Iran: Further information on: Medical concern/Fear for safety/incommunicado detention, Akbar Ganji

Amnesty International asked for Urgent action about Akbar Ganji in 23 August 2005 !

They mentioned that :

Prisoner of conscience Akbar Ganji has reportedly ended his two-month hunger strike. His wife, Massoumeh Shafii, was allowed to visit him on 21 August in the Milad hospital in the capital Tehran for the first time in almost three weeks. She said that Akbar Ganji was in "fair health" and was eating soup and stewed fruit. He is at risk of being returned to Evin prison when he leaves hospital, to serve the remainder of his six-year sentence. He is still demanding his unconditional release.

Akbar Ganji was arrested in April 2000, together with 17 other Iranian journalists and intellectuals who had taken part in a cultural conference in Berlin. He was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment, which was reduced on appeal to six months, for "taking part in an attempt against national security" and "propaganda against the Islamic system" .In July 2001 he was tried on charges of "collecting confidential state documents to jeopardize state security" and "spreading propaganda", and was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment. In 2000 he wrote a series of articles, which were later published as a book, in which he implicated several high-ranking officials in the 1998 murders of several prominent writers and political activists, in what became known as the "serial murders" case.

Amnesty International mentioned that many thanks to all who sent appeals on behalf of Akbar Ganji. Amnesty International will continue to monitor his case, and will take further action as necessary. If possible, they asked send a final round of appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in English, Persian, Arabic or your own language:

- welcoming reports that Akbar Ganji has ended his hunger strike and that his health is improving;

- welcoming reports that Akbar Ganji has been granted access to his family;

- seeking confirmation that he is allowed to meet his lawyer, and that these meetings are confidential;

- calling for Akbar Ganji to be released unconditionally, as he is a prisoner of conscience, arrested solely for the peaceful expression of his beliefs.

APPEALS TO: (It may be difficult to get through to Iranian fax numbers, but please keep trying)

Leader of the Islamic Republic .

His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei.

The Presidency, Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic of IranFax: + 98 21 649 5880

(please mark ‘For the attention of the Office of His Excellency, Ayatollah al Udhma Khamenei)Email: info@wilayah.org

Salutation: Your Excellency

Head of the Judiciary

His Excellency Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi

Ministry of Justice, Park-e Shahr, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran

Email: irjpr@iranjudiciary.org (mark 'Please forward to HE Ayatollah Shahroudi')

Salutation: Your Excellency

COPIES TO:

Speaker of Parliament

Gholamali Haddad Adel

Majles-e Shoura-ye Eslami (Parliament)Imam Khomeini Avenue, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran

Fax: + 98 21 646 1746

and to diplomatic representatives of Iran accredited to your country.

Amnesty International mentioned that ;PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat, or your section office, if sending appeals after 4 October 2005.********

Refugees have rights - Questions & Answers

Who is a refugee?

More than 140 governments have now signed the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (the Refugee Convention). This Convention includes an internationally agreed definition of who is a refugee. A refugee is a person who is outside her country of origin and genuinely risks serious human rights abuses because of who she is or what she believes. She cannot or will not return because her government cannot or will not protect her. Because of the persecution she would face, a refugee is entitled to be protected against forcible return to her country of origin. Even if she is not a refugee, Amnesty International (AI) would also oppose the forcible return of anyone to a country where she can reasonably be expected to be in danger of torture, execution or “disappearance”. Likewise, AI opposes return to a country where a person faces the death penalty.

What are her rights?

Like anyone else, refugees have human rights. They also have rights because they are refugees. These rights include:
Protection against discrimination
Freedom of religion
Identity and travel documents
Work rights
Housing, education and relief
Protection against penalties for illegal entry
Freedom of movementRefugees should have access to a durable solution, which may be local integration in her country of asylum, resettlement to another country, or voluntary repatriation to her country of origin. Voluntary return should be safe and dignified and with full respect for human rights because history has shown that if a situation in a country is not stable, this will lead to people being forced to leave their homes again.

Who is an asylum seeker?

An asylum-seeker is a person who is seeking protection as a refugee even though she may not have been formally recognised as one. It normally applies to a person who is still waiting for the government to decide whether she is a refugee. The lack of a formal recognition does not make her any less entitled to protection of international refugee law.

1.To ensure that refugees are able to access their rights, AI works to ensure that asylum-seekers
2.are not prohibited from entering a country to seek asylum;
3.have access to fair procedures for determining whether they are refugees;
4.are not detained (unless they have been charged with a recognizably criminal offence);
can contact family, friends, lawyers, interpreters and organisations that can help them (UN High Commissioner for Refugees - UNHCR);

5.have access to basic economic, social and cultural rights, for example work, education, and social assistance.

Do asylum seekers have rights?

Yes - The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) sets out everyone’s basic human rights. Article 14 (1) says that “Everyone has the right to seek and enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution”.

Because they may in fact be refugees, asylum-seekers should enjoy the same rights as refugees unless they are found not to be refugees. They therefore have rights under the Refugee Convention.

AI does not oppose return of rejected asylum seekers if they have had access to a fair and satisfactory asylum procedure and their return can take place in safety, dignity and with full respect for human rights.[link to Afghan Returns reports]

Who is a migrant?

A migrant is simply a person who moves from one place to another. They may be forced to leave because they are afraid, starving, or desperate for the safety and security of their family. They may move voluntarily. They may leave for a whole mixture of reasons.

Do migrants have rights?

Yes - Migrants are human beings, so they have human rights like the right to life, to freedom from arbitrary detention, freedom from torture, and to an adequate standard of living. There are some international legal standards which are specific to the rights of migrant workers, like Conventions of the International Labour Organization. AI welcomes that the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families entered into force on 1 July 2003. This is an important recognition that migrants’ rights must also be respected and protected.

Who is an Internally Displaced Person (IDP)?

An internally displaced person is a person who has had to flee one part of a country to another. The main difference between an IDP and a refugee is that a refugee has crossed an international border. Like refugees, IDPs leave because of problems like war, ethnic cleansing, religious persecution, or famine. Sometimes IDPs go on to ask for refugee status in another country because they could not find safety in their own.

Do internally displaced persons have rights?

Yes - Internally displaced persons are human beings, so they have human rights. Although their government is obliged to protect their human rights, one of the problems that IDPs have is that their government cannot or will not protect them. To make it clear that IDPs have rights, and to remind governments of their obligations to protect IDPs, the UN developed Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. Although they are not binding in the same way that a treaty is, they draw on human rights law, humanitarian law (the law of war), and refugee law.

Facts and figures

Current estimates are that there are 175 million migrants in the world, which is roughly 2.8% of the world’s population, currently estimated to be 6.3 billion. There is an estimated 10.6 million refugees in the world, or roughly 0.17% of the world’s population. And numbers of internally displaced persons are currently estimated to be around 25.8 million, 0.4% of the world’s population.

The majority of refugees and IDPs are in Asia and Africa, which between them host a total of 9.2 million refugees and 18.1 million IDPs.

What does Amnesty International do to protect the rights of refugees, asylum-seekers, migrants and IDPs?

AI does research and advocacy for the protection and promotion of the human rights of refugees, asylum seekers, migrants and IDPs. We work towards securing their fundamental rights and to improving and maintaining the quality of protection of people who are entitled to it. We do this by exposing human rights abuses and protection failures, advocating policy and legal changes, and sometimes through taking action on individual cases or issues.

AI has a global network of Refugee Coordinators in more than 50 countries who take action on some individual cases or issues, lobby their own governments for changes in laws and policies and work with other non-government organisations to promote the protection of the rights of asylum seekers, refugees, migrants and IDPs.

The staff at the International Secretariat in London and Geneva work towards influencing international policy and standard setting, as well as advocating for the effective implementation of international standards, policies and guidelines in a way that respects the human rights of asylum-seekers, refugees, migrants and IDPs.

Refugee Coordinators, the International Secretariat as well as UN offices in Geneva, New York and an EU office in Bruxelles work towards an overall strengthening of the international protection framework. This includes calling on states to share responsibility for protecting refugees.

Amnesty International does not represent individual asylum-seekers or refugees, but sometimes takes action in individual cases. If Amnesty International does not actively support a particular case it does not necessarily mean that the organisation believes that the person or persons concerned is not deserving of protection as a refugee. Asylum-seekers, lawyers, and decision-makers often use country information and analysis from AI reports during asylum procedures.

Amnesty International.

Refugee sues Australia government

A 10-year-old Iranian boy has launched a landmark legal case against the Australian government.

Shayan Badraie claims his time in refugee detention camps caused catastrophic mental health problems.
He is the first refugee to seek compensation for the experience of being detained in Australia.
Nearly 4,000 children have been held in Australia's refugee detention camps in the past five years, and this case is likely to be the first of many.
Through his father Mahommad Saeed Badraie, Shayan is suing the Immigration Department and two detention centre operators.
"This case is not about the policy of mandatory detention," his lawyer Andrew Morrison told the New South Wales Supreme Court in Sydney on Monday.
"It is about the way in which it was carried out, and the permanent injury inflicted on a young child by a regime which failed to provide for his medical needs," Mr Morrison is quoted as saying.
Harsh conditions
The Badraie family arrived among a boatload of refugees in early 2000, when Shayan was five.
Authorities put the family behind the razor-wire fences of a remote detention camp in the outback.
According to his lawyers, Shayan saw riots broken up with tear gas and water cannons, watched as people tried to commit suicide and was exposed to hunger strikes at the camp.
He endured conditions that no child nor human being should be expected to cope with, his lawyers say.
His parents claim Shayan has a condition which leaves him sitting in silence for days, refusing to eat or drink, and he frequently needs hospital treatment to survive.
Three years ago, the Australian Human Rights Commission ruled that Shayan's detention was unjust.
The body recommended the government pay compensation and the costs of psychiatric treatment - but the government declined.

BBC NEWS,Monday, 29 August 2005 .

Why make a special case for children? ( Children Rights)

“To look into some aspects of the future, we do not need projections by supercomputers. Much of the next millennium can be seen in how we care for our children today. Tomorrow's world may be influenced by science and technology, but more than anything, it is already taking shape in the bodies and minds of our children.” – Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations .

The world community in the earliest declarations of human rights recognized the priority that should be accorded to protecting children's rights. Of course, governments must be sensitive to the rights of all their citizens – not just to those of children. But there are strong reasons for making a special case for children's rights:

Children are individuals. They have equal status with adults as members of the human family. Children are neither the possessions of parents nor of the state, nor are they mere people-in-the-making. Governments are morally obliged to recognize the full spectrum of human rights for all children. Using the Convention's definition of children as all human beings being below the age of 18, a large portion indeed of the world's population must be considered.

The healthy development of children is crucial to the future well-being of any society. UNICEF responds to the needs of children in emergency situations, but most UNICEF activities take a long-term perspective by seeking to combat the 'silent emergencies' – such as disease, malnutrition and poverty – that threaten the future of children and societies worldwide.

Children start life as totally dependent beings. Children must rely on adults for the nurture and guidance they need to grow towards independence; such nurture is ideally found in adults in children's families, but when primary caregivers cannot meet children's needs, it is up to society to fill the gap. Because they are still developing, children are especially vulnerable – more so than adults – to poor living conditions such as poverty, inadequate health care, nutrition, safe water, housing and environmental pollution and these conditions in turn jeopardize children's physical, mental and emotional development.

The actions – or inactions – of government impact children more strongly than any other group in society. Practically every area of government policy (for example, education, public health and so on) affects children to some degree – either directly or indirectly. But in many countries throughout the world, policy-making fails to take children into account, threatening their futures. Such a short-sighted approach has a negative impact on the future of all members of society by giving rise to policies that cannot work.

Children's views are rarely heard and rarely considered in the political process. Children generally do not vote and do not otherwise take part in political processes. While many States are beginning to listen seriously to children's views on many important issues – as expressed at home and in schools, in local communities and even in governments – the process of change is still in its earliest stages.

Many changes in society are having a disproportionate – and often negative – impact on children. These changes include transformation of the family structure, globalization, shifting employment patterns and a shrinking social welfare net in many countries. Children are sensitive barometers of social and economic change and the impact of those changes can be particularly devastating in situations of armed conflict and other emergencies.

The costs to society of failing its children are huge. Governments are aware of social research findings that show that children's earliest experiences – within the family and with other caregivers – significantly influence the future course of their development. The way in which children develop determines whether they will make a net contribution – or pose a huge cost – to society over the course of their lives.

The global trend of urbanization has taken an especially severe toll on children. Changes in the global economy, unfavourable weather conditions and recurring armed conflicts have led in recent years to the rapid growth of urban areas worldwide. With nearly half of the urban population in the developing world living in poverty, the plight of children often worsens when families relocate from the countryside to large cities. Dreams of improved living circumstances go unrealized following such moves, while parents and children lose support systems with the break-up of extended families. Among the most conspicuous signs of the poverty of the urban slums is the presence of children on the street – scavenging, begging, hawking and soliciting.

( Children and Adolscent Rights)

Think about your country?!

Iran: Security Forces Kill Kurdish Protestors

Government Must Investigate Killings and Release Detained Activists .

The Iranian government must investigate the deaths of at least 17 people at the hands of security forces in the western province of Kurdistan over the past two weeks, Human Rights Watch said today.

Security forces reportedly also wounded hundreds when they opened fire on demonstrators protesting the killing of a young Kurdish man, Shivan Qaderi, on July 9.

In addition, the government forces arrested hundreds of people throughout the province, including Roya Toloui, a women's rights activist, and several other leading human rights defenders and journalists.

On July 9, security forces shot and killed Shivan Qaderi in Mahabad. Kurdish groups, quoting Qaderi's brother, said that Qaderi was approached by the security forces in public, shot three times, and then tied to a military vehicle and dragged around the city. According to these reports, Qaderi was a social and political activist, but government authorities have accused him of “moral and financial violations.”

In the wake of Qaderi's murder, protests erupted in several cities and towns in Kurdistan. Protestors demanded that the government apprehend Qaderi's killers and put them on trial. Some of the protests reportedly involved attacks on government buildings and offices. Human Rights Watch obtained a list of 17 protestors killed by the security forces, including three people shot dead in Oshnavieh on July 26, two people shot dead in Baneh on July 30, one person shot dead in Sardasht on August 2, and 11 people shot dead in Saqqez on August 3.

“The Iranian government needs to conduct a full and impartial investigation into the violent response to the recent protests in Kurdistan,” said Hadi Ghaemi, Iran researcher for Human Rights Watch. “Officials who are responsible for any excessive use of lethal force must be prosecuted.”

On August 7, officials of the Interior Ministry said that two men died in Saqqez on August 3, but they denied that government forces had fired on protestors. However, two residents of Saqqez told Human Rights Watch that Special Units (Yiganhay-e Vizhe) of the Revolutionary Guards fired indiscriminately in an effort to disperse the crowds.

“The security forces moved towards the protestors while shooting directly at them,” one eyewitness told Human Rights Watch. Eyewitnesses also told Human Rights Watch that one of the dead in Saqqez, Mohammad Shariati, was shot in the head.

“As his family tried to retrieve his body, the security forces pointed their guns at them and threatened to shoot them. Then they started beating his family with batons,” said an eyewitness who told Human Rights Watch that she saw Shariati fall to the ground.

In addition, eyewitnesses said that the security forces in Saqqez flew helicopters quite low in an effort to disperse the demonstrators, who numbered in the hundreds.

According to local residents, major cities in Kurdistan remain surrounded by units of the Revolutionary Guard and that an undeclared martial law is effectively in place throughout the region.

Iranian authorities blamed the unrest on “hooligan and criminal elements” and charged that “public and state-owned buildings, including banks, were damaged.” Human Rights Watch recognizes the responsibility of the government to take steps to deal with threats to public safety and property. However, the government's response must be lawful and governed by the standards set out in the U.N. Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials and the U.N. Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials. These principles state that “intentional lethal use of firearms may only be made when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life.”

On August 2, the government shut down Ashti newspaper and the weekly Asu in Kurdistan. Authorities detained Roya Toloui, a leading women's rights activist, at her home in Sanandaj for “disturbing the peace” and “acting against national security.”

On the same day, security forces detained other prominent journalists and human rights defenders at their homes and offices including Azad Zamani, a member of the Association for the Defense of Children's Rights; Mohammad Sadeq Kabudvand, journalist and co-founder of Kurdistan Human Rights Organization; Jalal Qavami, editor of the journal Payam-e Mardom; and Mahmoud Salehi, the spokesman for the Organizational Committee to Establish Trade Unions.

Human Rights Watch called on the Iranian government to immediately and unconditionally release detained journalists, human rights defenders and activists.

(New York, August 11, 2005 ,HUMAN RIGHTS NEWS)

Iran: Harassment of Rights Defenders Escalates

(New York, August 3, 2005) — The Iranian government intensified its attacks on independent human rights defenders by arresting prominent lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani and threatening Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, Human Rights Watch said on 3 of Aygust.

On Saturday evening, July 30, agents of the Judiciary, operating under the authority of Tehran chief prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi, arrested Soltani inside the offices of the Lawyers Association in Tehran. The next day, a Judiciary spokesman announced that Soltani was arrested for “revealing secrets relating to the case of nuclear spies.” Soltani is currently being held in Evin prison in Tehran but has yet to be brought before a judge or formally charged.

The Judiciary statement suggests that Soltani unlawfully divulged information from clients of his who have been charged with revealing Iran’s nuclear secrets. But Soltani has no access to the files in the case. Instead, Human Rights Watch said the arrest appears to be a politically motivated response by the government to Soltani’s role in the Zahra Kazemi case, the Iranian-Canadian photojournalist murdered in July 2003 while she was in government custody. A few days earlier on July 25, Soltani stated before the court of appeals that Kazemi had been in the custody of Judiciary agents and security forces when she was murdered, and that the Judiciary’s continued inaction two years after her death was a cover-up.

“Soltani’s arrest is an ominous sign for human rights in Iran as the new president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prepares to take office,” said Hadi Ghaemi, Iran researcher for Human Rights Watch.

Soltani’s arrest came during a week when human rights lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi received numerous threats from the Judiciary officials. Ebadi is co-counsel with Soltani in the Kazemi case and participated in the July 25 hearing. On July 30, Mortazavi’s deputy stated publicly that Ebadi was orchestrating the hunger strike of imprisoned journalist Akbar Ganji and that she “has suspicious ties to foreigners.”

Last week, the daily Kayhan, which has close ties to Mortazavi, repeatedly published similar accusations against Ebadi. Ebadi has strongly rejected these accusations, saying “These are attempts to cover up truths that certain people do not wish to see exposed.”

“With the threats against Nobel winner Shirin Ebadi with her international stature,” said Ghaemi, “how can any critic feel safe in Iran?”

Ebadi and Soltani are co-founders of the Center for Defense of Human Rights in Tehran. The Center’s lawyers represent victims of human rights abuses. These include a number of high profile cases, notably Akbar Ganji and the family of Zahra Kazemi.

Ganji, who has spent the last five-and-a-half years in prison because of his writings, has been on hunger strike for more than 50 days. According to his wife, he is near death and is sustained only by occasional injection of fluids to which he strongly objects.

“It is no coincidence that Soltani and Ebadi are now under attack. These actions are politically motivated to prevent human rights defenders from holding the government accountable for its actions and to intimidate and silence them,” Ghaemi said.

In 2002, the Iranian Judiciary arrested and convicted another prominent lawyer, Nasser Zarafshan, after an unfair trial behind closed doors, on charges of “disseminating confidential information.” He was sentenced to five years in prison. Zarafshan represented the families of intellectuals and writers murdered by intelligence ministry agents in 1998.

Human Rights Watch said that the government of Iran has an affirmative obligation to protect Ganji, Ebadi, Soltani and other rights advocates. The United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, which the General Assembly adopted by consensus in 1998, declares that states “shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of [human rights defenders] against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary actions” as a consequence of their legitimate effort to promote human rights.

Human Rights Watch called on the government to end its harassment and persecution of lawyers and human rights defenders and to release Akbar Ganji and Abdolfattah Soltani from custody immediately and unconditionally.(Human Rights news ,August 3,2005)

Nobel winners back Ganji petition

Eight Nobel laureates have signed a petition calling on Iran to free an imprisoned journalist, said to be close to death after weeks on hunger strike.


The petitioners, backed by Paris-based media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders, say they fear Akbar Ganji will die if he is not released soon.

Mr Ganji was jailed for implicating top officials in a series of political assassinations.

He has been only drinking tea and water for the past 55 days.

Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian human rights activist and lawyer, launched the petition early in July.

A further seven Nobel laureates have signed the open letter to Iranian leaders, calling on them to release Mr Ganji immediately.

Among them are John Hume, holder of the 1998 peace prize, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, holder of the 1984 peace prize.

The other laureate signatories are Jody Williams, holder of the 1997 peace prize; Mairead Corrigan Maguire, holder of the 1976 peace prize; Betty Williams, holder of the 1976 peace prize; Maurice Allais, holder of the 1988 Nobel prize for economics; and Georges Charpak, holder of the 1992 Nobel prize for physics.

"Iran's most senior officials must heed this very clear message from eight world figures who have made outstanding contributions to peace and science," Reporters Without Borders said in a statement.

The Nobel laureates join a growing list of people, including US President George W Bush and former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who have called for Mr Ganji to be released.

Earlier this week, the French foreign ministry summoned Iran's top acting diplomat in Paris to urge Tehran to free the reporter.

A spokesman for Iran's judiciary has said the only way Mr Ganji could be freed is if he requested a pardon, which so far the writer has refused to do.

(Friday, 5 August 2005, BBC NEWS)