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PROTECTION AND PROMOTION OF HUMAN
RIGHTS IN THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN |
A Brief Account on
Measures and Developments
The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has taken
numerous initiatives and measures to protect and promote
human rights in the country. These measures and activities
as well as some corresponded accomplishments can be
summarised as follows:
Women rights
- The lawmakers in the Islamic Consultative Assembly have
approved modifications to the civil law on inheritance
rights of women, giving married women the right to all of
their husbands’ property, which they were not previously
entitled to. Under the previous law, a wife could inherit
only the standing property and not the land which her
husband owned.
- Inclusion of the “gender perspective” in the Third
(article 158) and Fourth (mainstreamed) Economic, Social and
Cultural Development Plan for the country;
- Adoption of a plan for the review of the Iranian civil
code in order to identify and address cases of violence and
discrimination against women; This plan is followed by the
Center for Women’s Participation at the President’s Office;
- Drafting of a National Plan of Action to combat violence
against women and to protect those women who are victims of
violence;
- Establishment of the National Committee for Elimination of
Violence against Women at the Center for Women’s
Participation and the Ministry of Health;
- Allocation of a special article in the national budget for
the advancement of women;
- Approval of the bill of accession of the Islamic Republic
of Iran to the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) by the Islamic
Consultative Assembly; The bill rejected by the Council of
Guardians is currently under final examination by the
Expediency Council (the final decision-making body on
disputed bills);
- Increase in the number of departments and sections dealing
with women’s affairs in governmental ministries;
- Creation of a national committee in the Center for Women’s
Participation to discuss, identify and tackle women’s
difficulties;
- Increase in the number of women’s non-governmental
organizations from 67 in 1997 to 337 in 2004;
- 5.5% increase in the number of women executives in the
last five years;
- In recent years 34% of university lecturers and 63% of
students entering universities have been women;
- Access of Iranian female pupils to primary education
during the last five years has increased from 80% to 96%;
- Approximately 71 journals and magazines are published by
women and editors of 89 magazines and newspapers are women;
- 21 Iranian non-governmental organisations are active in
the field of eradication of poverty and promotion of
economic independence and self-employment of the Iranian
women;
- 12 women Mps have been elected in the seventh
parliamentary election and the women’s parliamentary
Fraction has been founded in line with the aims of the Third
National Five-Year Development Plan to promote women’s
situation in the country;
- Establishment of special women police centers (WPCs)
comprosing of female personnel in police stations and large
cities. These centers can play a valuable role in countering
violence against women;
- Due to the importance of mother’s role in the upbringing
of children, especially in the early years of birth, a bill
has been approved by the Expediency Council to extend the
mother’s custody of children, regardless of the child’s sex,
up to the age of 7;
- Adoption of a bill in the Islamic Consultative Assembly
which gives the women equal rights to request divorce;
- Conclusion of the contract and commencement of a joint
project with UNDP on the empowerment of women and the
management of the country projects with the United Nations
agencies;
- Adoption of a bill concerning households women’s insurance
system;
- Formulation of the comprehensive legal and judicial system
for women.
The rights of the
minorities
Establishment of the committee of minorities, based on the
order from the president. This committee deals with the
problems of religious minorities in Iran;
- A circular has been issued by the president on the further
facilitation of recruitment of members of religious
minorities in the public sector;
- Adoption of a bill which would allow the members of
minorities to receive blood money equal to those for
Muslims. This law has been practically enforced in various
court cases;
- Adoption of the Act of Respect for the legitimate freedoms
and protection of the rights of all citizens, based on the
relevant provisions of the Iranian constitution relating to
the rights of minorities;
- Omission of the religion’s indicator from the registration
forms of the universities.
The rights of the
child
- Considerable development in achieving results in a number
of the targets set out in the Program of Action of the 1990
World Summit on Survival, Protection and Development of
Children;
- Organizing a conference on the rights of the child in
Tehran with the cooperation of UNICEF office in Iran;
- Active participation of representatives of the Iranian
children in the UN special session on Children held in New
York (2002);
- Preparations for establishing a national focal point for
children’s rights;
- Preparation and submission of the First Periodic Report of
the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Committee on the Rights
of the Child in 2002 under the supervision of the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs as the focal point for the national
periodic reports;
- Accession of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Worst
Forms of Child Labour Convention 1999 (NO. 182) of the
International Labour Organisation and its Supplementary
Recommendation;
- Establishment of the Office for the Protection of Women
and Children in the Judiciary Branch;
- The Judiciary has taken steps towards employing the global
achievements relating to the juvenile crime. In this regard,
“the Law on the Establishment of the Juvenile Court” has
been forwarded as a bill for the approval of the Parliament.
After ratification of the Parliament, the Juvenile Courts,
comprised of one judge and two counselors, should be created
in all provinces to examine the crime of juveniles, from the
age of 9 to 18.
Administration of
justice
- A bill to reinforce the comprehensive and better
implementation of constitutional ban on torture was passed
by the Islamic Consultative Assembly and reviewed by the
Council of Guardians. The bill is currently under final
examination by the Expediency Council;
- Councils of Arbitration have been established to promote a
culture of reconciliation among people and to avoid
unnecessary recourse to tribunals. Negotiations between the
parties in a judicial procedure are being encouraged in
order to reach a conciliatory outcome, particularly in less
serious cases; i.e. cases relating to offences punished with
less than 91 days of imprisonment and with fines up to 5
million rials;
- A centre for legal counsel composed by judicial experts
has been established in order to facilitate the access of
people to legal assistance. This has allowed a better, more
precise and more cost-effective resolution of judicial
cases;
- The re-establishment of the Office of the Public
Prosecutor has speeded up the consideration and resolution
of cases;
- A number of legal bills have been drafted by the judiciary
and are now ready to be submitted for consideration to the
Majles (Parliament): a draft bill on the establishment of
courts for juveniles, another bill on alternatives
punishments to imprisonment, and drafts on support of
victim’s relatives, crime prevention and computer-related
offences;
- Offices to safeguard the rights of women and children have
been established;
- Establishment of Human Rights Committee within the
judiciary which is considered as the high level human rights
monitoring body in the country.
Cooperation
with the United Nations
human rights mechanisms
The Islamic Republic of Iran voluntarily extended its
fullest cooperation to the United Nations Commission on
Human Rights and its procedures in all aspects of human
rights immediately after the Commission’s decision to
rectify its attitude and discontinue the resolution on the
situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of IRAN at
its 58 th Session.
Only a few days after the failure of the draft resolution on
the situation of human rights in Iran during the 58 th
Session of the Commission, the Iranian government – to show
its good-will and seriousness in promoting human rights and
to prove that adoption of resolutions on the situation of
human rights in Iran in the last 19 years has only hampered
the spirit of cooperation and progress on this matter –
expressed its full readiness to engage with the UN human
rights thematic mechanisms in a constructive cooperation. In
this relation, a standing invitation was extended to the UN
special rapporteurs and thematic working groups to visit the
country.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is the first country in Asia
that has extended an open invitation to the United Nations
thematic working groups. Thus far visits of the Special
Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, the Special
Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, the Working
Group on arbitrary detentions and the Special Rapporteur on
violence against women have already taken place and
preparations for visits of the Special Rapporteur on
adequate housing, for near future, is going on.
- In recent years the Islamic Republic of Iran has engaged
in bilateral and meaningful cooperation with the Office of
the High Commissioner for Human Rights. In this regard and
at the national level, Iran and the Office of the High
Commissioner have agreed on a joint project on promoting
human rights education in Iranian schools and also
integrating human rights programs in high education
institutions and universities curricula and teaching
materials. Accordingly, with the aim of following up the
above mentioned National Project, a two-day workshop was
held on 5 & 6 September 2004, with the cooperation of the
OHCHR in Tehran.
Interaction with
the European Union
So far four rounds of dialogue on human rights have been
held between the I.R. of IRAN and the EU and preparatory
negotiations for holding the fifth round is being held. We
believe such Dialogues have provided a proper ground for
exchange of views among human rights thinkers and activists
of the both sides.
Bilateral
cooperation with Non-EU countries
In recent years the I.R. of IRAN has had a series of human
rights dialogue with some Non-EU countries including
Australia, Japan, Switzerland and Russia which aims at
promotion of human rights, contribution to an intercultural
dialogue and exchange of information, experience and
technical cooperation in this field. Following this aim,
such dialogues with the above-mentioned and the other
interested countries will be continued in future.
Respect for the legitimate freedoms
&
protection of the rights of citizens’ Act
The act
entitled “Respect for the legitimate
freedoms and protection of the rights of citizens”
which has been recently adopted, consists of 15
points concerning human dignity and values. These
points can be summarised as follows:
- Detection and prosecution of
crimes and performing investigations and
issuance of provisional orders and temporary
detention must be based on the law and according
to a specific and transparent judiciary
instruction and verdict Agents must refrain from
making personal judgments or misuse their
authority of resort to force or unnecessary and
additional arrests.
- Convictions must be in
accordance with legal arrangements and limited
to the offender, partner and accessory to a
crime. As long as the crime is not proven by a
competent court of law and a verdict supported
by evidence presented and based on legal tenets
or valid Figh (religious jurisprudence
sources (in absence of law) the accused is
innocent. All are entitled to security under the
protection of law.
- Courts and the
prosecutors’ office must respect the right of
the accused and defendants to a legal defense
and accordingly must provide them with the
opportunity to be represented by an attorney and
use the services of experts.
- It is necessary that
Islamic norms and ethics be fully observed with
respect to plaintiffs, the accused, criminals
and informed people of the crime, and generally
in implementing their entrusted duties and
dealing with people.
- Based on the principle of
forbidding arrest and detention, in necessary
cases, the issuance of decree and arrangements
must be according to the law, and within the
limit of specified time, the file should be
forwarded to the competence judicial authorities
and as far as possible the families of the
arrested persons should be informed.
- In the course of arrest
and interrogation or inquiry and investigation,
the humiliation and ill treatment of individuals
such as blindfolding or the tying of hands and
other parts of the body must be avoided.
- Interrogators and
investigators must not cover their faces or sit
behind the accused or take them to unknown
places. In general, agents must not engage in
any unconventional methods to conduct
investigations and interrogations.
- Inspections of the scene
to apprehend fugitives from justice or discovery
of instruments of crime must be in accordance
with the law and without harassment and must be
performed delicately cautiously. Documents must
not be tampered and deeds and objects which are
not connected to crime or don’t belong to the
accused Agents must refrain from disclosing the
contents of letters or written works and family
films and pictures or needlessly confiscating
such materials.
- Any type of torture of the
accused to obtain confession or forcing him/her
to other actions is prohibited and such
confession will not be recognized as a
legitimate and lawful confession.
- Investigations and
interrogations must be based on principles and
scientific methods, which are learned in
advance, during investigation and interrogation
necessary supervision must be applied, and the
officers who ignore rules and regulations and
wrongly execute their duties and obligations,
will be severely dealt with in accordance with
the law.
- Questions should be clear,
useful and relevant to the accusation or
attributed accusations. Curiosity in personal
and family secrets must be avoided as well as
posing questions related to the guilt and crimes
of the person in the past, which are not
relevant to the file in question.
- The replies of the accused
must be recorded as stated without any change or
alternation to his/her statement. It must later
be read for the person who has made the
statement. Literate people, if they so wish can
write their own statements in order to prevent
any possible distortions.
- The courts and
administrators of justice are obliged to closely
supervise the prisons or detention centers under
the control of judicial police or other
organizations that by a specific law are
authorized to take the responsibilities of the
courts or administrations of justice. They must
also supervise the behavior of the officers to
the accused. In this respect to admire and
encourage the officers who uphold the law and
reprimand those who breach the law.
- Agent must refrain from
illegal tampering with the confiscated personal
items and property of the accused. The fate of
such property must be settled as soon as
possible or at the time of the issuance of order
or in courts and prosecutors office. As long as
the fate of the said property remains undecided
every effort must be made to protect said items.
Under no circumstances should they be used for
personal purposes.
- The chief of judiciary is
obliged to assign a delegation to supervise the
good implementation of the above-mentioned
issues. All the concerned and affiliated
organizations are obliged to cooperate with this
delegation. The delegation is obliged in case of
observing wrong doing and breaching the law, to
try to correct the methods and bring them to
conformity with laws and regulations and
severely deal with those who break the law
through a competent authority and inform the
chief of judiciary of the measures taken in this
respect.
It is noteworthy that the above mentioned act was previously
a constitution-based directive which later has been turned
into a law by the Parliament.
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