A
statement by Iran Roundtable, a coalition of human rights defenders, on UN
Special Rapporteur's statement.The report of the Special Rapporteur on the
situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, was
presented to the UN General Assembly in October 22, 2013.
The
report as the Special Rapporteur highlighted “does not detail all of the
violations of human rights in the country reported to the Special Rapporteur,
but does provide an overview of the prevailing human rights
situation.”
Despite
being barred from visiting Iran to investigate first hand conditions of prisons,
prisoners and victims of human rights violations, the Special Rapporteur has
documented a wide range of violations on freedom of expression and association,
administration/misadministration of justice, women and children’s rights,
freedom of religion and nationalities rights.
In
regards to the systematic violations of the basic human rights of persons
belonging to ethnic, linguistic or other minorities, including Arabs, Azeris,
Baluchis and Kurds and their advocates, the Special Rapporteur recalls the
General Assembly’s past concerns that called upon the IRI Government to
eliminate all forms of discrimination and other human rights violations against
those persons in law and in practice. Despite the Government of IRI’s assertion
on its commitment to guaranteeing those rights in its second periodic report to
the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, submitted in May 2011,
nevertheless, the Committee communicated its concern about the impact of
State-sanctioned discrimination against minorities on the full enjoyment of a
range of economic, social and cultural rights and made several recommendations
in that regard.
“The
Committee also raised concerns about the extreme poverty and inadequate living
standards facing ethnic minorities and urged the Islamic Republic of Iran to
take immediate steps to improve access to safe drinking water, adequate
sanitation, electricity, transportation facilities, schools and health-care
centres in regions traditionally inhabited by ethnic minorities.” the report
further added.
The
Special Rapporteur has also included in his report a section on landmines, a
hidden enemy that haunts the lives of many, especially children in the bordering
provinces of West Azarbijan, Kurdistan, Kirmanshah, Iram and Khuzestan
(Al-Ahwaz). According to 2012 report by the head IRI mining centre, 20 million
mines and explosives had been buried across approximately 42,000 km along the
border of those 5 provinces during the Iran-Iraq war.
According
to the Special Rapporteur’s report, In April 2013, a member of the National
Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the IRI’s Majlis criticized
celebrations for the conclusion of the demining process in Kermanshah Province,
stating that “human casualties still occurred because of the lack of demining,
and that the interior and defence ministers still had a responsibility to demine
the contaminated areas and to protect people’s lives from the dangers caused by
the detonators remaining from the war. As recently as this month, 8 school
children fell victim to this hidden enemy in the city of Mariwan. The IRI
Revolutionary Guards units blamed the Kurdish opposition groups.”
Part
of Dr. Shaheed’s report on the horrendous human rights conditions in Iran is the
effects of sanctions on the economic rights of ordinary Iranians. While IRI
officials claim that sanctions have had little or no effect on the country, and
in contrary, have made Iran self-sufficient on many fronts, the Special
Rapparteur’s report paints a different picture:
Gross
domestic product reportedly contracted by an estimated 3 per cent in 2012 and is
predicted to further contract by approximately 1.2 per cent in the coming year.
Staggering inflation, estimated to have peaked at 30 per cent in 2012/13 and
forecast to hover above 20 per cent for the next three years, has had a dramatic
effect on the standard of living. Furthermore, Government cuts made in December
2010 to subsidies for social welfare programmes, which contribute to low prices
of imported foodstuffs and medications, have reportedly contributed to raising
the costs of basic commodities, such as cooking oil, fruit, vegetables, meat and
nuts.
They
also stress that the supply of advanced medicines, which treat the most serious
illnesses, are particularly affected. In this regard, a number of reports
indicate that shortages of drugs for the treatment of such diseases as cancer,
heart disease, thalassemia, HIV/AIDS, haemophilia and multiple sclerosis, as
well as shortages in the materials necessary to repair and maintain medical
equipment, are having a profoundly worrisome impact on access to life-saving
medical measures in the country. According to the report, a former Iranian
Health Minister is reported to have maintained that of the $2.5 billion
earmarked for foreign exchange necessary to meet the import needs of the medical
sector in 2012, only $650 million was provided, intimating that the funds were
misallocated.
In
its response to the request of the Special Rapporteur for its observations on
the impact of sanctions on human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the
United Nations Children’s Fund office in the country highlighted much of the
aforementioned concerns and pointed to local newspaper reports that mention the
increasing number of homeless working children and elderly persons and the rise
in the phenomenon of “street women”.
Iran
Roundtable, while alarmed by the deplorable human rights and dire economic
conditions in Iran under the IRI, welcomes the report of the Special Rapporteur,
Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, and hopes that the authorities in IRI take the issue of human
rights in Iran serious and act upon the recommendations made by the Special
Rapporteur in his report.
Iran
Roundtable also calls upon the IRI authorities to reconsider their longstanding
defiance with the international community by reversing their harmful and
unnecessary disputed nuclear program. This approach will not only relieve
Iranians from the dreadful effects of sanctions, as well illustrated in the
Special Rapporteur’s report, but also, if coupled with improved human rights
conditions and freedom for all Iranians inside the country will, no doubt, make
Iran an effective, strong and responsible member of the international
community.
http://www.alahwazvoice.com/index.php/arab-front-for-liberation-of-ahwaz/2291-iran-roundtable-qiran-must-implement-special-rapporteurs-recommendationsq
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