Renewed Condemnation of the Islamic Republic by the Human Rights Commission

On Friday, April 20, the main United Nation Human Rights body once again denounced the Islamic Republic of Iran for widespread violations of human rights.  Excessive excecutions, use of torture, supression of independant publications, violation of international standards and principles in the administration of justice, detainment of writers and political activists, harsh treatment of student organizations, increasing repression of ethnic and religious minorities, suppressive behaviours of the revolutionary courts and special cleric court, and etc...are a few cases mentioned in the statement of the Commission, and they were heavily condemned.  The Commission along with authorizing continued securtiny of Iran’s record by renewing the mandate of the UN special investigator for human rights in Iran (Maurice Capithorne for another year) placed Iran once more along the list of states that need to be under continiuos supervision of the United Nations Human Rights Commission(UNHRC).

            No doubt, human rights violation in Iran under the Islamic Republic is far more than Maurice Capitorne’s report and the Commission’s statement on this dictatorship regime.  Partly because on the one hand, from 1996 onward, the regime’s administrators have prevented the Commission’s investigator to enter Iran to closely observe human rights violations ; on the other hand, due to the existance of suppressive atmosphere that various government apparatuses have created on various regions, the regime’s inhuman and anti-freedom activities in regions such as Kurdistan, Baluchestan, and etc...are poorly projected in the report ; therefore, Mr. Capitorn has assembled most of his report based on newspaper claims, some domestic sources, and the reports that he has obtained from various opposition groups.

            Despite this, the regime’s condamenation by the main body of the UN for human rights protection once more publicized a glimpse of regime’s inhumane bahaviours, divulged the regime’s attempts on the international stage to portray a better image of itself, and proved that in contrary to the regime’s nature, in the last 4 years its President that has been embracing peace abroad and the dialogue of civilizations, and in the year that has been named the year of the dialogue of civilizations suggested by the regime’s President, how fundmental rights of citizens and the people of Iran could be violated.

            The regime by observing the current member states sitting on the Commission -- the countries that do not have a clean record on human rights – attempted to block the passage of the resolution, but due to the wide-spread violations of human rights within the last year that were not only more intensive, but they have also become structurally legal.  On the other hand, the hard work of Iranian and foreign individual human rights activists disclosed the regime’s attempts, and finally the Islamic Republic was condemned for 19^th consecutive year by the UN Human Rights Commission by 21 votes to 17 with 15 obstentions.

            The anti-freedom regime of the Islamic Republic has also been condemned by other organizations beside the UNHRC due to the crimes that its rulers have committed against the Iranian population : Amnesty International, Organization of Reporters without Borders, Middle East Watch, Oraganization in Defence of Human Rights, and Human Rights Watch are only a few to mention.  Still, as we all know, within the last several years, the regime has not only escalated its barbaric actions, but also repression and imprisonment, as the official policy of the ruling camp of the regime has been continuing and proliferating against the civilian population and the leading freedom movements.

            While surveying the facts, without trying to damage the importance of such outright condemnation of the regime, we must also consider the fact that as long as the governments and the states defending human rights, the countries that are embracing the rule of law and the people do not establish their relations with the authoritarian regime based on human rights, freedom and democracy on the one side, and on views and reports of international organizations on the activities and policies of the regime on the other, human rights conditions in Iran under the Islamic Republic can not be expected to become satisfactory.

            Clearly, the continious condemnation of the Islamic Republic by the institutions and organizations defending human rights will result in increasing disenchantment of the public with the clerical rulers, and it will intensify the process of civilian freedom movements, and more importantly, the nature of the suppressive Islamic regime will be better known.  But the regime’s ruling bloc has accepted any condemnations and disgrace to protect the totality of the regime, and after continious denouncements and disgrace at international stage, the ruling authorities have grown accustomed to such disgrace, and they simply do not care.  Especially the government in the developed nations, as they have proven so far are not ready to sacrifice their economic and commercial interests and high profits over the violation of human rights by the Islamic Republic.  Therefore, they are not ready to adjust or terminate their relations, and they only occasionally and verbally criticize the regime.  The rulers have reached the conclusion that being condemned or not by the humanatarian organizations, the only option that they have to utilize is coersion and repression. 

To prove this, it is only enough to shed some lights on the crude and inhumane activities of the regime within the last year :  closure of independant newspaprs supporting reform , detainment and prosecution of the attendeants of the conference in Berlin, torturing students and intellectuals, trial and conviction of the Interior Ministry, arresting more than 50 people from the religious nationalist front and most of the leaders of the student movement, and etc...are some of the brutal and reppressive actions of the regime.  All these convey the fact that being aginst freedom and democracy is emanating from the nature of the regime.  This is the reason that it can not find any better ways except supression, torture and imprisonment for its survival, and without listening to the continious condemnation by international groups and organizations it is using these instruments.

            But, despite these conditions, repression , fake trials, and sending activists to torture houses not only has remained ineffective as before, but it is also strengthening the process of Iranian civilian freedom movement.  The regime’s latest suppresive activities are desperate, yet useless measures to secure its survival.  The regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran not only has lost a popular support of the early revolution among our civilian population, but also its condemnation in international arena has resulted in even decreasing international respect and dignity for the regime among world states, and it can no longer take advantage of the public’s religious sentiments as in the past to hold on to its power.

Article translated from KURDISTAN, Organ of the Central Committee of PDKI