American Jewish Committee Executive Director Urges UN Commission to Condemn Iran for Human Rights Violations

American Jewish Committee
Friday, 30 March 2001

American Jewish Committee Executive Director David A. Harris has urged the UN Commission on Human Rights to condemn the Iranian regime "for its flagrant disregard of enshrined human rights standards and equal protection for all its citizens." (www.ajc.org)

Testifying before the UN Commission in Geneva yesterday, Mr. Harris said it is clear that the condition of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran has deteriorated in the past year.

"Citizens continue to be prosecuted without a fair or open trial, and are sentenced to death for often ambiguous offences and in the absence of sufficient procedural safeguards," Mr. Harris told the Human Rights Commission. "Iran's judicial and penitentiary system should, once and for all, be brought in line with international human rights standards."

It was Mr. Harris' second appearance before the UN body. Earlier in the day he addressed the Commission on Human Rights during its discussion on Israel.

In Iran, abuses of human rights can be identified in a number of areas, including:

- extra-judicial execution of intellectuals, students and political dissidents;
- killing or imprisonment of journalists;
- violations of religious freedom; and
- the persecution and disappearance of members of minority groups.

"The Iranian people are the heirs and trustees of one of the world's great civilization," said Mr. Harris. "They deserve better than the intolerance and repression that limit many of their most basic freedoms."

Mr. Harris pointed out that Baha'is, as a religious group remain "unrecognized" by the state and face discrimination on every level.

But even religious groups "recognized" by the government, including Evangelical Christians and Jews "do not escape persecution," said Mr. Harris, who referred specifically to the arrest and trial of 13 Jews on unsubstantiated charged of having illegal contact with "hostile foreign powers." Ten were sentenced last year to prisons terms of four to 13 years.

"Last month we were pleased to see the release of one of the wrongly accused Jews," said Mr. Harris. "We earnestly hope that he will be joined shortly by the nine remaining victims of this miscarriage of justice."

Mr. Harris also pointed out that 11 Iranian Jews disappeared between 1994 and 1997 without a trace while trying to leave Iran. "We ask the Iranian authorities to account for their fate," said Mr. Harris.

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org