There are a number of approaches, both multilateral and unilateral. The point is that, given the complexities of the political situation in Iran, one cannot apply indiscriminate sanctions in exacting a cost for the regime of recourse to human rights.
We are in a situation where decisive international action could potentially prevent far more serious human rights violations. That's why I began by saying that we are at a very critical juncture. In particular, leading up to the elections this summer there may be a temptation, as Ms. Tamas has explained, among hard-liners to start a campaign of executions and mass arrests in order to show that the Islamic republic is decisively confronting its enemies. That's why there is some urgency.
In terms of multilateral action, the Security Council has adopted targeted sanctions with respect to those involved in the nuclear industry. The question is why those who are responsible for crimes against humanity are not given similar treatment. Indeed, the whole nuclear issue has eclipsed the human rights issues, whereas the two are inextricably related.
I would submit that even adopting resolutions that begin to name and shame particular individuals—someone such as Hossein Shariatmadari, the editor-in-chief of Kayhan, the government's mouthpiece, which in the past few years has published several hundred articles that have been spreading hatred and calumny against the Bahá'ís, accusing them of everything from working for the Americans, the Israelis, Wahabists, the Russian Imperialists.... I'm not sure whether I've missed any foreign conspiracies that they've hatched, but this hatred has had very real consequences, ranging from the harassment and intimidation of Bahá'í schoolchildren to arson attacks and much more serious threats of death.
Incidentally, this has also included my student, Nargiss Tavassolian, the daughter of Shirin Ebadi, who while at McGill University had an informant, I discovered, find out her thesis topic and pass the information on to the Islamic Republic News Agency, which published a famous newspaper article accusing me of having converted her to Bahá'ísm as an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency.
What disturbs me in particular is how this campaign of hate-mongering has now infected Canada. We have operatives in Canada, at my university in Montreal, who are gathering information in order to intimidate and harass. There is a broader question of how Canada can begin to clean up its own backyard and also how it can begin, in a multilateral forum, to draw the link between respect for human rights and the hard geopolitical issues that seem to predominate in the discussion. There is a lack of awareness of how these sorts of soft human rights issues have very concrete and far-reaching consequences on the broader question of peace and stability in the Middle East.