravation of a right to education, the harassment and intimidation of religious and ethnic minorities, human rights defenders, as well as civil society and religious actors. I was also concerned by reports of multifarious and systemic deficits in the administration of justice, including, certain practices that amount to torture, cruel, or degrading treatment of detainees, the imposition of the death penalty in the absence of proper judicial safeguards, the denial of reasonable access to legal counsel and adequate medical treatment, the existence and widespread use of both secret and public executions, the employment of capital punishment in juvenile cases, and the application of capital punishment in cases that do not meet the level of serious crimes by international standards – such as narcotics cases.

These activities have resulted in a perturbing number of arrests and prosecutions of women, students, political and labor activists, journalists, artists, environmentalists, and religious leaders. I have also been informed of the arrest and prosecution of at least 42 attorneys for their attempts to provide legal counsel to the aforementioned actors. Charges brought against a majority of these individuals have included: (a) acting against national security; (b) participating in illegal gatherings; (c) insulting the Supreme Leader; and (d) spreading propaganda against the regime. This last charge appears in a significant number of these cases. I believe that several of these cases merit urgent action. I look forward to securing the cooperation of the Iranian authorities in further examining these cases, which can help to improve the investigative process in the proceeding months.

I believe that it is important to recognize those positive steps taken by the Iranian authorities such as the Government’s recent decision to release some 60-100 prisoners, many of whom had been arrested as a result of their participation in events surrounding the 2009 Presidential elections. I would like to take this time to call upon the authorities to provide adequate medical access to well-known cleric Ayatollah Kazemeini-Boroujerdi, and to also consider his immediate release. I would also like to request that Iranian authorities consider the immediate release of all those individuals listed in my report, including political leaders Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi who consider themselves to be 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. Moreover, it is my hope that the Government will grant my request to provide information about the process and the criteria employed to provide amnesty to those recently pardoned.

Mr. Chairman,
This work will be greatly enhanced by Iran’s cooperation. This includes granting the two country visits supported by this mandate, and facilitating constructive communication with me so that I can further examine the veracity of previous and future reports communicated to me during my tenure. I will, therefore, continue to appeal to the Islamic Republic of Iran to extend its full cooperation to the fulfillment of the 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 and other parts of the UN system.

As stated in my report, I believe that cooperation can only contribute to increasing the confidence of the international community, and serve to lessen the potential for politicization, over which Iran has repeatedly expressed concern. Insufficient cooperation, however, will continue to heighten concerns, and reduce the potential for a positive and constructive dialogue on improving the human rights situation in the country.

Although several statements by various Iranian functionaries on Iran’s interest in cooperating have been issued, and Iran maintains a standing invitation to thematic Special Procedures, I am concerned that a number of urgent appeals made by various thematic Special Rapporteurs remain unaddressed, and that no country visits have taken place since 2005.

In addition to facilitating my ability to monitor and investigate its human rights situation by allowing for country visits and through frequent communication, I believe that the basis for constructive engagement with the Iranian Government can consist of several other elements. These include the outcome of Iran’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in February 2010, as well as issues highlighted by various bodies of the United Nations, and resolutions passed by the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council.

Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Delegates,
You will notice that my initial report refrains from making recommendations or drawing any substantive conclusions. As stated in my report, I do not believe that I have had adequate time to pursue such an undertaking, especially in the absence of meaningful interaction with the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran. However I believe that those recommendations from this body that aim to improve Iran’s human rights situation, including resolutions, should take a constructive and progressive approach that enables Iran to pursue a course of action that enables Iran to achieve short and long-term goals.

In this regard, I believe that in addition to the aforementioned requests, the Government can consider taking steps toward establishing a properly constituted and independent National Human Rights Institution (NHRI) in line with the Paris Principles, as recommended by several Member States of the Human Rights Council during Iran’s UPR. Furthermore, the Government can consider undergoing a voluntary midterm review of its implementation of those recommendations it accepted in the outcome of its UPR. This could serve to provide helpful analysis that could be used to further the successful undertaking of Iran’s program of action to implement its recommendations.

Mr. Chairman,
As I conveyed to members of the Human Rights Council that were both supporters and non-supporters of the newly established mandate during meetings held in the initial weeks of my work, I believe that this mandate provides two important and unique opportunities to contribute to improvements in the human rights situation in the country. First, this mandate provides an opportunity to facilitate a deeper, country-specific understanding of the human rights situation in Iran, both in its unique cultural and historical contexts. Secondly, it enables the advancement of current efforts to address the country’s challenges in an incremental and holistic manner.

I am looking forward to securing the cooperation of the authorities in the Islamic Republic of Iran and hope to establish a good rapport with its authorities and to be extended an invitation to visit the country during my tenure.

I thank you again for this opportunity to address you today and look forward to the dialogue ahead.

Thank you.