By Iran Human Rights.
During his 2013 presidential campaign, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani promised to uphold the “rightsof the people” enumerated in the country’s constitution. Millions of his supporters demanded social and political rights, including the release of political prisoners from prison and house arrest. In this paper, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran addresses the ongoing human rights violations occurring under the purview of nine ministries that are under the authority of the president, and provides recommendations he can implement to put an end to these violations.
It also notes the executive powers and areas that are under the president’s direct control, and the immediate measures he can take to address rights violations. While the document is by no means comprehensive, the Campaign offers it as a starting point for Rouhani to begin fulfilling his campaign promises to reinstate the rule of law in Iran. Although Iran’s executive branch is limited in scope, the ministries under its purview are responsible for a wide range of human rights violations.
The president therefore is empowered to prevent and stop these violations. Rouhani pledged to uphold the Iranian constitution at his inauguration; hence he should immediately implement changes to amend harmful policies, monitor the performance of officials within his administration, and uphold the mechanisms guaranteeing the implementation of the Iranian constitution. A number of Iranian institutions outside of the executive branch—including the Revolutionary Guards Intelligence Organization (IRGC), the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), and the Judiciary—have become safe harbors for human rights violators.
However, as head of the executive branch and principal enforcer of the constitution, the president has the authority to hold these state institutions accountable by investigating and formally noting any violations of the rights guaranteed by the Iranian constitution. He can also introduce legislation and issue directives regarding government practices, affording him significant ability to affect the state of human rights in Iran.
The Campaign welcomes the election of Hassan Rouhani, the only candidate to raise issues of human rights and the rights of the people, and entreats him to heed the voices raised during his campaign, engage with the Iranian and international human rights communities who work to protect the rights of the Iranian people, and use all the tools at his disposal to fulfill his campaign promises.
Introduction
A Human Rights Roadmap for Iran’s New President 7 During Rouhani’s election campaign he made several promises to respect human rights and uphold the “rights of the people.” Below is a selection of quotes from his campaign appearances.
April 11, 2013
“All Iranian people should feel there is justice. Justice means equal opportunity. All ethnicities, all religions, even religious minorities, must feel justice.”
“Long live citizenship rights!”
May 27, 2013
“Justice means that anyone who wants to speak in a society should be able to come out, speak their mind, criticize and critique without hesitation and stammering.”
June 4, 2013
“In the future cabinet, in all social areas, discrimination among men and women will be eliminated.”
“All people of Iran must feel justice and justice means equal opportunity.”
June 8, 2013
“If I am bestowed with the responsibility, I will return dignity back to the university and students.”[After the audience chants “Political prisoners must be freed”]
“Why political prisoners? We must do something for all these prisoners to be released.”
“With the help of the country’s hard-working police, I will do something to establish real security on all streets, so that our girls can feel safe on the streets. I shall not allow an anonymous force to ask anyone questions.”
“I will draft [a law based on] chapter three of the [Iranian] constitution, ‘The Rights of the People.’ I shall send it to the Parliament and will present it to the nation as law.”
“In citizenship rights, the Kurds, the Fars, the Baluchis, the Turkman, and the Arabs are equal.”
“Those who have been dismissed from the university because of expressing their opinions must return.”
June 10, 2013
“I will implement Article 15 of the [Iranian] constitution. It is the people’s right to be able to decide about their mother tongue.”
“I will draft and implement citizenship rights. In citizenship rights there is no minority and majority. Kurd, Azeri, Turkman, Baluch, Lur, Arab, and Fars will all be equal.”
“In the Wisdom and Hope government, a professor will no longer be dismissed for a criticism.”
“In the Wisdom and Hope government, the stars will only be in the Iranian sky. We will not have ‘starred’ students.”
In this report, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran highlights human rights violations occurring under the purview of nine Iranian government ministries that report directly to the Iranian president. The new administration, led by President Hassan Rouhani, has the authority to stop and prevent these violations, and the report provides specific, actionable recommendations aimed at stemming the violations.
In addition to the activities of the ministries under executive control, the president of Iran also has specific powers and areas under his direct control that afford him significant ability to affect the state of human rights in Iran. For example, the president can introduce legislation to Parliament, issue executive orders regarding government practices, and, as the chief enforcer of the Iranian constitution, hold state institutions accountable to the law by monitoring and noting violations of the Iranian constitution by state institutions. In this section, actions that President Hassan Rouhani can take directly and immediately to fulfill his campaign pledges to uphold the rights of the Iranian people are highlighted.
Citizenship rights
The Fourth Development Plan, which was adopted as the state’s comprehensive guiding plan by the government and Parliament of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2002, includes a requirement that the executive branch introduce and the Parliament pass legislation detailing the specific rights of Iranian citizens. The purpose of this legislation is to gather and detail in domestic law the various rights enumerated in the country’s constitution and to incorporate into such legislation the Iranian government’s obligations under international human rights conventions to which it is a party.
However, this aspect of the state’s Development Plan has never been implemented. In 2005, then-President Khatami introduced to the Parliament such mandated legislation, which included a “Citizen’s Rights Bill,” legislation on “Privacy Rights,” and a “Freedom of Press and Access to Government Information Law,” but Parliament failed to debate and vote on any of these legislations. At present, Iranian rights are codified only in the constitution, and only in the most general terms, with no specific delineation or definition of these rights.
President Rouhani can and should re-introduce and actively pursue the passage of these three mandated legislations in the Iranian Parliament so that the rights of Iranians are specifically codified and legally binding, and are in accordance with international human rights law. He should use all the powers of his presidency to ensure that these laws are debated, voted on, and passed in the Parliament, assigning this issue the prioritization it must have, given the widespread and systematic abuse of rights in Iran that are ostensibly protected by the Iranian constitution.
The Political Crimes Bill
Given the Iranian president’s ability to introduce legislation and his capacity to use the powers of his office to lead and persuade on legislative issues, Rouhani can and should actively push for the passage in the Iranian Parliament of a Political Crimes Bill. This bill would clearly delineate those political activities that are legal in Iran, and those that are not. Importantly, these delineations would be in full accordance with international human rights laws, including those that guarantee the freedoms of speech and association and freedom of the press.
This would not only protect internationally accepted norms of political activity inside Iran, it would also prevent the Iranian authorities from arresting and imprisoning Iranian citizens arbitrarily on vague “national security” charges.A Political Crimes Bill was originally introduced to Parliament under the reformist Khatami administration, but it has languished unapproved since then. Decades after the Islamic Revolution, there is still no definition of a “political crime” in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and hundreds of people are imprisoned each year in Iran for their peaceful social and political activism.
In addition, Article 168 of the Iranian constitution states that “political and press offenses will be tried openly and in the presence of a jury, in courts of justice.” However, with political crimes left undefined, individuals arrested and imprisoned for their journalistic activities or in relation to their political activities under vague national security charges are rarely tried in open courts or in the presence of a jury.The new President should re-introduce a Political Crimes Bill, ensure that the definition of a “political crime” is based on the constitution and complies with Iran’s international obligations in this area, and use his full capabilities to have this law approved in the Iranian Parliament.
Fulfilling Promises
Abuses by herasat offices (local state intelligence bureaus) Herasat offices are found in state institutions and universities throughout Iran, and are comprised of representatives of the Ministry of Intelligence who monitor such institutions in order to ensure continued fealty to the Islamic Republic and “prevent penetration” of any state institution by those deemed disloyal to the regime. They are found in every government office, in state-owned enterprises throughout the Iranian economy, in the state-run media, and in all of the universities, where they conduct surveillance, monitor private communications, act as informants, and influence hiring and firing practices.
Members of the herasat harass, intimidate, and engage in widespread human rights abuses, and, in particular, violate Article 23 of the Iranian constitution, which states that “the investigation of an individual’s beliefs is forbidden, and no one may be molested or taken to task simply for holding a certain belief.” For example, the herasat offices in Iranian universities play a major role in the suspension and expulsion of students who engage in political or religious activities with which the herasat disapproves, or who dress or engage in conduct with which they disapprove.
Herasat offices have deprived hundreds of Iranian students of their right to education because of those individuals’ legal political activities and the expression of their opinions. President Rouhani must review and evaluate the policies and actions of the herasat, ensure that its members do not continue to engage in the systematic violations of human rights, and, if they do violate the laws, that they not enjoy immunity from legal and criminal accountability. Additionally, the president must create effective legal and oversight mechanisms to ensure that the employment and/or dismissal of students, professors, or employees is not based on an individual’s beliefs.
In addition, according to Article 127 of the Iranian constitution, the president may, in special circumstances, appoint one or more special representatives with specific powers. It is incumbent upon President Rouhani, given his role as the principal enforcer of the Iranian constitution, to assign a special representative to review the herasat’s activities, report directly to the president on the use or misuse of its powers and any violations, make specific recommendations aimed at reigning in the abuses committed by the herasat, and follow through on the implementation of these recommendations.
Notices of constitutional violations
According to Article 113 of the Iranian constitution, the president of Iran is the highest official in the country after the Supreme Leader, and he is responsible for implementing the constitution. As the principle enforcer of the constitution, President Rouhani has not only the right but the responsibility to defend the rights contained therein and serve official notice to any branch, body, or institution of the government that has carried out practices in violation of the constitution. Such constitutional notices (formal presidential notifications of constitutional violations) are a vital mechanism to check constitutional abuses, drawing public attention to and calling on violating organizations to cease their violations.
For example, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Broadcasting organization (IRIB) routinely broadcasts show trials and forced confessions of prisoners that have been elicited through torture, and produces documentaries that have defamed, libeled, and facilitated the illegal prosecution of Iranian citizens, without extending them an opportunity to defend themselves. This is a clear case where it is incumbent upon the president to serve a constitutional notice to IRIB that t hey are violating the constitutional rights of Iran citizens contained in Article 37 (which states that innocence is to be presumed, and no one is to be held guilty of a charge unless his or her guilt has been established by a competent court) and Article 38 (which states that all forms of torture for the purpose of extracting confession or acquiring information is forbidden), and that they must cease this practice.
The continued house arrest of political opposition figures Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and Zahra Rahnavard, who were never charged nor convicted in a court of law, is also in clear violation of the Iranian constitution. Article 34 states that all citizens have a right of access to competent courts, and Article 37 states that innocence is presumed until guilt has been established by a competent court. President Rouhani should issue a constitutional notice regarding the illegality of their arrest, publicly demand their release, and use all the powers of his office to put an end to such practices.
The president can and must launch investigations into all allegations of abuses and issue constitutional notices to any state organization that is violating the constitutional rights of Iranians. Moreover, he must demand that such organizations respond to the allegations and cease the violations, and inform the public of the results of such investigations, thereby fulfilling his responsibility to defend the constitution.
Free speech
Many journalists and publications have faced lawsuits, arrests, detentions, shutdowns, and bans on publishing by officials for criticizing government organizations, particularly in recent years. This is in direct violation of the Iranian constitution, which states in Article 24, “Publications and the press have freedom of expression except when it is detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam or the rights of the public.”
The Iranian president can use his authority to issue directives to all ministries under the executive branch to discourage government officials from filing lawsuits against newspapers for their criticism, and can use his office to encourage them to respond to the criticism rather than persecuting the critics.
Women’s rights
According to Article 20 of the Iranian constitution, “All citizens of the country, both men and women, equally enjoy the protection of the law and enjoy all human, political, economic, social, and cultural rights, in conformity with Islamic criteria.” Yet in practice and in law in Iran, women face severe discrimination in such areas as education, employment, state benefits, family law, and court proceedings. President Rouhani should fulfill his campaign pledges to uphold the rights of women and present legislation to Parliament that directly addresses discrimination against women in Iran.
For example, he can remove restrictions on the enrollment of female students in academic disciplines that have been imposed in recent years by the Ministry of Science, and issue an executive order to the Ministry of Science to end segregation policies that lead to discrimination against female students inside Iranian universities. The president should also present bills which end discriminatory divorce laws and address all other discriminatory aspects of family law in Iran. He should introduce legislation that makes women equal to men under the law.
Extending public health insurance and state services to unemployed female heads of households is also a critical need of women in Iran.12 Fulfilling Promises In addition, the lack of female participation in high-level government positions (including the president’s own cabinet, which does not have a single female minister) is an issue that should be addressed. President Rouhani should actively promote the participation of women in senior government positions who will effectively pursue anti-discriminatory policies.
Discrimination in government employment practices
The government is a major employer in Iran, and as such, government hiring practices have a huge impact on the country. At present, there is severe religious and ethnic discrimination in government hiring practices in Iran. Religious discrimination most pointedly affects Baha’is and Christian converts: Iranian Baha’is are completely denied government employment, and converted Christians have to hide their faith or they will be expelled from government employment.
In addition, ethnic Kurds, Arabs, and Baluchis face significant discrimination in state hiring practices. Provincial and local level government offices rarely hire citizens indigenous to the province in management and high-level positions, and these communities are thus cut off from an important source of employment as well as decision-making capabilities on the local governmental level. The Iranian president can take direct action to address this discrimination, issuing an executive order forbidding discrimination against religious or ethnic minorities in Iranian government hiring.
In addition, he can explicitly institute anti-discrimination government hiring codes. Moreover, the president’s Minister of the Interior appoints provincial governors, and thus the president can direct them to increase the hiring of local ethnicities in management positions, particularly in Kurdistan, Baluchistan, and Khuzestan.
The encouragement of government transparency
At present in Iran there is a glaring lack of government transparency and a severe lack of reliable and timely government statistics.This dearth of information leads to a lack of government accountability and facilitates government inaction. Inaccurate or nonexistent information on such areas as the state of the country’s economy, corruption, and substance abuse and other public health issues impedes the government’s ability to address the country’s social and economic ills.
The president can and should develop policies to provide citizens, journalists, and academics with full access to unclassified government information, documents, and publications. He can issue directives requiring state organizations and units to provide regular, accurate, and timely information and statistics to the public on the activities of the government and on the state of the country. He should also require public access to transcripts of public sessions of all decision-making centers under his administration.
Arbitrary arrests, false accusations, and harassment
The Ministry of Intelligence is directly involved in imposing illegal and arbitrary restrictions on the activities of political parties and independent non-governmental organizations. There are hundreds of cases of arbitrary arrests of organization members every year, false accusations against them, and a pattern of illegal interference with the Judiciary in order to stop the activities of independent organizations. The Ministry of Intelligence engages in a pattern of arbitrary arrests of journalists and activists, silencing critics and independent media and associations.
The Ministry regularly summons individuals to their offices and threatens them without any legal justification. These pervasive attacks on dissidents and media professionals have created an atmosphere of censorship and repression, and have had a chilling effect on the exercise of freedom of expression and association.
In addition, the Ministry of Intelligence has a record of mounting false cases against activists, journalists, artists, and academics. These false accusations interrupt their work, discredit them, and often lead to their arrest. While many of the accused are eventually acquitted of their charges when their cases are finally heard in court, they are often detained for years before their cases are reviewed.
Harassment of family members of critics and dissidents
The Ministry also harasses, interrogates, and arrests family members of critics and dissidents. In 2012 14 Fulfilling Promises and 2013, for example, family members of journalists working for news agencies outside of Iran, such as BBC Persian and Radio Farda, were repeatedly harassed and arrested.
Torture, ill-treatment, and forced confessions
The Ministry of Intelligence operates various detention centers throughout Iran. Scores of human rights violations have been documented in these centers, including ill-treatment of detainees, physical and psychological torture, and denial of access to counsel or family, all in violation of Iranian and international law. Many detainees have been forced under torture to issue false confessions. According to the March 2013 report of the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, 78% of witnesses he interviewed reported having been tortured.
In the case of political prisoners, it is the Ministry of Intelligence that makes arrests, detains prisoners in dedicated prison wards without oversight from the Judiciary, and mounts preliminary investigations before releasing them to the Judiciary. There is a consistent pattern of torture of political prisoners, especially during the initial days of their detention, often in solitary confinement and during interrogations, aimed at extracting false confessions.
Many prisoners, such as the human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, have reported that their interrogators from the Ministry of Intelligence informed them of their sentences before their trials, raising concerns about the independence of the judges in charge of political prisoners’ cases.
In addition to detention centers, the Ministry of Intelligence also operates certain prison wards without the oversight of the Iranian Judiciary, in which there is a documented a pattern of ill-treatment. For example, seven Dervish lawyers being held at the Intelligence Ministry’s Ward 209 at Evin Prison have not had access to light in months and have developed consequent illnesses. Furthermore, the Ministry of Intelligence systematically violates due process. Detainees are routinely denied access to lawyers and are often denied knowledge of the charges against them.
Invasion of privacy through monitoring
The Ministry of Intelligence actively invades the privacy of Iranian citizens by tapping their phones, reading their text messages, and monitoring their Internet use. These monitoring mechanisms are often used to detain activists as well as denying them freedoms of expression and assembly in their private spheres.
Censorship of newspapers prior to publication
Without any authority for censorship or review, the Ministry of Intelligence routinely threatens editors, journalists, publishers, and other media professionals with arrest or closure of their publications in order to censor content prior to the publication of the news.A Human Rights Roadmap for Iran’s New President.
Interference in universities
In direct violation of the Iranian constitution, Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence has banned hundreds of Iranian youth from pursuing higher education because of their political or religious activities. The Ministry interferes in university admissions, “stars” students (marking their educational transcripts to prevent enrollment in any Iranian university), and sits on the disciplinary committees of various universities.
The Ministry also interferes with the independence of universities by establishing security offices at universities and arresting and detaining student activists who are then charged with various national security related crimes.
Persecution of religious and ethnic minorities
During the last eight years, the Ministry of Intelligence has increased its persecution of religious minorities, including Christian Protestants, Dervishes, and Baha’is. Houses of worship are routinely shut down and leaders of religious communities are frequently monitored, harassed, and detained. For example, in May 2012, the oldest Persian-language Protestant Christian church in Iran, the Central Assemblies of God, was closed due to pressure from intelligence forces.
The Ministry of Intelligence has also engaged in the prolonged harassment and persecution of ethnic minorities, such as Kurds, Arabs, Baluchis, and Azeris. As with religious minorities, leaders of these communities are often monitored, harassed, and detained; use of their language is restricted; and university enrollment and business permits are frequently denied. For example, for more than three decades the Iranian government has persecuted Kurdish people for practicing their customs, with the police and the Ministry of Intelligence routinely arresting Kurdish citizens for observing their ethnic celebrations.
Recommendations for the Ministry of Intelligence:
– Remove the Ministry of Intelligence from universities, and end their intimidation and silencing of student activists, religious minorities, and students with independent political convictions.
– Remove the Ministry of Intelligence from prisons.
– Hold the Intelligence Ministry accountable for its interference in the affairs of the Judiciary. Restore the independence of the Judiciary.
– Prevent torture, and hold accountable those who employ the practice.
– Stop televising coerced confessions.
– Stop the abuse of national security charges against activists, artists, students, and religious and ethnic minorities.
– Respect and implement the Citizens’ Rights Bill of 2004.
– Put an end to the Ministry’s illegal interference with political groups and parties.
– Sign and ratify the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (United Nations Convention against Torture).
– End the persecution of religious minorities.
– Respect the rights of ethnic minorities to follow their traditions, protected by Articles 19 and 20 of the Iranian constitution. Stop harassing and persecuting ethnic minorities.
To keep reading this great report go to: http://www.iranhumanrights.org/wp-content/uploads/Fulfilling-Promises-English-web.pdf
