Iran Review

Dr. Mahmoud Reza Golshanpazhooh

The seventh session of Universal Periodic Review (UPR) was held at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on Feb. 8-19 to discuss human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran and national reports presented by 15 more countries including Qatar, Nicaragua, Italy, El Salvador, Gambia, Bolivia, Fiji, San Marino, Kazakhstan, Angola, Madagascar, Iraq, Slovenia, Egypt, and Bosnia & Herzegovina.

The session was marked by heavy propaganda against Iran which started weeks before the session and continued into the session. Apart from visual, written, and digital media, a large number of nongovernmental organizations as well as human rights activists were taking positions against the Islamic Republic of Iran encouraging Human Rights Council member states to be more painstaking on human rights situation in Iran.

The Iranian delegation comprised 33 members and was given one hour to present its national human rights report during which head of the Iranian Human Rights Headquarters, Mohammad Javad Larijani together with a female Majlis deputy, a representative of Assyrians in the Iranian parliament, a judge, a female university chancellor and a director general from the Ministry of Interior did their best to cover the most important human rights issues related to Iran. On the other side, a number of European countries accompanied by the United States, Australia and Canada severely criticized the situation of political and civil rights in Iran. Focusing on the political unrest in Iran subsequent to the presidential elections in June 2009 as well as some criminal verdicts handed down by Iranian courts and the situation of minorities, they did their best to get Iran condemned for violating the rights of citizens. Meanwhile, a number of developing countries pointed to Iran’s progresses in economic, social and cultural fronts and considered efforts made by the Iranian government to promote health care, education and an acceptable living standard for its people important. Some delegates maintained that the human rights issue in Iran should be discussed away from political motivations.

There may exist positive or negative arguments on who is right and who is wrong; can human rights be given priority over economic, civil, political, social or cultural rights; and whether the session was a failure or a triumph for Iran? However, this paper will not focus on those questions and will simply explain about recommendations which have been accepted by Iran.

Universal Periodic Review mechanism is supposed to review 192 member states of the United Nations in a four-year process (which started in 2008) for their human rights situation and obligations. Review of each country starts with three reports: a national report prepared by the State under review, a report by the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights on commitment of that State to human rights institutions and international treaties, and a third report containing viewpoints and recommendations presented by stakeholders. In a three-hour session which follows, the State under review will answer to viewpoints, criticisms, and proposals offered by other countries and receive their recommendations. The State under review may accept or reject those recommendations or postpone a decision on them pending further consideration.

Although many experts, especially nongovernmental organizations and independent human rights activists consider the right of governments to accept or reject recommendations as contradictory to the goal of promoting human rights situation in the world (and some activists have harshly criticized China’s practice in accepting 42 and rejecting 50 out of 99 recommendations offered to it), many others maintain that the procedure will make states undertake voluntary commitments which will finally promote human rights situation in their countries by getting it closer to provisions of international treaties. This viewpoint attaches importance to recommendations that have been accepted by each state. At first, it may appear that recommendations that are rejected by a state are more important. However, this view ignores the fact that accepted recommendations will provide international and nongovernmental observers with good grounds to commend or criticize a state for commitments it has officially accepted and which have been registered as UN document.

The Islamic Republic of Iran rejected 40 recommendations, accepted 123 and reserved 23 recommendations for further consideration in June 2010. A complete list of those recommendations will be available through Human Rights Council website, but a number of recommendations offered by Western countries which have been accepted by Iran (despite the conflict of viewpoints between Iran and the west over human rights) are mentioned here:

- Full compliance with international commitments and constitutional guarantees, especially prohibition of torture (Austria);

- Investigating behavior of the police force, military personnel, prisons staff, and judicial authorities for any case of human rights violation, especially torture (Czech Republic);

- Making sure about compliance of laws and executive procedures with Article 18 of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other international human rights treaties (Poland);

- To guarantee civil and political rights for all people, especially the opposition and minorities (Chile);

- To take steps to guarantee effectiveness and impartiality of the judicial system according to International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (the Netherlands);

- Establishment of national human rights institutions based on Paris Principles (Poland);

- Cooperation with special rapporteurs of the United Nations and accepting their requests for inspecting Iranian prisons (Luxemburg);

- Allowing High Commissioner for Human Rights, special rapporteurs and other UN experts to visit Iran (US);

- Allowing a visit to Iran by delegates of the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (Australia);

- Increasing efforts to prevent all kinds of discrimination (Nicaragua);

- To guarantee equal treatment of women and girls both in laws and practice (Austria);

- Possibility of giving Iranian nationality to children born to Iranian mothers regardless of nationality of their fathers (Mexico);

- Taking steps to further prohibit torture and guarantee establishment of an effective and impartial judicial system (Denmark);

- Respecting the rights of prisoners and detainees and investigations into alleged mistreatment of prisoners (Ireland);

- Making sure that treatment of detainees conforms to international standards (Estonia);

- Investigation into and legal prosecution of government forces and militia suspected of mistreating, torturing and killing demonstrators, political activists, human rights advocates and journalists (Canada);

- Investigation into and punishment for all cases of violation of human rights through arbitrary and extrajudicial detention and torture by state and security forces (the Netherlands);

- Implementing the policy of intolerance for smuggling of women and young girls, prostitution, and child pornography (Germany);

- Implementing constitutional articles on freedom of worship (US);

- Respect for freedom of religion (Germany);

- To guarantee the right of free expression, free press and political activities  (Italy);

- To guarantee free and unlimited access to the Internet (the Netherlands);

- To review legal provisions on freedom of expression and gatherings for conformity to international human rights standards (Slovakia);

- Increased cooperation with nongovernmental organizations and making sure about adequate support for human rights advocates (Ireland);

- Immediate release or trial before court of all people detained in relation to protests which followed the 10th presidential election according to international standards and domestic laws of Iran (Canada);

- To guarantee access by all people detained in relation to protests after presidential election to legal counseling (Poland);

- Make sure about just and transparent trial of seven Bahais arrested in Iran (Australia);

- To guarantee that legal freedom of expression, gatherings and association is not considered a crime by domestic laws (Australia).

These are just part of recommendations which have been accepted by the Iranian delegation. Interestingly, when some European countries and US representative protested to rejection of some recommendations by Iran, the head of the Iranian delegation, Mohammad Javad Larijani, noted that some recommendations had been rejected because of their inappropriate language and impoliteness which made them unsuitable for promotion of cooperation to improve the situation of human rights in the world. His statement and the list of recommendations accepted by Iran will prove that Iran has knowingly accepted commitments which will be later used by the international community as criteria against which Iran’s human rights behavior will be judged. This shows that Iran is sure about its human rights conduct and policies. Inviting Ms. Navanethem Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, to visit Iran in 2011, declaring Iran’s readiness to be visited by special rapporteurs on human rights, and acceptance of a number of recommendations offered by Western countries examples of which were mentioned above, further substantiate Iran’s will to do away with misunderstandings about its human rights situation and adoption of such an approach for any reason and from any viewpoint should be considered positive development.

Some may say that post-election unrests have forced the Iranian government to accept those recommendations and others may call Iran’s measures mere demagoguery.
Other analysts may also consider pressure from Western states and international figures the main reason why Iran has accepted those recommendations and some will say that Iran is trying to reduce pressures in order to focus more on other areas including the nuclear technology.

Anyway, the list of recommendations accepted by Iran is telltale of a very positive approach which is of the highest importance.