Iran: Human Rights Developments, 2004
Human Rights Watch
World Report 2005
Iran
Respect for basic human rights in Iran, especially freedom of expression and opinion, deteriorated in 2004. Torture and ill-treatment in detention, including indefinite solitary confinement, are used routinely to punish dissidents. The judiciary, which is accountable to Supreme Leader Ali Khamene’i rather than the elected president, Mohammad Khatami, has been at the center of many serious human rights violations. Abuses are carried out by what Iranians call “parallel institutions”: plainclothes intelligence agents, paramilitary groups that violently attack peaceful protests, and illegal and secret prisons and interrogation centers run by intelligence services.
Freedom of Expression and Opinion
The Iranian authorities systematically suppress freedom of expression and
opinion. After President Mohammad Khatami’s election in 1997, reformist
newspapers multiplied and took on increasingly sensitive topics in their pages
and editorial columns. Prominent Iranian intellectuals began to challenge
foundational concepts of Islamic governance. In April 2000, the government
launched a protracted campaign to silence critics: closing down newspapers,
imprisoning journalists and editors, and regularly calling editors and
publishers before what became known as the Press Court. Today, very few
independent dailies remain, and those that do self-censor heavily. Many writers
and intellectuals have left the country, are in prison, or have ceased to be
critical. Days after the visit of the Special Rapporteur for freedom of opinion
and expression, Ambeyi Ligabo, in late 2003, one of the student activists with
whom he spoke was re-arrested. In 2004 the authorities also moved to block
Internet websites that provide independent news and analysis, and to arrest
writers using this medium to disseminate information and analysis critical of
the government.
Torture and Ill-treatment in Detention
With the closure of independent newspapers and journals, treatment of detainees
has worsened in Evin prison as well as in detention centers operated
clandestinely by the judiciary and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Torture and ill-treatment in detention has been used particularly against those
imprisoned for peaceful expression of their political views. In violation of
international law and Iran’s constitution, judges often accept coerced
confessions. The use of prolonged solitary confinement, often in small basement
cells, has been designed to break the will of those detained in order to coerce
confessions and provide information regarding associates. This systematic use
of solitary confinement rises to the level of cruel and inhuman treatment.
Combined with denial of access to counsel and videotaped confessions, prolonged
solitary confinement creates an environment in which prisoners have nowhere to
turn in order to seek redress for their treatment in detention. Severe physical
torture is also used, especially against student activists and others who do
not enjoy the high public profile of older dissident intellectuals and writers.
The judiciary chief, Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi Shahrudi, issued an internal
directive in April 2004 banning torture and inhumane treatment of detainees,
but as of yet no enforcement mechanisms have been established.
Parallel Institutions
“Parallel institutions” (nahad-e movazi) is how Iranians refer to the
quasi-official organs of repression that have become increasingly open in
crushing student protests, detaining activists, writers, and journalists in
secret prisons, and threatening pro-democracy speakers and audiences at public
events. These groups have carried out brutal assaults against students,
writers, and reformist politicians, and have set up arbitrary checkpoints
around Tehran. Groups such as Ansar-e Hizbollah and the Basij work under the
control of the Office of the Supreme Leader, and there are many reports that
the uniformed police are often afraid to directly confront these plainclothes
agents. Illegal prisons, which are outside of the oversight of the National
Prisons Office, are sites where political prisoners are abused, intimidated,
and tortured with impunity. Over the past year politically active individuals
have been summoned to a detention center controlled by the Department of Public
Places (Edareh Amaken Umumi) for questioning by “parallel” intelligence
services. According to journalists and student activists who have undergone
such interrogations but not been arrested or detained, these sessions are
intended to intimidate and threaten students and others.
Impunity
There is no mechanism for monitoring and investigating human rights violations
perpetrated by agents of the government. The closure of independent media in
Iran has helped to perpetuate an atmosphere of impunity. In recent years, the
Parliament’s Article 90 Commission (mandated by the constitution to address
complaints of violations of the constitution by the three branches of
government) has made an admirable effort to investigate and report on the many
complaints it has received, the Commission lacks any power to enforce its
findings and recommendations. The Commission repeatedly called for a thorough
investigation of the judiciary’s violations of the law, but thus far this has
not happened. In October 2003 the Article 90 Commission presented a public
report on the death in custody several months earlier of Iranian-Canadian
photojournalist Zahra Kazemi. The report placed responsibility for her death
squarely on agents of the judiciary. In a bizarre development, the judiciary
accused a low ranking official of the Intelligence Ministry, Reza Ahmadi, of
killing Kazemi. Despite a strong rebuke from the Intelligence Ministry, the
judiciary proceeded with a hastily organized trial held in May 2004 in which
Reza Ahmadi was cleared of the charges. The judiciary has taken no further
steps to identify or prosecute those responsible for Kazemi’s death.
The Guardian Council
Iran’s Guardian Council is a body of twelve religious jurists: six are
appointed by the Supreme Leader and the remaining six nominated by the
judiciary and confirmed by Parliament. The Council has the unchecked power to
veto legislation approved by the Parliament. In recent years, for instance, the
Council has repeatedly rejected parliamentary bills in such areas as women’s
rights, family law, the prohibition of torture, and electoral reform. The
Council also vetoed parliamentary bills assenting to ratification of
international human rights treaties such as the Convention against Torture and
the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women.
The Council also has the power to vet candidates for elected political posts,
including the presidency and the national parliament, based on vague criteria
and subject only to the review of the Supreme Leader. The Council wielded its
arbitrary powers in a blatantly partisan manner during the parliamentary
elections of February 2004 when it disqualified more than 3,600 reformist and
independent candidates, allowing conservative candidates to dominate the
ballot. The Council’s actions produced widespread voter apathy and many
boycotted the polls. Many Iranians regarded the move as a “silent coup” on
behalf of conservatives who had performed poorly during previous elections in
2000. The Council also disqualified many sitting parliamentarians whose
candidacy had been approved by the same Council in 2000.
Minorities
Iran’s ethnic and religious minorities remain subject to discrimination and, in
some cases, persecution. The Baha’i community continues to be denied permission
to worship or engage in communal affairs in a public manner. In a rare public
protest, eighteen Sunni parliamentarians wrote to the authorities in July 2003
to criticize the treatment of the Sunni Muslim community and the refusal to
allow construction of a mosque in Tehran that would serve that community. The
Baluchi minority, who are mostly Sunni and live in the border province of
Sistan and Baluchistan, continue to suffer from lack of representation in local
government and have experienced a heavy military presence in the region. In
December 2003, tensions between the local population and the Revolutionary
Guards led to large demonstrations in Saravan, in Baluchistan province. In the
ensuing clashes between demonstrators and the police at least five people were
killed.
Key International Actors
The European Union has increased both economic and diplomatic ties with Iran.
The E.U. has pledged to tie human rights standards to this process, but so far
with little impact. Australia and Switzerland have also initiated “human rights
dialogues” with Iran, but benchmarks have not been made public, making it
unlikely that these will have any greater impact than the dialogue conducted by
the E.U.
Iran issued a standing invitation to thematic mechanisms of the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights in 2002. Since then, the Working Group on Arbitrary
Detention and the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the
right to freedom of opinion and expression have visited the country and issued
reports critical of government practices in these areas. The government,
however, has failed to implement the recommendations of the U.N. experts, and
there were reprisals, such as re-arrest, against witnesses who testified to the
experts. Since then, Iran has not responded to requests by the U.N. Special
Rapporteurs on Torture and on Extra-Judicial Executions to visit the country.
Relations between the United States and Iran remain poor. The Bush
administration has publicly labeled Iran as part of an “axis of evil.” Deputy
Secretary of State Richard Armitage, in October 2003, said that the U.S. was
not pursuing a policy of “regime change” towards Iran, but persistent reports
from Washington indicate that the administration remains divided on this point.
The U.S. continues to oppose loans to Iran from international financial
institutions.