January 03-2014
. . . hits new gov’t
Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi says President Rohani’s proposed Citizen Rights Charter adds no new rights the Iranian people do not already have legally but just distracts from doing anything to enforce those rights.
The draft of the Charter was released in November for public comment. The Iran Times noted that allowing public comment was a novelty for Iran where decrees are normally issued without any reference to what the public might want.
Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights lawyer, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI) in an interview that the draft Charter is redundant and “is in fact a tool to distract those who are waiting for justice to be carried out.”
She said that as she read the draft, “I was reminded of the idiom, ‘re-inventing the wheel.’ What is listed in the proposed Charter as citizenship rights is already listed comprehensively and with more enforcement guarantees under the ‘People’s Rights’ chapter of the Iranian Constitution, as well as in the Citizenship Rights Law, approved by the Sixth Majlis during Mr. Khatami’s presidency.”
Ebadi said, “Basically, I don’t see the need for drafting this law.” She said Rohani should instead just focus on enforcing the Constitution.
“One of these articles [in the Constitution] prohibits torture, but we observe that several prisoners have stated in writing that they were tortured in prisons and no one is addressing this issue. Another one of these articles is the right to due process. The Constitution stipulates that no one can be detained without a trialÖ. Based on what legal authorization have Mr. Musavi, Mr. Karrubi, and Mrs. Rahnavard remained under house arrest for more than 1,000 days?
“Another one of these articles is about respecting freedom of speech. Mr. Rohani must monitor why three newspapers—Bahar, Neshat, and Tous—were banned from publication?”
Ebadi said, “Many of these articles of the Constitution have been forgotten and it’s best if Mr. Rohani first tries to enforce the forgotten articles, and then, if there are still shortcomings and a more complete law is needed, he should draft a new law. Otherwise, at this time, writing such a law as this Citizenship Rights Charter is nothing more than more promises to the people,” she said.
“As we speak, arresting individuals and not informing them of their charges is illegal. Those who order such things must be put on trial as violators who have ordered something against the law, and have therefore committed a crime.”
She said that under the Constitution “the most important duty of the President is overseeing the proper enforcement of the law, and not writing phrases and pleasantries that would distract others.”
Ebadi said the Citizenship Rights Charter is “nothing but a waste of time for those whose rights have been violated, or who are in prison just for writing an article or having a religious ideology.”
She spoke of a double standard where Iranian officials use social networks that ordinary citizens are forbidden to use. “We see that Facebook is blocked in Iran, but the [cabinet] ministers use it. We see that a thief’s hand was amputated in a small town after he stole some money and chocolate from a bakery, while individuals who stole billions from the treasury are walking around comfortably and with pride. We see that when someone like Sattar Beheshti [a blogger critical of the regime] is murdered under torture, not only don’t his family’s requests get reviewed, but even the physician who examined him in prison and issued a statement about it is sent to prison, and a prisoner who shared a cell with him and went to the investigative judge in the case to share his own observations of Sattar is exiled to another prison.
“These are the types of things I have spoken about before. It is upon the President to monitor whether the people’s rights are observed or not,” Ebadi said.