This morning 2003 Nobel Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi visited the Human Rights House in Oslo. Ebadi is in Oslo to open the film festival Film fra Sør which this year focuses on Iran. Almost 40 Iranian movies will be shown, some of which are forbidden in Iran itself. During her visit, Ebadi gave her view on the question how the West can change the human rights situation in Iran. (05-OCT-06)

Written by HRH F / Ralph Pluimert. Picture: Norwegian Nobel Institute
 
It was the second time Ms Ebadi visited the Human Rights House in Oslo. In October 2004, a year after she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, she had attended the conference ‘Activists under Attack – Defending the Right to be a Human Rights Defender.’ At that time she stated that a human rights house was also needed in Tehran:

“Today the writers, the artists, the philosophers and the human rights defenders in Iran must take care of the dialogue between the civilisations and it is obvious that they need a building where they can come together and arrange meetings. Establishing a human rights house in Teheran will be a great step towards achieving this goal, Ebadi said.”

Today the political climate in Iran is even more hostile to human rights activists and for this reason a human rights house in Tehran is, under present circumstances, impossible to establish. This is illustrated by the fact that the Defender of Human Rights Centre (DHRC), of which Ebadi is the president, was banned by Iran’s Interior Ministry in the beginning of August. Ebadi ensured us however, that in no case the centre would be shut down.

During the meeting, which was attended by representatives of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, Norwegian PEN, the Norwegian Council for the Rights of Kurdish people, Amnesty International and the Human Rights House Foundation, Ms Ebadi made clear that the West should focus more on the human rights situation in Iran and less on the country’s nuclear program. Too much focus on the latter would according to her only help the regime to gain popular support. Also a Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran is needed, she said. Ebadi doesn’t favour economical boycotts to establish more collaboration of the Iranian government, since such boycotts do not serve the Iranian population. Corporations that do business with Iran, on the other hand, should be more involved in one of the country’s many human rights and humanitarian problems.

To read Article 19 recently published report on freedom of expression Iran, click here.