Iran: EU Presidency Declaration on the repeated violation of human rights in Iran
The European Union reiterates that such violations are unacceptable. It is particularly disturbed by :
- the simultaneous execution of ten Iranians at Evin prison on 26 November 2008;- the judicial pressure which the Iranian authorities exert on women's rights activists. Among the signatories of the "One Million Signatures" campaign who are victims of this harassment, Esha Momeni, an Iranian-American, has been arrested and had her passport confiscated;
- the situation of Hussein Derakhshan, an Iranian blogger arrested by the authorities without charge on 1 November 2008. His family has had no news of him for several weeks and has still not been told where he is being held;
- the recent refusal of the Iranian authorities to allow Mansour Ossanlou, an Iranian trade unionist sentenced to five years in prison for "acts against State security " and "antiregime propaganda", access to the medical care which he needs.
These practices are blatant violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, freely adopted and ratified by Iran, and contravene the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, adopted by all members of the United Nations in 1998.
Resolutely committed to universal abolition of the death penalty, the European Union exhorts the Iranian authorities to put an end to death sentences and executions, to commute the sentences of all those condemned to death and to introduce a moratorium with the aim of abolishing the death penalty, in accordance with the Resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly on 21 November 2008.
The European Union exhorts the Iranian authorities to respect peaceful, totally legal action by women human rights activists and trade unionists and to cease exerting pressure on them. The European Union calls on the Iranian authorities to respect the principle of the protection of all persons under any form of detention or imprisonment by ensuring that Mansour Ossanlou receives medical treatment and that the conditions under which Hussein Derakhshan is held comply with international law, and to consider releasing them.
The Candidate Countries Croatia* and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Montenegro, Serbia, and the EFTA countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova align themselves with this declaration.
* Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process