Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Perhaps I'll just quickly say that if the Canadian government invests resources, I'm sure they can find out. This is the problem; this is not something a group of activists can do. Dubai, United Arab Emirates, now seems to be the biggest economic hub, and the regime uses thousand

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Perhaps I would say, to what is a very good but complex question, simply that I would hold Canada to a higher standard than I would hold other countries in the west, frankly speaking. The European Union is still the biggest trading partner of Iran. I would say the Europeans' reco

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Merci, Madame Deschamps. I think as I explained, until recently most observers did not see what was coming. Very few people predicted what would happen in 2009 in Iran, even if they predicted what would happen in Egypt and Tunisia. That's because we're far too focused on politic

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Professor Cotler, thank you for your questions. I will begin with your second question. We have a very unusual situation in Iran in that it is not only lawyers defending political prisoners who are being put in prison, but the lawyers of lawyers representing political prisoners

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Mr. Chair, distinguished members of the subcommittee, it is an honour and privilege for me to appear before you once more. I would like to take this opportunity to express my deep gratitude for your ongoing attention to the human rights situation in Iran. As a Canadian, I am pro

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It's a difficult question to answer. I think there is a combination of fanatical hatred in certain quarters that have been indoctrinated with this demonology for many years and those who genuinely believe that the Bahá'ís are out to destroy Islam. But I think at another level the

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Part of the rhetoric of Iran is that the human rights record of Iran is fine, but that western countries under the influence of American and Zionist circles are using this as an issue to denounce the Islamic republic and the sovereignty of the Iranian people. It's extremely impor

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It's a very good question. I would say that the majority are being persecuted. There are more ayatollahs in prison today in Iran than there ever were under the secular government of the Shah. A special court was established in 1987 for the specific purpose of prosecuting dissiden

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Judicial sanctions.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Well, they could in part be from Canada. With respect to the Zahra Kazemi affair, the Criminal Code clearly provides jurisdiction for Canadian courts where the victim of torture is a Canadian citizen. And I'm dismayed that if two Canadian tourists are killed in Mexico, there is a

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Well, that's interesting. If one looks at the nuclear issue, the Security Council seems to have had no problem identifying particular individuals. There can be a commission of inquiry, there can be appropriate procedures to ensure this is not done in an arbitrary or indiscriminat

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  There clearly is censorship of the Internet, but Iranian web bloggers, Iranian youth, are among the most sophisticated users of the Internet and have found all sorts of ways of avoiding these filters. Apparently, after the English language, Persian is the second most widely used

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I'm sorry, I did not hear that. There was a bit of noise.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  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

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Mr. Chair, distinguished committee members, thank you for the invitation. It is a very great privilege to be able to share with you some ideas on the status of human rights in Iran and, specifically, on the persecution of the Bahá'í minority. I'm very grateful that the committee