Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members, guests.
Human rights in Iran have been, for decades, extremely problematic, to put it mildly, under the government of President Ahmadinejad. Since his coming to power in the summer of 2005, they've grown particularly severe and are worsening by the year.
Typically, the government relies on national security as justification for silencing dissent. Indeed, 2008 saw a dramatic rise in the arrest of political activists, academics, and others for peacefully exercising a right to freedom of association and freedom of expression.
Let me talk first about the freedom of expression and assembly. Journalists and writers who covered issues dealing with ethnic minorities as well as civil society activities were particularly targeted. Iran's National Security Council gave newspapers numerous formal and informal warnings against covering these issues as well as more run-of-the-mill human rights violations and social protests, including the protests of workers. Many writers and intellectuals who have evaded imprisonment have in fact left the country or ceased to be critical. The government has fired dissenting university professors or forced them into early retirement, a trend that intensified in 2008. It has also recently begun banning politically active students from registering for upcoming semesters in college.
I would also just note that the government has been systematically blocking Iranian as well as foreign websites that carry political news and analysis.
In terms of freedom of association, the government has increased pressures on civil society organizations that call for advancing human rights and freedom of speech. For instance, the Center for Defenders of Human Rights, led by Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, as well as the Association of Iranian Journalists, have been targeted by the government.
On October 2 of last year, the official news agency warned Ebadi not to “misuse the tolerance of the government”. This is in the context of Ms. Ebadi receiving numerous death threats from unknown sources.
Government intelligence officials forced Mohammad Sadigh Kaboudvand, a journalist and human rights activist in the Kurdish area of Iran, to shut down his NGO, Defending the Human Rights in Kurdistan. He was sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment in June for acting against national security and engaging in propaganda against the state.
I would like to touch on a point that Mr. Genser made in terms of the criminal justice and particularly the concern with the use of the death penalty for juvenile offenders--that is, persons who committed the alleged offence when they were under the age of 18. Iranian law allows the death penalty for persons who have reached the age of puberty, which is defined as 15 for boys and nine for girls. In 2008 a known total of six persons were executed for crimes allegedly committed while under the age of 18, and since January 2005, Iran has been responsible for 26 of the 32 known executions of juvenile offenders worldwide.
These sentences, it should be noted, typically followed unfair trials, and the executions themselves often violated Iranian law, such as the failure to notify families and lawyers 48 hours in advance of the execution.
In terms of rights of freedom of speech, assembly, and association, I want to focus in particular on the situation faced by women's rights activists in Iran. In 2008 the government escalated its crackdown very significantly and visibly, subjecting dozens of women to arbitrary detention, travel bans, and harassment. Eight women activists were arrested in June, for instance, when they were commemorating an earlier meeting that had been broken up by police.
In October of last year, Esha Momeni, an Iranian-American student researching the women's rights movement in Iran, was arrested and held for three weeks in Evin prison. Security agents seized her computer as well as footage of interviews she had conducted with women's rights activists.
In the same month, October, security agents blocked Sussan Tahmasebi, a leader of the One Million Signatures Campaign for Equality, from boarding a plane and confiscated her passport, all without charging her with any crime.
In September, the appeals court in Tehran upheld prison and lashing sentences against the two women's rights activists Mr. Genser mentioned.
The other groups of Iranians who have been targeted in particular by the government are ethnic and religious minorities. In Iran, they are subject to discrimination, and in some cases, persecution, particularly in the northwestern provinces of Kurdistan and Azerbaijan. The government restricts cultural and political activities by Azeri and Kurdish activists, including the operation of non-governmental organizations that focus on social issues. The government accuses them, typically, of siding with armed opposition groups and of acting against national security. While the Government of Iran, like any government, has the right and the obligation to suppress armed violence, typically, in the cases we've been able to look at, there is no evidence presented in the trials of these individuals to link them with such activities.
I should mention, in passing, that it is the case that Human Rights Watch has been unable to enter Iran for a number of years now to conduct research. If I can pre-empt my recommendations to the Government of Canada, I would certainly urge that in any public interventions the government is involved in and in the report of this committee, access for international human rights organizations, such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and so forth, should certainly be on your agenda.
On the issue of religious minorities, such as the Baha’i, I know that you've already taken testimony from representatives of the Baha’i community. I don't think I could add anything except to say that it's a concern we very much share. I would also note that representatives, including clerics of the Sunni sect in Iran, have also been targeted for harassment, arrest, and so forth.
Finally, to link back to my urging on the issue of access for human rights activists and independent organizations, Iran, of course, has also not allowed any of the special mechanisms of the UN to come into Iran since the summer of 2005, when Mr. Ahmadinejad became president, despite an earlier commitment made by the Government of Iran when it issued an open invitation to all those mechanisms.
If I could, I'll very quickly highlight a couple of recommendations. First, and seconding Mr. Genser's recommendation, I think the government would be well-advised to continue to make the UN--both the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council--a venue for pushing Iranian human rights. The Government of Iran typically says that it doesn't care. I think it cares very much, in fact. Particularly when a coalition of states can be assembled that actually manages to pass the resolution, indeed they care. I also think it is extremely important to continue to push for the appointment of a special representative or a special rapporteur by the Human Rights Council to address the serious situation of ongoing, systematic violations in Iran.
Second, of course, is to make human rights issues part of the agenda of any meetings, any dialogue, and any diplomatic encounters Canada may have with the Government of Iran.
Third, in particular reference to the case of Zahra Kazemi, the Iranian-Canadian photojournalist who was killed in custody in 2003, which I know has been on the government's agenda ever since that time, focus on the individuals involved as well as on the Government of Iran as a whole for its responsibility. And consider steps such as taking out international arrest warrants for some of the individuals known to have been involved in the custody and death of Ms. Kazemi.
Finally, I have a general point. I think in addressing human rights in Iran, given the seriousness of the situation, it's extremely important that Canada do so, in whatever venue, particularly in the UN General Assembly and in the Human Rights Council and so forth, in the context of criticism and of taking human rights violations seriously elsewhere in the region as well; the Middle East and North Africa are my concern.
Criticism of Iran carries more weight, frankly, when it includes criticism of serious violations by other states in the region that may be on the opposite side of the political fence to Iran, whether they be Arab states or Israel.
Thank you.