Human Rights

February 9, 2012
February 9, 2012
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Iran Puts Its Foot Down: Netizens, Reporters, and Civil Rights Get Squashed

In the lead up to the upcoming parliamentary elections, Iran is cracking down on free expression and civil society organizations. Netizens, bloggers, and reporters have found themselves swept up in a wave of arrests; passage of the Islamic Penal Code further codifies human and civil rights violations into law; and one of the Islamic Republic's longest running civil society organizations is shut down.

Crushing Expression

The end of January 2012 witnessed a further escalation in human rights violations in Iran. The ongoing repression continued with the arrest of three journalists: Saham-aldin Bourghani, Parastoo Dokoohaki, and Marzieh Rasooli. The arrests of Mohammad Solimaninya, a website administrator and owner of Social Network for Iranian Professionals (www.u24.ir) that hosts and designs a number of civil society websites, ten Sunni Muslims in Ahwaz, as well as the shocking confirmation of the death sentence for Iranian-Canadian Saeed Malekopour, are just a few examples of the human rights situation in Iran in January alone.
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February 2, 2012
February 2, 2012
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EU High Representative Voices Concern About the Treatment of Journalists and Netizens in Iran

On January 31, 2012, The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the Commission, Catherine Ashton, issued a statement of concerned about the state of journalists and netizens in Iran. She calls for Iran to review harsh sentences and for a moratorium on the death penalty. The text of the statement follows:
"I am extremely worried about the growing harassment and persecution of journalists and internet bloggers in Iran. The right to free speech is an internationally enshrined fundamental human right, which Iran itself has freely signed up to respect and protect. In the past few weeks, security forces have reportedly arrested many journalists, including Sahameddin Bourghani, Parastoo Dokouhaki, Hassan Fathi, Farshad Ghorbanpour, Ehsan Houshmand, Fatemeh Kheradmand, Saeed Madani, Shahram Manouchehri, Marzieh Rasouli, Arash Sadeghi and Mohammad Soleimani Nia. I call on the Iranian authorities to release these journalists and restore their rights to freely communicate their views.
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January 5, 2012
January 5, 2012
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Urge Iran’s Parliament to Reject Anti-Human Rights Penal Code

Arseh Sevom and United4Iran urge you to send letters protesting discriminatory laws. Click here to join the campaign.The UN Secretary General, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran, the UN General Assembly, and the UN Human Rights Council have repeatedly called on Iran to revise its penal code to adhere to international human rights standards. In February 2010, the Iranian government accepted specific recommendations made under its Universal Periodic Review to ensure that its laws were in conformity with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which it is a party.Nonetheless, today, Iran’s parliament is preparing to pass the “Islamic Penal Bill” - legislation that flouts its legal obligations under the ICCPR. The legislation endangers free expression and reinforces laws that violate the rights of Iranian citizens. The bill fails to prohibit stoning, lashing, and other cruel, inhumane, and degrading punishments; redress discriminatory laws; or, raise the age of majority for girls and boys. In a particularly worrisome clause, the bill expands punishment for “actions against national security”, a charge that has routinely been used to persecute dissidents.
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November 19, 2011
November 19, 2011
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“One Has to Do All One Can for Human Rights”

Antonia Bertschinger tells us of her work at the Swiss section of Amnesty International. She tells us how she came to be involved with human rights work. Bertschinger came to the work via her interest in Afghanistan. She studied Persian in university and worked in the Kabul Museum in Switzerland. "I loved working there because it helped me learn so much about Afghanistan. This did some awareness raising for me to learn what it’s like to live in a country where all the rights are violated, especially women’s rights, and which had such a long war, and so many other disasters. She ended up working in the Foreign Ministry in Iran rather than win Afghanistan, however. It was there that she met so many people working to build a better society and for the protection of human rights. Bertschinger asks of her own home in Europe, "How can we ever forget that human rights and the rule of law are the basis of our good life?"
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