Human Rights Violations Must End

Rooz online, Three weeks after the disappearance of Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi and their wives, the leaders of Iran’s Green Movement, Iran expatriates are planning a sit-in during the annual 3-day human rights gathering of the UN in Geneva to demonstrate their protests against human rights conditions in Iran.

A group of former student activists signed a statement to this effect. The statement condemned the human rights conditions in Iran and wrote, “Despite the passage of 32 years since the victory of the 1979 revolution, we continue to witness gross violations of social and political rights of Iranians at the hands of the dictatorial rulers of the Islamic republic. Following the June 12, 2009 coup protests by citizens who simply called for the respect of their votes and views were met with systematic and widespread violence by those who instead of standing up to defend and protect the great Iranian nation, turned to kiss the hands of those incompetent dictators who are holding on to power. And in the name of religion, they used their treacherous swords against the youth of this great nation and turned them into blood.”

The statement also talks of Mousavi, Karoubi and their wives’ disappearance and writes that the regime is evading accepting responsibility for its illegal acts by presenting “comical” claims at national and international forums: acts which are in violation of the clear principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “and even the current laws of the country.”

The signed statement sets March 12 to 14 as the days for the protest sit-in, and lists some of the major violations perpetrated by the Iranian regime that include the killings of innocent people and freedom-loving students, massive arrests, the perpetration of torture, the passage of extremely severe prison sentences for students and associates of the Green Movement, and the illegal detention of its leaders.

Talking about the event, one former student and current signatory of the statement, Nasim Sarabandi told Rooz, “Following the extensive violations of human rights by the security and judiciary agencies of the Islamic republic which have continued from the past to the present, particularly in the last month following the resumption of street protests by opponents of the regime which has led to massive arrests of political activists and particularly students and even included regular citizens at the hands of suppressive groups and also the continuation of the house arrests of the leaders of the Green Movement and their spouses, and the refusal of the authorities to respond to the calls regarding their condition, we a group of Iranian student movement activists living outside Iran shall stage a three-day sit-in during the UN Human Rights Conference to show our solidarity with the people of Iran and the leaders of the Green Movement.”

“Unfortunately, the authorities of the Islamic republic in no way accept any accountability to respond to public opinion inside Iran or to international organizations,” he said. He further added that the purpose of the sit in was also to rekindle the sensitivities of international organization about what was going on in Iran and win their support for exerting pressure on the Islamic republic to end this extensive abuse of human rights. Going beyond that, he said was to get the UN to appoint a special rapporteur to investigate and report on human rights conditions and violations in Iran, particularly what was going on in prisons there and requiring that the Islamic republic abide by its international obligations.

Amir Memarian is another signatory of the statement who said they were gathering there to demonstrate their protest and condemnation of the violations of human rights by the Islamic republic which includes arrests, torture, detention of the Green Movement leaders, etc.

Attempting to estimate how many people would attend the sit-in, Memarian said, “Till now we have received more responses than we expected which could be because of the relatively recent arrest of messrs. Mousavi and Karoubi and their wives which has created deep sensitivities among expatriate Iranians.” He too said that he expected the international community to seriously look into the gross violations of human rights by the Islamic republic and called for the appointment of a special rapporteur to look inspect Iranian prisons and look into the dossiers of political and ideological prisoners in Iranian security prisons.