Gross and Systematic Violations of Human Rights in Iran

 The human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran is still abhorrent and no effective initiative is under way to help by the democratic countries and the intellectuals of the free world. In summary:

1.    on a daily basis people disappear, are tortured, persecuted and executed for political or religious reasons. Victims are not able to express their sufferings publicly. Neither can their families express their sufferings in a public forum.

2.    Agents of the Islamic Republic have assassinated Iranian refugees and opponents of the regime abroad. The culprits have never been arrested and prosecuted except in rare exceptional cases.

3.Organizers of such assassinations (e.g. assassinations of Reza MAZLOUMAN – former Deputy Minister of Education; Cyrus ELAHI – former Assistant Minister of Education; Shapour BAKHTIAR – former Prime Minister and Shahriar SHAFIGH, an Iranian Naval Officer;... which took place in France; as well as assassinations of Kurdish Democratic Party leaders, which took place in Austria and in Germany, and over a hundred in other parts of the world , …) are all high-ranking officials of the Islamic Republic and have never been apprehended and tried.

4.    Yet, for 27 years, refugee victims outside Iran, or worse still, people inside Iran have rarely had a chance to appear as plaintiffs concerning their sufferings, before an independent tribunal.

5.    In effect, international justice, that had at one time, in certain countries like Belgium, envisaged the principle of Universal Jurisdiction, condemning Crimes against Humanity, acts of torture and bringing culprits to book, was renounced in early 2002. Except in very rare exceptional cases, like in Rwanda or Yugoslavia, International Criminal Jurisdiction does not cover heinous crimes like those committed in Iran today.

6.    Many reasons impede this progress of the law and Justice – Iran’s oil exports and economic power, the general political situation in that part of the world, the geopolitical situation of Iran, fear of terrorist activities by the ruling clerics and finally, the existence of enormous oil and gas reserves in the country and Iran, geopolitical position. Those are indeed some of the contributing factors in the conspiracy of silence practiced by many leaders of the world Today.

7. Today, inside Iran, thousands of innocent individuals are behind bars, being tortured under appalling circumstances and eliminated – for mere expression of opinion and refusal to repent.

8. To date, there have been more than 160 political assassinations of Iranian opponents of the regime outside of Iran, not counting 200 or more aborted attempts. The pursuit of such a policy clearly shows that it is the regime’s intention to eliminate political opponents abroad as well.

9. The application of the" Islamic law" to the Iranian women has led to a system of apartheid and repression of their equal status with men, in law and in fact. In the last 27 years, over 450 women have been stoned to death. This practice still continues today.

10. Under the provisions of the Law of Vengeance, culprits could be condemned to stoning, flogging, amputation of legs, arms, hands, fingers and/or plucking of eyes.

11. During the past 27 years an estimated number of over 125,000 persons have been summarily executed and tens of thousands tortured.

12.    In Islamic Revolutionary Courts, which deal with - “political and social crimes” - the same person acts as the judge, the jury and the prosecutor at the same time?

13.    Due to this ongoing horrendous state of affairs, during the past 27 years over 3.8 million Iranians have sought refuge in other countries. Still today, by the regime’s own official statistics, over 200,000 are leaving Iran each year.

14.    The clerical regime in Iran is today known as the most active state sponsor of international terrorism. Besides the 1978-79 US embassy hostage takings,It is widely suspected to have been behind many acts of terrorism abroad, including, among others: the 1986 series of terrorist acts in Paris, France; the hostage takings in Beirut, Lebanon; the 1996 Al-Khobar bombings against U.S. soldiers stationed in Saudi Arabia; the 1982 U.S. Marine barracks bombings and French Embassy bombings in Beirut; and the 1994 Jewish Community Centre bombing in Buenos Aires – all of which have resulted in the loss of lives of several hundred innocent individuals.

Iranians from throughout the world have played a key role in the creation of the Committee on international Crimes of the Islamic Republic, the International Moral Court on Iran and have been the sole source of its funding (visit: www.derafsh.org and see under www.iri-crimes.de ). The international Tribunal passes Moral Judgments. Its success in mobilizing world public opinion has been astounding for the culprits – as well as for some of their victims who appeared before the court and whose identities were made public. The Court has also set an important precedent for similar cases worldwide and made a great contribution in the field of International Protection of Human Rights.