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October 24, 2024

Rouhani’s government record, human rights on the sidelines / Reza Haghighatnejad

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On Friday, September 27th, Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, was a guest at the non-governmental think tank, the Council on Foreign Relations, in New York. A combination of politicians and media figures spoke and listened to Zarif for about two hours, without mentioning a word about the human rights situation in Iran. The first topic of discussion was the nuclear program, and the final topic was ISIS.

Such an event is considered a natural success in the diplomacy of the Rouhani government. On July 3rd of this year, “Navie Pillay”, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, called for the issue of human rights to be raised in the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group. Now, even on the sidelines of discussions related to Iran’s nuclear case, there is no mention of discussions and talks about the human rights situation in this country. It can be said that they have succeeded in diverting the attention of the participants from the issue of human rights in Iran; an approach in which they have enough experience and skill.

In the second step, Mohammad Javad Zarif met with Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and proactively addressed the issue of human rights in Iran. He stated that the UN’s approach to this issue in Iran is political and “contrary to the real process and actions of the Iranian government.” In the past year, Ban Ki-moon has criticized the failure of President Rouhani’s government to fulfill its promises regarding human rights twice.

The Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs has over three decades of experience in defending human rights in Iran. In the early 1960s, when he was an employee of the Iranian mission to the United Nations, he worked alongside figures such as Cyrus Nasseri (a member of Iran’s nuclear team in the Khatami government) and Saeed Emami (a well-known figure in the chain murders case) to defend the human rights situation in Iran.

One of the most well-known tactics in defending the Iranian government is emphasizing the independence of the judiciary. The issue is simple: when the judiciary makes decisions and carries them out regarding human rights in Iran, the government’s hands are tied from interfering based on the law. This tactic was heavily favored and used by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Mohammad Javad Zarif has also mentioned it at least twice in the past year. However, the Iranian foreign minister has also spoken about the “plans and actions of the government” in a meeting with Ban Ki-moon.

In the first step of examining the government’s program and actions, we can use the track record of Mohammad Javad Zarif as an example to better understand the Foreign Minister’s claims. Let’s start from the end; despite announcing readiness for a dialogue on the human rights situation in Iran two weeks ago, at the end of June, he strongly criticized the Western approach to human rights while attending a meeting of the Coordination Council for Human Rights in Iran – which is under the control of the judiciary – and said they are using these excuses to destroy Iran.

In the past year, he has also made other references in this regard. According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, there is no political execution in Iran. He does not know Majid Tavakoli, a prominent student activist, and has only heard of Nasrin Sotoudeh, a famous Iranian lawyer, through the media. He also criticized the visit of Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, to Iran last year and referred to activists such as Narges Mohammadi and the mother of Sattar Beheshti as “seditionists”. This position was met with surprise and negative reaction from Narges Mohammadi, who wrote a letter to the Iranian Foreign Minister stating that she is a victim of injustice and discrimination, not a seditionist. This spring, Mohammad Javad Zarif also took a stance against the repeated references to the European Parliament’s resolution on the human rights situation in Iran.

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The aggressive and negative attitude of the Iranian Foreign Minister against the human rights reports of international organizations is taking place while in his memoir, he writes about the experience of cutting off cooperation with “Renee Galindo-Pohl”, the Special Representative of the Human Rights Commission in Iran in the mid-60s, stating: “Because some of his demands were equivalent to undermining the intellectual positions of some individuals inside, cooperation with Galindo-Pohl was stopped. After that, the process of issuing resolutions in the United Nations was taken over and continued for a long time.”

Despite such experiences, he has not only not taken a step back in the past year, but in a step forward, Ayatollah Khamenei’s words in the 92 elections about “respecting people’s rights” have been described as a new, scientific and academic discourse in the field of human rights, which according to him can be a new legal basis at the global and international level.

In addition, a look at the statistics can also shed light on the situation. Currently, according to the report by Reporters Without Borders, 65 journalists are imprisoned in Iran. The number of imprisoned journalists has almost doubled in the past year. During this time, 6 publications have been shut down and the distribution of several others has been prevented. In the case of some publications, the Press Supervisory Board, which has several government members, has played a direct role in their confiscation. In a few cases, the Secretariat of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, which is controlled by the government, has filed complaints against journalists who have criticized the government and are affiliated with the hardline spectrum.

More precisely, the Iranian government has not taken any negative stance on this issue in the past year, but has played a role in legitimizing certain behaviors. Recently, Ali Jannati, the Minister of Culture and Guidance of the Hassan Rouhani government, has stated that the situation of freedom of expression and media in Iran has improved. Iran’s current ranking in terms of freedom of expression and media among 179 countries is 173.

In addition to the arrests of media activists during the past year, dozens of social media activists have also been detained. According to Ahmad Shahid’s report, more than 300 religious activists have been added to this list. Furthermore, according to the report of the Iranian Human Rights Organization, the number of executions in Iran has increased by 47% to 687 cases during the year 92. The Rouhani government has not shown any specific reaction to this issue.

The freedom of political prisoners and the lifting of the house arrest of the leaders of the Green Movement was one of the specific promises of Hassan Rouhani in the 92 elections. However, not only has there been no significant change in the situation of these two political figures, but in the past year, the sentences of some reformist activists and journalists have been carried out and the scope of political threats and strictness by the judiciary and security institutions has increased. The spokesperson for the Iranian government or the president has not taken a specific negative stance on this trend and they continue to insist on maintaining good relations with the judiciary.

In the most important positive action, Hassan Rouhani, despite his promise to draft a Citizen Rights Charter in the first days after the election – which its implementation could be a step forward in the human rights situation in Iran – has not yet announced the final fate of this charter after more than a year, and the government is no longer interested in mentioning or promoting it.

In general, despite some positive developments such as efforts to remove filtering from social networks, reopening of cinema houses, the release of Nasrin Sotoudeh, negative stance against the detention of Happy Group, and a more respectful tone from the President of Iran towards ethnic and minority groups, it can be said that Iran is still stuck in the same cycle. It is clear that a significant part of the inefficiency and inability of the Iranian government to improve the human rights situation is due to the lack of specific powers of the government. However, the most important issue for analyzing the performance of the Rouhani government is the existence of motivation and determination to bring about change.

Silence and lack of negative stance against human rights violations by the judiciary with the argument of avoiding destruction of relationships between branches, failure to improve the situation of minorities and ethnic groups, and failure to act on specific electoral promises in this regard, glorification of the human rights situation in Iran and alignment with the human rights approach of the judiciary in Iran and some negative actions of the government such as filing complaints against media activists or the recent action of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance in filtering certain websites, clearly show that the Hassan Rouhani government has no interest or will to enter and change the human rights situation in Iran. For now, their most important motivation and plan is to sideline the issue of human rights in Iran; a project that they seem to have been somewhat successful in.

Created By: Reza Haghighatnejad
September 26, 2014

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Monthly magazine number 41