John Baird: Standing with an oppressed people in Iran

John Baird explains why Canada has once again tabled a resolution on Iran’s human rights.

NATIONAL POST─ Earlier this year, Iran elected a new president, Hassan Rouhani, whose manner, style and language stand in stark contrast to the posturing and belligerent behaviour of his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The conciliatory tone and approach of the new president is welcome, especially with regard to Iran’s nuclear diplomacy, and we were relieved to hear of Iran’s release of a small number of political prisoners. All of us who long have felt despair over the Iranian regime’s baneful influence abroad and its ruthless oppression of its own people want to believe that the country is genuinely committed to positive change at home and in its foreign relations.

But we do not have the luxury of being naïve. Nor do the Iranian people, who have suffered for far too long. Standing in front of cameras and tweeting about change are all too easy. The hard part is following through, making difficult decisions and undertaking meaningful change. We must judge the Iranian government by its deeds, not its words. President Rouhani marks his first 100 days in office on Tuesday and, by any measure, these deeds have fallen short.

Through human-rights monitoring and reporting efforts by the UN Secretary-General and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran, we know that Iran’s human rights record is deeply troubling and that these abuses are continuing. Women continue to face serious discrimination. Iran’s ethnic and religious minorities also continue to face disproportionate discrimination, as well as harassment by authorities. More than 100 members of the Bahá‘í faith alone remain imprisoned on charges related to practising and organizing for their religion, and advocating for their rights.

These are not deeds that give us confidence in a genuine desire for change on the part of Iran’s leaders. In order to demonstrate its seriousness about meaningful change on human rights, Iran would need to go beyond half measures and take a number of concrete steps to address the legitimate concerns of the international community about how the country’s people are treated.

First, allow the UN Special Rapporteur to visit Iran and to investigate conditions there without hindrance or restrictions on where he travels or to whom he speaks.

Second, ratify and implement the provisions of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. That would involve legal prohibition of these forms of treatment or punishment, which include prolonged solitary confinement, extraction of confessions under torture, flogging and stoning, and denial of medical treatment to prisoners.

Third, investigate allegations of abuse of prisoners in Iran’s detention facilities, and ensure the prosecution and punishment of perpetrators. Fourth, guarantee freedom of expression — in law and in practice — including full, unfettered access to the Internet.

Finally, the Iranian leadership should prohibit by law all forms of discrimination on the basis of religion, ethnicity and gender — and enforce such a law.

That includes ratifying and incorporating in domestic legislation the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women; adopting policies and laws that promote the participation of women in public life, including candidacies for the office of president; and amending Iran’s civil code so that a husband may no longer prevent his wife from working or pursuing a professional career.

We seek to put pressure on Iran to stop the discrimination, persecution, unfair imprisonment and torture of so many of its people

Our skepticism regarding Iran is drawn from seeing decades of inaction on issues such as these. The concrete steps outlined above would signal to the people of Iran, and to the world, that the Iranian government finally is serious about respecting and upholding the human rights of its people.

This isn’t just in Canada’s interest: It is in the interest of Iran and the Iranian people. A free society that respects the human dignity of the Iranian people will loosen the shackles of sanctions and promote the ingenuity and prosperity of all Iranians. Their future is at stake.

We stand ready to support real change if actions such as those noted above are genuinely undertaken. Until we see these concrete actions, we owe it to the Iranian people to forcefully encourage Iran’s rulers to comply with its international human rights obligations.

This is why Canada has, this year, once again tabled a resolution on Iran’s human rights record at the United Nations. We seek to put pressure on Iran to stop the discrimination, persecution, unfair imprisonment and torture of so many of its people.

Canada stands shoulder to shoulder with the people of Iran, in the hope that one day soon they will enjoy the fundamental rights, dignity and respect to which we believe all human beings are entitled.

John Baird is Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister.

John Baird: Standing with an oppressed people in Iran

"We will make you regret everything" – New evidence of torture in Iran

The most detailed forensic evidence of torture yet to have emerged from Iran’s recent history has been published today in Freedom from Torture’s new research report: ‘”We will make you regret everything” Torture in Iran since the 2009 elections’.

The report, published on the same day that the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran presents to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, is a systematic study of 50 Iranian torture cases, from 2009-2011, documented by clinicians from Freedom from Torture’s Medico Legal Reports Service.

Full Report PDF
Summary PDF
Persian Summary PDF

The cases all involve torture perpetrated in the lead up to and in the weeks, months and years following Iran’s presidential elections held on 12 June 2009. Together they provide an alarming insight into the brutal methods used by the Iranian authorities to terrorise those individuals – and their family members – engaged in grassroots organising prior to the elections and in the protests relating to the disputed outcome and the human rights abuses that followed.

‘Sanaz’ was detained by the authorities after attending a demonstration with her husband in the aftermath of the disputed election results in 2009. Arrested at home by the security services she was detained for about a week, during which time she was beaten, kicked and slapped. She was twice raped in the interrogation room whilst being accused of being ‘a spy and a prostitute’.

‘Bahar’ was detained on numerous occasions in the run up to and in the years following the elections and was similarly subjected to severe beatings and insults, sexual abuse and rape. During interrogation, under the pressure of torture, she was forced to sign a ‘confession’ stating she had been involved in anti-regime activities.

Keith Best, Freedom from Torture CEO, said:

Freedom from Torture’s purpose in publishing this clinical evidence is not only to expose the role of torture in the crackdown that marred Iran’s 2009 elections, but also to warn the world that vigilance and pressure are necessary to prevent a repeat when Iranians return to the polls to elect a new president in June.”

The report’s key findings include:

• Torture was a key tool of repression used by the Iranian authorities as part of their efforts to crush dissent in the months leading up to and for an extended period following the presidential elections in June 2009;


• A wide range of physical, psychological and environmental torture methods were practised in a highly systematic way by torturers in Iran during this period;


• Torture was often used to obtain information about individuals and networks involved in organising activity deemed to be ‘anti-regime’ and to force people to sign what they understood to be ‘confessions’;


• The physical and psychological harm of torture endures for the survivors and a high proportion of the cases in this sample had self-harmed or made suicide attempts in the period following their torture.

"We will make you regret everything" – New evidence of torture in Iran

Attack on border officials prompts multiple executions

Sixteen prisoners on death row in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan were executed today in response to an attack carried out on Saravan border officials, judiciary officials announced.

Mohammad Marzieh, the prosecutor general of Zahedan, announced that the executions were in reaction to the attack carried out on Friday October 25 in the city of Saravan.

Fourteen border officers were killed and another seven were injured in the attack carried out in Saravan last night.

“These executions were in response to last night’s actions. We had announced earlier that such an attack would have its consequences, and this morning’s executions were one of our responses,” Marzieh said.

He went on to add that the executed people had been on death row and their delayed death sentences were carried out today.

He claimed the individuals were linked to “Jeysh-ol-adl, Ansar and other criminal groups.”

The intelligence ministry has announced that three border officers have been taken hostage by these groups and it has called on Pakistan to take serious steps toward “fighting terrorism in its border control.”

Attack on border officials prompts multiple executions

Nuclear group: Time Iran would need to make uranium for a bomb "too short"

CNN ─ Iran may need only a month to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear bomb, a U.S.-based anti-proliferation group says in a new assessment of Tehran’s enrichment program.

But that is only if the country were able to take the most extreme and direct enrichment path, says the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington. Under other scenarios, it would take significantly longer for Tehran to produce the material — more than 11 months in one estimate.

And that would still not give Iran a nuclear bomb. Turning enriched uranium into a usable weapon would take a great deal more time, the report suggests.

The warning Thursday from ISIS was released as U.S. lawmakers consider legislation that could tighten sanctions on Iran until a deal is reached on the Middle Eastern country’s nuclear program.

It also comes after talks resumed on the program between Iran and six world powers — the United States, Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain — known as the P5+1.

The report examines scenarios under which Iran could produce enough weapons-grade uranium to make a nuclear bomb — and “break out” of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

In a statement that described the report as “extremely alarming,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, urged the United States to consider all options, including the use of military force, “to prevent Iran from acquiring the world’s most dangerous weapons. We all want negotiations to succeed, but time is clearly running out.”

The report adds to the sense of urgency over the talks, said Shashank Joshi, a research fellow at the London-based Royal United Services Institute. But, he noted, not all analysts share the group’s view. He said it would be difficult for Iran to secretly work toward a bomb without kicking out international inspectors.

ISIS appears to have overestimated the pace of Iran’s nuclear development in the past, however. In a December 2008 report, it said Iran was expected to reach a nuclear weapons capability “during 2009 under a wide variety of scenarios.”

The Iranian government declared the report baseless.

“This is a huge lie because, according to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, production, storage and use of weapons of mass destruction are haraam (forbidden by Islam),” said Marzieh Afkham, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman. “Weapons of mass destruction have no place in the Islamic Republic’s doctrine. This kind of report is totally false.”

FILE – In this Saturday, Feb. 3, 2007 file photo, an Iranian technician works at the Uranium Conversion Facility just outside the city of Isfahan 255 miles (410 kilometers) south of the capital Tehran, Iran. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

 

Important for negotiations

According to ISIS, the quickest route to a usable amount of weapons-grade uranium in the current circumstances could take Iran “as little as approximately 1.0–1.6 months.”

It said it updated its estimates based on the view that Iran has increased the number of centrifuges at its Fordow and Natanz plants and has begun installing a more advanced centrifuge model at Natanz.

“The shortening breakout times have implications for any negotiation with Iran,” the report says. “An essential finding is that they are currently too short and shortening further, based on the current trend of centrifuge deployments.”

The U.S. government has said it believes Iran is about a year away from a nuclear weapon — a more advanced stage than the one the ISIS report is forecasting.

ISIS says that its estimates don’t factor in the time Iran would need to convert enriched uranium into weapons components and to build a nuclear missile.

“This extra time could be substantial, particularly if Iran wanted to build a reliable warhead for a ballistic missile,” the report says. “However, these preparations would most likely be conducted at secret sites and would be difficult to detect.”

Iran would face considerable hurdles to manufacturing a viable weapon without alerting International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors.

The inspectors frequently visit Iran’s declared nuclear stockpiles — sometimes with less than two hours’ notice — and check that Iranians are not carrying out other enrichment activities or diverting nuclear material, Joshi said.

“So if Iran was trying to bust the rules, it would not in two hours be able to conceal what it had been doing,” he said.

Iranian officials optimistic after Geneva talks

Painful sanctions

Iran, whose economy is suffering severely under the U.S. and U.N. sanctions imposed because of its nuclear program, has long maintained that it is developing nuclear energy capabilities for peaceful purposes only.

But amid a tentative thaw in relations between Tehran and Washington since Iranian President Hassan Rouhani took office in August, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged the world community to be skeptical of Rouhani, calling him “a sheep in wolf’s clothing.”

And members from both parties in the U.S. Congress have urged the Obama administration not to prematurely loosen any of the sanctions on Iran’s economy.

Senior congressional staff members met Thursday with White House officials over Iran.

“Congress has been an important partner in our efforts thus far,” said Caitlin Hayden, a National Security Council spokeswoman. “We will continue our close consultation, as we have in the past, so that any congressional action is aligned with our negotiating strategy as we move forward.”

Iran nuclear talks

The next round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 is scheduled to take place next month in Geneva. A statement after the previous round, last week, described the talks as “substantive and forward-looking.”

The tone of the negotiations appeared to signal a shift, a departure from the diplomatic standoff that prevailed under former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But details on the substance of the talks were scarce.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said this week that the United States will not let up its pressure on Tehran, despite the recent diplomatic overtures between the two countries.

“We will pursue a diplomatic initiative with eyes wide open, aware it will be vital for Iran to live up to those standards other nations that have nuclear programs live up to as they prove those programs are indeed peaceful,” he said in Rome during a meeting Wednesday with Netanyahu.

“No deal is better than a bad deal,” Kerry said, echoing comments from Netanyahu. “But if this can be solved satisfactorily, diplomatically, it is clearly better for everyone.”

Netanyahu, who has said Iran’s nuclear program poses an existential threat to Israel, has listed a series of measures he says Tehran needs to undertake, including a prohibition on centrifuges that can be used to enrich uranium to a weapons-grade level.

Tensions over U.S. policy on Iran have emerged with another regional ally, Saudi Arabia. The Sunni nation is wary of any rise in influence by the Shiite theocracy of Iran across the Middle East and has pushed behind the scenes for greater U.S. involvement in Syria, whose President, Bashar al-Assad, is propped up by the regime in Tehran.

Nuclear group: Time Iran would need to make uranium for a bomb "too short"