I'll be happy to respond to your question, but I want to say first, parenthetically, that with regard to the Bahá'í Institute for Higher Education, as I think Ms. Box pointed out, you have not only a denial in Iran of Bahá'ís practising their faith, but also a denial of their right to access higher education. I think it should not be ignored that those who managed to graduate from the Bahá'í Institute for Higher Education, with its resilience and commitment to education and peace, and who came to Canada to pursue post-graduate studies, when they returned to Iran were themselves imprisoned there. You have an Iran-Canadian connection, and we must not indulge that impunity. I had the pleasure to nominate the Bahá'í Institute for Higher Education for the Nobel Peace Prize for the manner in which they have pursued education and peace with such resilience and commitment.
This brings me to your specific questions and comments. I would agree with you on the matter of the culture of impunity with regard to the United Nations. The fact that Iran, a major human rights violator in the manner that I've described, not only continues to violate human rights with impunity but is also rewarded for it, with a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, makes a mockery of the commitment we have to the UN Human Rights Council, which is the body that is to be responsible for standard-setting in matters of human rights for the promotion and protection of human rights. To me, a major human rights violator like Iran being rewarded and elected to that council is a dramatic example of the culture of impunity in all its manifestations.
With regard to the president of Iran...and that is why I initially used the term “Khamenei's Iran”, because it is the supreme leader who effectively dictates process and outcome with regard to elections and with regard to the entire governance in Iran. On procedural matters, with regard to the legal process, there are those who are falsely accused, let's say, of trumped-up charges such as, quote-unquote, corruption on earth or whatever may be the charge. I sought to summarize the patterns of prosecution and persecution in Iran today, but on the specifics of legal procedure, there is an utter denial of the right to a fair hearing before an independent tribunal in all its configurations. That means there is not only a denial of the right to counsel of one's choice but very often even the imprisonment of that counsel who would seek to defend the political prisoner. There's a lack of the right to adduce evidence on one's own behalf, or to rebut the evidence, which may not even be presented before a conviction is secured. Where that evidence is secured through torture and a false confession, as in the case of Saeed Malekpour, there's no right to rebut it and the like. In the end, what you effectively have is either sham show trials or sometimes not even trials at all.
All of this is taking place under the authority of Supreme Leader Khamenei, where the president is in charge himself of some nine other government ministries who alone or in concert with others engage in these violations of human rights, and also attend, and are attended by, the culture of impunity.