PERSIAN BLOG

Iranian earthquake

2006-04-02T13:54:00.000+03:00

At least 66 people have died and nearly a thousand have been injured in a series of deadly earthquakes in western Iran which devastated more than 300 villages in the region.
BBC

Happy Persian New Year

2006-03-22T18:01:00.000+02:00

Happy Persian New Year

Iran: Police Attack Women’s Day Celebration

2006-03-11T19:36:00.000+02:00

Iranian police and plainclothes agents yesterday charged a peaceful assembly of women’s rights activists in Tehran and beat hundreds of women and men who had gathered to commemorate International Women’s Day, Human Rights Watch said today.
The attack took place shortly after participants in the celebration assembled at Tehran’s Daneshjoo Park at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, March 8.
“The Iranian authorities marked International Women’s Day by attacking hundreds of people who had peacefully assembled to honor women’s rights,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Once again, Iran’s government has signaled that it is ready to use violence to suppress peaceful public assembly of any sort.”
Eyewitnesses told Human Rights Watch that plainclothes agents, anti-riot police and Revolutionary Guards surrounded the park where hundreds of activists gathered to mark International Women’s Day.

“This was a completely peaceful gathering with no political overtones or slogans,” one participant told Human Rights Watch. “We just held up signs in solidarity with the international women’s rights movement.”

Within minutes, after agents photographed and videotaped the gathering, the police told the crowd to disperse. In response, the participants staged a sit-in and started to sing the anthem of the women’s rights movement, one participant told Human Rights Watch.

The security forces then dumped cans of garbage on the heads of women who were seated before charging into the group and beating them with batons to compel them to leave the park.
“As we started to run away and seek shelter, they followed us and continued to beat us. I was beaten several times on my arm, below the waist, and on my wrist,” an activist said.

The commander of security forces at the scene, Ghodratollah Mahmoudi, told the Iranian Labor News Agency that “this gathering was held without an official permit. The response by the security forces prevented the gathering to take on a political dimension.”

Among those present at the gathering was Simin Behbahani, a renowned Iranian poet. According to an eyewitness, “Behbahani was beaten with a baton, and when people protested that she is in her 70s and she can barely see, the security officer kicked her several times and continued to hit her with his baton.”

The security forces also took several foreign journalists into custody and confiscated their photographic equipment and video footage before releasing them.

On the previous day, March 7, the Iranian interior ministry summoned several women’s rights activists and warned them to cancel the gathering. The activists responded that the event is an annual celebration by many women’s rights groups and that they were not organizing the event.

The attack on women’s rights activists highlights the Iranian government’s consistent policy of suppressing freedom of association and assembly, Human Rights Watch said.

Since Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office in August, security forces have repeatedly resorted to violence to suppress peaceful gatherings. In January, security forces in Tehran attacked and arrested hundreds of striking bus drivers who were protesting working conditions.

In February, security forces in the city of Qom used excessive force and tear gas to detain hundreds of Sufi followers who had gathered in front of their house of worship to prevent its destruction by the authorities.
Human Rights Watch . (New York, March 9, 2006)

A journalist may have made prison suicide attempt

2006-02-18T01:09:00.000+02:00

Reporters Without Borders is very concerned about a journalist on the weekly Tamadone Hormozgan, Elham Afrotan, imprisoned since 23 January 2006, after some reports obtained by the organisation said she was in a coma after a suicide attempt.

"We urge the Iranian authorities to provide information about Afrotan’s fate. We have had no news of her since the first day of her detention,” the press freedom organisation said. “She has not been allowed to see a lawyer, or her colleagues and family. We hold the Iranian government responsible for anything that might endanger her physical wellbeing,” it added.

"The case of Elham Afrotan reminds us painfully of that of another woman journalist, Zahra Kazemi, who died from torture in prison. Her death was only announced more than 20 days later,” it added.

Since her arrest on 23 January, Afrotan and six other colleagues on the newspaper have been harassed in an attempt to get them to confess that “they were receiving orders from abroad inciting them to insult the Ayatollah Khomeini".

Misled by the headline of an article on a website dedicated to combating AIDS, the staff reproduced it in the newspaper’s health section. It turned out to be a satirical piece comparing the advent of Ayatollah Khomeini to AIDS.

The journalists were arrested in the southern city of Bandar Abbas, where the newspaper is based, as soon as the issue appeared on the streets. Pro-government media, governmental organisations and Koranic schools reacted by staging demonstrations that ended with the newspaper’s offices being ransacked and torched.

According to the daily Hamabasteghi, the governor of Hormozgan province Abdolreza Shikholeslam confirmed the journalist’s “suicide" but provided no further information about her.

Elsewhere, Ali Afsahi, cinema critic and former editor of the cultural and sports magazine Cinama-Varzech, which was shut down in 2000, was arrested on 12 February.

He had previously been arrested on 30 December 2000 and sentenced to four months in prison by a special clerical court. A few days before his arrest, he had been summoned and questioned for several hours about his journalistic and humanitarian work.

Afsahi is a colleague of Emadoldin Ebaghi, journalist and founder of an organisation that champions the rights of prisoners of opinion.

Reporters Without Borders

Iran: Release Workers Arrested for Strike

2006-02-02T01:22:00.000+02:00

The Iranian government has responded to a strike planned by Tehran’s bus drivers for January 28 by preemptively detaining hundreds of drivers, including several union organizers, Human Rights Watch said today. Most of the workers remain in detention without charge or access to counsel. Human Rights Watch called on the Iranian government to release them immediately.
The bus drivers, members of the Union of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, had organized the strike to protest the detention of their union leader, Mansour Ossanlu, and to demand recognition of their trade union activities.
“Iran’s new government boasts of representing the interests of working men and women. Their violent crackdown on the bus workers’ union make these words ring hollow,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch.
The police detained Ossanlu, the director of the Union of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, at his home on December 22. Iranian security agents have since held him, without charge or access to his lawyers, at ward 209 of Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison. Ossanlu is reportedly suffering from a serious eye complaint and is in need of urgent medical attention.
Shortly after news of the planned strike in response to Ossanlu’s detention, the government launched a crackdown against the union’s leadership. Gholamreza Mirzaii, the union’s spokesman, told Human Rights Watch that on January 26, security and intelligence agents arrested the union’s board of directors to disrupt the planned strike. Mirzaii said that he himself fears arrest by the authorities at any time.
The security forces also launched a pre-dawn raid on the home of Yaghub Salimi, another member of the union, on January 28. Salimi was not home at the time, but the authorities detained his wife and two children, along with the wives of two other union officials and three of their children, during the raid.
Salimi, in interviews with media outlets outside of Iran, has stated that security forces beat and intimidated his wife and children, and that his 2-year-old daughter sustained facial injuries as a result of her arrest. Authorities released his family members after Salimi presented himself to the authorities.
On the day of the planned strike, security and intelligence agents identified and detained hundreds of union sympathizers when they showed up for work in the morning. According to Mirzaii, the security and intelligence forces beat and physically intimidated the workers in connection with the arrests.
Mirzaii told Human Rights Watch that although the union has not been able to compile exact numbers, it believes that police detained more than 500 workers, who are being held in Evin Prison without charge. He said that the authorities released a small number of detainees on Sunday and Monday, though they have not been allowed to return to work and company officials have threatened to fire them.
As a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Iranian government is obligated to guarantee freedom of association, “including the right to form and join trade unions.” Article 26 of the Iranian Constitution permits “the formation of parties, societies, political or professional associations.” The right to strike is recognized by Iran’s Labor Law. Article 142 of this law states that in case of a dispute between workers and employers resulting “in the stoppage of work while workers are present in the workplace or in deliberate reduction of production by the workers,” a mediation board shall investigate the dispute.
The Union of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company was founded in 1969, but has been inactive since 1979. The bus workers resumed their trade union activities in 2004. However, the government has refused to recognize the union.
Human Rights Watch called on the Iranian government to stop its persecution of workers and their families, not to retaliate against the workers, and to guarantee their safe return to work.

Blogger Arash Sigarchi sent back to prison

2006-01-28T20:24:00.000+02:00

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the imprisonment of blogger Arash Sigarchi yesterday, four days after he was given a three-year sentence for “insulting the Supreme Guide” and “propaganda against the regime.” Sigarchi is the author of one of the chapters in the Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-dissidents which Reporters Without Borders published last September.

Sigarchi’s imprisonment is “arbitrary” and confirms that a new crackdown on bloggers is under way, the organisation said, calling for the young man’s immediate release and urging the Iranian supreme court to reexamine his case and quash his unjust conviction.

The former editor of the daily Gylan Emroz, Sigarchi has kept a political and cultural blog (www.sigarchi.com/blog) since 2002. He was arrested and imprisoned for two months in early 2005 and was then sentenced to 14 years in prison by a revolutionary tribunal.

He was released pending the outcome of his appeal. The appeal court reduced his sentence from 14 years to three years in prison on 9 June, but he was not notified of the verdict until five days ago. He decided to petition the supreme court, but when he went to the appeal court for a copy of the ruling, he was arrested and transferred to the main prison in the town of Rashat.

When a score of people were arrested in the autumn of 2004 on suspicion of contributing to pro-reform news websites, Sigarchi criticised the harassment and mistreatment of his colleagues in his blog.

In the chapter he wrote for the Reporters Without Borders handbook, he said Internet journalism would help to promote a diversity of views. He also maintained that, within a few years, his country’s rulers would be forced to accept the free flow of information and to respect freedom of expression

Human Rights Watch ,World Report 2006

2006-01-21T14:14:00.000+02:00

Key International Actors

In 2005 the policy of the European Union towards Iran was dominated by negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programs, with human rights concerns a secondary matter. The European Union has pledged to tie Iranian respect for human rights to progress in co-operation on other issues, but so far with little impact. Australia and Switzerland also have “human rights dialogues” with Iran but have not made public any relevant benchmarks for assessing progress.

Against strenuous Iranian objections, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution in November 2004, noting serious violations and the worsening of the human rights situation in Iran. However, in 2005, unlike in previous years, no resolution was introduced at the U.N. Commission on Human Rights concerning the human rights situation in Iran. Under a standing invitation issued in 2002 from Tehran to the thematic mechanisms of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression visited the country and subsequently issued reports critical of government practices. However, the government has failed to implement their recommendations, and in some cases there were reprisals, such as re-arrest, against persons who testified to the experts. In January 2005 the special rapporteur on violence against women visited Iran, and the special rapporteur on adequate housing made a visit in August. Iran has not responded to requests by the U.N. special rapporteurs on torture and on extrajudicial executions to visit the country.

Relations between the United States and Iran remain poor. President Bush in August 2005 said that U.S. military action against Iran was an “option on the table,” but the administration reportedly remains divided on this point.

Human Rights Watch ,World Report 2006

2006-01-21T14:09:00.000+02:00

Human Rights Defenders

In 2005, the authorities intensified their harassment of independent human rights defenders and lawyers in an attempt to prevent them from publicizing and pursuing human rights violations. The judiciary summoned Noble Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi in January 2005 without specifying charges against her. After she challenged her summons as illegal, and following an international outcry, the judiciary rescinded its order. In July, the authorities once again threatened to arrest Ebadi after she publicized several high-profile human rights cases. On July 30, the judiciary detained Abdolfattah Soltani, a lawyer and member of the Center for Defense of Human Rights, after Soltani and Ebadi protested the judiciary’s inaction in Zahra Kazemi’s case. No formal charges have been filed against Soltani; the judiciary appears to be using his illegal detention as a way to intimidate and silence other human rights defenders and lawyers. Prominent dissident and investigative journalist Akbar Ganji, who exposed the role of high-ranking officials in the murders of writers and intellectuals in 1998, remained imprisoned for a sixth year.

Minorities

Iran’s ethnic and religious minorities are subject to discrimination and, in some cases, persecution. The Baha’i community continues to be denied permission to worship or engage in communal affairs in a public manner. In April 2005, protests erupted in the southern province of Khuzistan, home to nearly two million Iranians of Arab descent, following publication of a letter allegedly written by Mohammad Ali Abtahi, an advisor to then-President Mohammad Khatami, which referred to government plans to implement policies that would reduce the proportion of ethnic Arabs in Khuzistan’s population. After security forces opened fire to disperse demonstrators in Ahvaz, the confrontation turned violent and spread to other cities and towns in Khuzistan. The next day, Abtahi and other government officials called the letter a fake. During the clashes, security forces killed at least fifty protestors and detained hundreds more.

In July 2005, security forces shot and killed a Kurdish activist, Shivan Qaderi, in Mahabad. In the wake of this incident protests were held in several cities and towns in Kurdistan demanding that the government apprehend Qaderi’s killers and put them on trial. Government forces put down the protests, killing at least seventeen people and detaining several prominent Kurdish journalists and activists. In October 2005, they were released on bail.

Human Rights Watch ,World Report 2006

2006-01-21T14:06:00.000+02:00

Torture and Ill-treatment in Detention

With the closure of independent newspapers and journals and the suppression of reporting on human rights abuses, treatment of detainees has worsened in Evin prison as well as in detention centers operated clandestinely by the judiciary and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The authorities have subjected those imprisoned for peaceful expression of their political views to torture and ill-treatment. Judges often accept coerced confessions. The authorities use prolonged solitary confinement, often in small basement cells, to coerce confessions (which are videotaped) and gain information regarding associates. Combined with denial of access to counsel, prolonged solitary confinement creates an environment in which prisoners have nowhere to turn to seek redress for their treatment in detention.

The judiciary issued an internal report in July 2005 admitting serious human rights violations, including widespread use of torture, illegal detentions, and coercive interrogation techniques. However, the judiciary failed to establish any safeguards, follow up on its findings, or hold any officials responsible.

Impunity

There is no mechanism for monitoring and investigating human rights violations perpetrated by agents of the government. The closure of independent media in Iran has helped to perpetuate an atmosphere of impunity.

In recent years, public testimonies by numerous former prisoners and detainees have implicated Tehran’s public prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi and his office in some of the worst cases of human rights violations. Despite extensive evidence, Mortazavi has not been held responsible for his role in illegal detentions, torture of detainees, and coercing false confessions. The case of Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who died in the custody of judiciary and security agents led by Mortazavi in June 2003, remains unresolved. Lawyers representing Kazemi’s family revealed that in addition to signs of torture including fractures to her nose, fingers, and toes, Kazemi received heavy blows to her head, once during her initial detention by the head of the intelligence unit at Evin prison on June 23, 2003, and another blow during an interrogation led by Mortazavi three days later. According to autopsy reports, Kazemi died of severe blows to her head. The judiciary had accused a low-ranking Intelligence Ministry official, Reza Ahmadi, of Kazemi’s unintentional homicide, and had proceeded with a hastily organized trial held in May 2004 which cleared Reza Ahmadi of the charges. Following an appeal by lawyers representing Kazemi’s family, an appeal hearing was convened in July 2005, in which the lawyers demanded that the judiciary launch an investigation into charges of intentional homicide, but the judge refused their request. The judiciary has taken no further steps to identify or prosecute those responsible for Kazemi’s killing.

Human Rights Watch ,World Report 2006

2006-01-21T14:02:00.000+02:00

Iran
Respect for basic human rights in Iran, especially freedom of expression and opinion, deteriorated considerably in 2005. The government routinely uses torture and ill-treatment in detention, including prolonged solitary confinement, to punish dissidents. The judiciary, which is accountable to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has been at the center of many serious human rights violations. Abuses are perpetrated by what Iranians call “parallel institutions”: paramilitary groups and plainclothes intelligence agents violently attack peaceful protesters, and intelligence services run illegal secret prisons and interrogation centers. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, elected in June 2005, appointed a cabinet dominated by former members of the intelligence and security forces, some of whom are allegedly implicated in the most serious human rights violations since the Islamic Republic of Iran was established twenty-six years ago, such as the assassination of dissident intellectuals.

Freedom of Expression and Opinion

The Iranian authorities have systematically suppressed freedom of expression and opinion since April 2000, when the government launched a campaign involving closure of newspapers and the imprisonment of journalists and editors. Consequently, very few independent dailies remain, and those that do self-censor heavily. Many writers and intellectuals have left the country, are in prison, or have ceased to be critical. During 2005 the authorities also targeted websites and Internet journalists in an effort to prevent online dissemination of news and information. Between September and November of 2004, the judiciary detained and tortured more than twenty bloggers and Internet journalists, and subjected them to lengthy solitary confinement. The government systematically blocks websites with political news and analysis from inside Iran and abroad. On February 2, 2005, a court in the province of Gilan sentenced Arash Sigarchi to fourteen years in prison for his online writings. In August 2005, the judiciary sentenced another blogger, Mojtaba Saminejad, to two years in prison for “insulting” Iran’s leaders.

Merry Christmas

2005-12-24T00:51:00.000+02:00

Merry Christmas
Posted by Picasa

Top Ministers Implicated in Serious Abuses

2005-12-16T01:24:00.000+02:00

Iran’s new Minister of Interior is implicated in grave human rights violations over the past two decades, possibly including crimes against humanity in connection with the massacre of thousands of political prisoners, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released today.

New York, December 15 .Human Rigths watch

Journalist freed on bail after four months in prison

2005-12-01T20:28:00.000+02:00

Madh Amadi, a freelance journalist who was arrested on 28 July, was freed on bail 28 November after paying 50 million toman (45,500 euros) in bail. As a result he called off his hunger strike. He is still awaiting trial.

Reporters Without Boarders.
29 November 2005

Violence against women

2005-11-26T14:32:00.000+02:00

Violence against women and girls is a major health and human rights concern. Women can experience physical or mental abuse throughout their lifecycle, in infancy, childhood and/or adolescence, or during adulthood or older age. While violence has severe health consequences for the affected, it is a social problem that warrants an immediate coordinated response from multiple sectors.

Definition of violence against women
A group of international experts convened by WHO in February 1996 agreed that the definition adopted by the United Nations General Assembly provides a useful framework for the Organization's activities. The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (1993) defines violence against women as "any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life."

This encompasses, inter alia, "physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring in the family and in the general community, including battering, sexual abuse of children, dowry-related violence, rape, female genital mutilation and other traditional practices harmful to women, non-spousal violence and violence related to exploitation, sexual harassment and intimidation at work, in educational institutions and elsewhere, trafficking in women, forced prostitution, and violence perpetrated or condoned by the state."

Growing public health concern
In every country where reliable, large-scale studies have been conducted, results indicate that between 10% and 50% of women report they have been physically abused by an intimate partner in their lifetime.*
Population-based studies report between 12 and 25% of women have experienced attempted or completed forced sex by an intimate partner or ex-partner at some time in their lives.*
Interpersonal violence was the tenth leading cause of death for women 15-44 years of age in 1998.
Forced prostitution, trafficking for sex and sex tourism appear to be growing. Existing data and statistical sources on trafficking of women and children estimated 500,000 women entering the European Union in 1995.

Most studies on violence against women indicate that
the perpetrators of violence against women are almost exclusively men;
women are at greatest risk of violence from men they know;
women and girls are the most frequent victims of violence within the family and between intimate partners
physical abuse in intimate relationships is almost always accompanied by severe psychological and verbal abuse;
social institutions put in place to protect citizens too often blame or ignore battered women.

WHO .Fact sheet N°239 .Revised June 2000.

Landmark study on domestic violence

2005-11-26T14:22:00.000+02:00

WHO report finds domestic violence is widespread and has serious impact on health

The first-ever World Health Organization (WHO) study on domestic violence reveals that intimate partner violence is the most common form of violence in women’s lives - much more so than assault or rape by strangers or acquaintances. The study reports on the enormous toll physical and sexual violence by husbands and partners has on the health and well-being of women around the world and the extent to which partner violence is still largely hidden.

"This study shows that women are more at risk from violence at home than in the street and this has serious repercussions for women's health," said Dr LEE Jong-wook, Director-General of WHO at the study release in Geneva. "The study also shows how important it is to shine a spotlight on domestic violence globally and treat it as a major public health issue."

The study is based on interviews with more than 24 000 women from rural and urban areas in 10 countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, Japan, Namibia, Peru, Samoa, Serbia and Montenegro, Thailand, and the United Republic of Tanzania. The Women's Health and Domestic Violence Against Women study makes recommendations and calls for action by policy makers and the public health sector to address the human and health costs, including by integrating violence prevention programming into a range of social programmes.

The study finds that one quarter to one half of all women who had been physically assaulted by their partners said that they had suffered physical injuries as a direct result. The abused women were also twice as likely as non-abused women to have poor health and physical and mental problems, even if the violence occurred years before. This includes suicidal thoughts and attempts, mental distress, and physical symptoms like pain, dizziness and vaginal discharge. The study was carried out in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, PATH and national research institutions and women's organizations in the participating countries.

“The degree to which the health consequences of partner violence in the WHO study are consistent across sites, both within and between countries, is striking,” noted Dr Charlotte Watts, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, a member of the core research team for the study. "Partner violence appears to have a similar impact on women’s health and well-being regardless of where she lives, the prevalence of violence in her setting, or her cultural or economic background."

Domestic violence is known to affect women's sexual and reproductive health and may contribute to increased risk of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. In this study, women who were in physically or sexually abusive relationships were more likely to report that their partner had multiple sexual partners and had refused to use a condom than women in non violent relationships. Women who reported physical or sexual violence by a partner were also more likely to report having had at least one induced abortion or miscarriage than those who did not report violence.

Although pregnancy is often thought of as a time when women should be protected, in most study locations, between 4% and 12% of women who had been pregnant reported being beaten during pregnancy. More than 90% of these women had been abused by the father of the unborn child and between one quarter and one half of them had been kicked or punched in the abdomen.

For policy makers, the greatest challenge is that abuse remains hidden. At least 20% of women reporting physical violence in the study had never told anyone before being interviewed. Despite the health consequences, very few women reported seeking help from formal services like health and police, or from individuals in positions of authority, preferring instead to reach out to friends, neighbours and family members. Those who did seek formal support tended to be the most severely abused.

“This is the first ever study conducted in Thailand on this issue and has made us better understand the extent of violence that women experience in our country," noted Dr. Churnrurtai Kanchanachitra from Mahidol University, and a member of the study team in Thailand. "The findings helped us to develop the national plan for the elimination of violence against women and children."

The report recommends a range of vital interventions to change attitudes and challenge the inequities and social norms that perpetuate abuse. It further recommends integrating violence prevention programming into ongoing initiatives aimed at children, youth, HIV/AIDS, and sexual and reproductive health. Health service providers should be trained to identify women experiencing violence and to respond appropriately. Prenatal care, family planning or post abortion care are potential entry points to provide care, support, and referral to other services. Schools need to be safe places, support systems for victims must be strengthened and prevention programmes put in place. Raising awareness of the problem among the general public is critical. . "Domestic violence can be prevented and governments and communities need to mobilize to fight this widespread public health problem," said WHO's Dr Claudia Garcia Moreno, Study Coordinator. "WHO will continue to raise awareness about violence and the important role that public health can play to address its causes and consequences. Globally, we need to stop the violence from happening in the first place, and to provide help and support to women who are in abusive relationships."

WHO's Global Campaign for the Prevention of Violence supports governments to develop comprehensive violence prevention programmes to address domestic violence alongside other types of violence.

24 Nov 2005 / Geneva/London

What is meant by “the right to health”?

2005-11-13T02:35:00.000+02:00

The right to the highest attainable standard of health (referred to as “the right to health”) was
first reflected in the WHO Constitution (1946) and reiterated in the 1978 Declaration of Alma
Ata and in the World Health Declaration adopted by the World Health Assembly in 1998. It has been firmly endorsed in a wide range of international and regional human rights instruments.
The right to the highest attainable standard of health in international human rights law is a
claim to a set of social arrangements – norms, institutions, laws, an enabling environment –
that can best secure the enjoyment of this right.
The most authoritative interpretation of the right to health is outlined in Article 12 of the ICESCR, which has been ratified by 145 countries (as of May 2002). In May 2000, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which monitors the Covenant, adopted a General Comment on the right to health. General Comments serve to clarify the nature and content of individual rights and States Parties’ (those states that have ratified) obligations. The General Comment recognized that the right to health is closely related to and dependent upon the realization of other human rights, including the right to food, housing, work, education, participation, the enjoyment of the benefits of scientific progress and its applications, life, non-discrimination, equality, the prohibition against torture, privacy, access to information and the freedoms of association,assembly and movement.

Further, the Committee interpreted the right to health as an inclusive right extending not only
to timely and appropriate health care but also to the underlying determinants of health, such
as access to safe and potable water and adequate sanitation, an adequate supply of safe
food, nutrition and housing, healthy occupational and environmental conditions and access to health-related education and information, including on sexual and reproductive health.

The General Comment sets out four criteria by which to evaluate the right to health:
(a) Availability. Functioning public health and health-care facilities, goods and services, as
well as programmes, have to be available in sufficient quantity.
(b) Accessibility. Health facilities, goods and services have to be accessible to everyone without
discrimination, within the jurisdiction of the State party. Accessibility has four overlapping
dimensions:
• Non-discrimination;
• Physical accessibility;
• Economic accessibility (affordability);
• Information accessibility.
(c) Acceptability. All health facilities, goods and services must be respectful of medical
ethics and culturally appropriate, sensitive to gender and life-cycle requirements, as well
as designed to respect confidentiality and improve the health status of those concerned.
(d) Quality. Health facilities, goods and services must be scientifically and medically appropriate
and of good quality.

What is the link between health and human rights?

2005-11-10T19:27:00.000+02:00

There are complex linkages between health and
human rights:
• Violations or lack of attention to human rights can have serious health consequences;
• Health policies and programmes can promote or violate human rights in the ways they are designed or implemented;
• Vulnerability and the impact of ill health can be reduced by taking steps to respect, protect
and fulfil human rights.

The normative content of each right is fully articulated in human rights instruments. In relation to the right to health and freedom from discrimination. Examples of the language used in human rights instruments to articulate the normative content of some of the other key human rights relevant to health follow:

Torture: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In particular, no one shall be subjected without his free consent to medical or scientific experimentation.”

Violence against children: ”All appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational
measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse...” shall be taken.

Harmful traditional practices: “Effective and appropriate measures with a view to abolishing
traditional practices prejudicial to the health of children” shall be taken.

Participation: The right to “…active, free and meaningful participation”

Information: “Freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds.”
Privacy: “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy...”
Scientific progress: The right of everyone “to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its
applications”.
Education: The right to education, including access to education in support of “basic knowledge of child health and nutrition, the advantages of breast-feeding, hygiene and environmental sanitation and the prevention of accidents”.

Food and nutrition: “The right of everyone to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger…”
Standard of living: Everyone has the right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate
food, clothing, housing, and medical care and necessary social services.
Right to social security: ”The right of everyone to social security, including social insurance”.

Briefing note on the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran - 2005

2005-11-04T23:30:00.000+02:00

The briefing note has been elaborated in view of the 60th session of the 3rd Committee of the UN General Assembly meeting, as a call for the adoption of a resolution on the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Iran recalls senior ambassadors

2005-11-03T17:54:00.000+02:00

Mr Ahmadinejad is likely to appoint his own men to key positionsIranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has recalled a string of ambassadors from high-profile postings .

Iran 'offers shares to the poor'

2005-11-03T17:52:00.000+02:00

The Iranian government has approved plans to offer share options to low-income families, the country's official news agency IRNA has reported.
BBC, 3 Nov

Human Rights Watch Honors Iranian Journalist and Blogger

2005-10-29T01:01:00.000+03:00

On November 8, Human Rights Watch will honor Omid Memarian, an Iranian human rights activist who has creatively used the internet to press for a more open and democratic political regime in Iran.

Wife confirms that Akbar Ganji is confined to special section of Evin prison

2005-10-25T12:36:00.000+03:00

Reporters Without Borders today reiterated its outrage at the treatment of journalist Akbar Ganji after his wife, Massoumeh Shaffii, and one of his lawyers visited him on 17 October and confirmed that he is still physically and psychologically debilitated after his hunger strike and that he has been put in a “special” wing of Tehran’s Evin prison where inmates are often tortured.

“As a journalist and prisoner of conscience, Ganji has no place in a high security wing,” the press freedom organisation said. “We again call for his immediate and unconditional release and at the same time we urge the authorities to let independent international organisations visit him at once in Evin prison to verify his condition and the torture allegations.”

Shaffii said after visiting her husband that his situation “was even worse that anything we could have imagined.” She also said he need treatment to his left shoulder.

Ever since his transfer back to Evin prison from Milad hospital on 3 September, Ganji has been in solitary confinement in this special wing. Only Revolutionary Guards can go there. Former detainees say torture sessions are common in this section of the prison.

While the uncertainty continues about the fate of Ganji, the former editor of the weekly Rah-e-No and Iran’s leading prisoner of conscience, the intelligence ministry has been summoning independent journalists and representatives of journalists’ associations for questioning.

Some have been threatened during these interrogation sessions and all have been notified of a ban on talking about the appointment of Revolutionary Guards to key positions in national and local government. Many journalists now fear that a new wave of arrests may be imminent.

from Reporters Without Boarders ,24/Oct/2005

Iran - 2005 annual report from Reporters Without Boarders

2005-10-21T13:32:00.000+03:00

Journalists thrown in jail

Iranian journalists are constantly being arbitrarily arrested and often can only win freedom by paying exorbitant bail. Thirteen journalists were imprisoned during 2004 and at the end of the year 10 were still being held.

Freelance journalist Ensafali Hedayat, working for several reformist papers, was arrested on 16 January by order of the revolutionary court in the northwestern city of Tabriz and on 11 May jailed for 18 months. At the end of the year, he was still being held at the city’s intelligence headquarters despite paying bail for his release pending his appeal against the sentence. He was in very poor condition.

Journalists are still sometimes held in the notorious Evin prison even when they are in bad health. Siamak Pourzand, 75, seriously ill and bedridden, has been there since 30 March 2003 despite a heart attack that put him in a coma for three days in March 2004. The journalist, who worked for several independent papers, was kept in solitary confinement for months and physically and psychologically tortured to get him to make a televised confession. He had been arrested in November 2001 and sentenced in May 2002 to eight years in prison for "undermining state security by having links with monarchists and counter-revolutionaries."

Mohsen Sazgara, publisher of the reformist dailies Jameh, Neshat and Tous (since suspended), was sentenced on appeal on 8 March 2004 to a year in prison. He had been jailed on 15 June 2003 and then freed on bail of six billion rials (580,000 euros) three months later. A week before his release, he was charged with "undermining national security," "insulting the Supreme Guide" and "anti-government propaganda."

Reza Alijani, editor of the monthly Iran-e-Farda and winner of the 2001 Reporters Without Borders - Fondation de France Prize, learned on 1 May that his appeal against a verdict in a 2001 case had been heard in the absence of him and several colleagues accused with him. He was sentenced to four years in prison, Hoda Saber, one of the paper’s managers, to five and half years and Taghi Rahmani, of the weekly Omid-e-Zangan, to seven years. All had been held since 14 June 2003 for no official reason.

Abbas Kakavand, formerly with the hardline daily Ressalat, was arrested on 7 June for "publishing false news" in articles posted on the Internet website gooya.com attacking corruption and political payments to leading hardliners. He was freed on 10 June after paying bail of 100 million rials (11,600 euros) but awaits trial on charges arising from various complaints against him, including some by the Imam Khomeiny Foundation. A score of people suspected of working with reformist news websites, including Rouydad, blocked by Judge Mortazavi in late August, were arrested in September and October. Among them were site technicians and seven journalists - Javad Gholam Tamayomi, Omid Memarian, Shahram Rafihzadeh, Hanif Mazroi, Rozbeh Mir Ebrahimi, Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh and Fershteh Ghazi. All except Tamayomi were freed on bail in November and December but the authorities continued to hound them. Memarian, Rafihzadeh and Ebrahimi were summoned and phoned regularly by state security agents.

Babak Ghafori Azar, of the economic daily Hayat-e now, was arrested on 7 September after police searched his home. He was freed on 21 September. Rafihzadeh, culture editor of the newspaper Etemad, was also picked up on 7 September by the morality squad, a section of the Teheran police close to the intelligence ministry. Mazroi, formerly with several reformist papers, was arrested on 8 September after answering a summons to the Teheran prosecutor’s office. He was freed on 11 November after paying bail of 150 million rials (13,000 euros). The families of journalists arrested or exiled are watched and often harassed. Said Motallebi, father of Sina Motallebi, who has fled to the Netherlands, was arrested and held for nine days in September. At least 60 journalists were summoned during the year, either officially by a court, to answer complaints usually from the justice ministry, or unofficially by police or intelligence officials.

The government media launched a campaign against some journalists at the end of the year. The publisher of the daily Kayhan, Hossin Shariatmadry (in an article called "The House of the Spider") accused several journalists working in exile for the BBC, Radio Farda, Rouydad and gooya.com of belonging to a Prague-based "enemy network" and of collaborating with US intelligence agents. He also alluded, without naming them, to Mazroi, Rafihzadeh and Ebrahimi.

Shariatmadry, who has tortured and interrogated countless political detainees at Evin prison, was appointed to run Kayhan by Supreme Guide Khamenei.

Iran - 2005 annual report from Reporters Without Boarders

2005-10-21T13:31:00.000+03:00

The triumph of impunity

The judiciary showed blatant hypocrisy in the case of Zahra Kazemi, the Canadian-Iranian photographer beaten to death in prison in July 2003. She had been arrested on 23 June that year while photographing prisoners’ families outside Teheran’s Evin prison and probably died on 10 July. After trying for a week to hide the cause of her death, the authorities, under pressure from the Canada and other countries, admitted she had died while being tortured. The judiciary, also under pressure from an Iranian parliamentary enquiry, named as her killer an intelligence ministry agent who had interrogated her. He was charged but acquitted on 24 July 2004 after a sham trial. The family’s lawyer, Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, had asked for court evidence from Mohammad Bakshi, a prison guard under the authority of Judge Mortazavi, and from five senior justice officials who had interrogated her. The court refused the request and the trial was hurried through in two days. The hardliners then switched back to the line that Kazemi had died "accidentally."

Iran - 2005 annual report from Reporters without boarders

2005-10-21T13:28:00.000+03:00

Since the massive crackdown in 2000 which resulted in the justice ministry closing down nearly 100 reformist newspapers supporting President Mohammad Khatami, the ruling hardliners and mullahs have hammered away at press freedom. Journalists are threatened or summoned to the justice or intelligence ministries, sometimes unofficially. Many buy their freedom by paying enormous bail that often forces their families into debt or to sell their belongings. Even then, they remain the target of prosecution or under threat of suspended jail sentences.

Parliament has been dominated since 20 February 2004 by the hardliners and President Khatami has effectively yielded power to the country’s conservative Supreme Guide, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Dangerous topics for the media to raise include relations with the United States, nuclear matters, Islam, religion, morals and dissident mullahs. The presidential elections due in mid-2005, as well as rivalry between reformists and hardliners and also within each camp make the political climate very poisonous. Journalists must walk a difficult tightrope between the shifting political divisions.

The judiciary, controlled by the hardliners, remains the chief instrument of persecuting the media. Teheran prosecutor-general Judge Said Mortazavi, the bane of all journalists, displayed exceptional hypocrisy in the case of murdered Canadian-Iranian photographer Zahra Kazemi. More than a dozen newspapers were suspended temporarily or permanently in 2004. Early in the year, eight reformist dailies - Yas-e no, Sharq, Nassim-e Sabah, Tosseh, Aftab-e Yazd, E’temad, Hambastegi and Mardomsalari - were threatened by justice authorities after they reported on a sit-in by reformist MPs in front of parliament. Mortazavi asked the culture and Islamic guidance ministry to warn the papers and accused them of "sowing discord." He also threatened on 8 February that any paper reporting on a planned boycott of the elections would be immediately suspended.

The monthly Aftab, produced since 2000 by a group of writers and intellectuals, was suspended on 11 July for "insulting the Supreme Guide" and printing "false news." A week later, the daily Vaghayeh ettefaghieh was suspended indefinitely for the same reason and also for "propaganda against the regime."

The daily Jomhuriat was suspended after only 12 issues after publisher Javad Khorami Moaghadam refused Mortazavi’s order to sack his editor, Emadoldin Baghi, a prominent reformist journalist and fervent freedom of expression campaigner.

Kurdish and Azeri-language papers were also suspended during the year for supposedly "spreading separatist ideas and printing false news." By the end of the year, only a handful of independent newspapers and magazines remained in the whole country.

Foreign journalists also had to say what they intended to report and where they wanted to go before (if they were lucky) being allowed into the country. Once in, official surveillance restricted their activities and movements. Dan DeLuce, Teheran correspondent for the British daily The Guardian, was deported in May after making an unauthorised trip to the southwestern city of Bam, where an earthquake killed 26,000 people on 26 December 2003. He returned in February 2004 to cover a visit to the city by Britain’s Prince Charles and then went again after being refused permission by the authorities to investigate the population’s anger at government reconstruction efforts.