– Human rights defenders are central in the dialogue between civilizations, said Shirin Ebadi at the opening of the HRH conference 13 October. The Iranian Nobel Laureate expressed the need for a Human Rights House in Iran where defenders can come together.
The Iranian Lawyer and human rights defender Shirin Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003. She spoke in Oslo on 13 October at the 10th Anniversary Conference of the Human Rights House Network titled Activists under attack. Defending the right to be a human rights defender.
Herself a Muslim, Ebadi has frequently been attacked by conservatives in Iran. She was one of the first female judges in Iran. After the revolution in 1979 she was forced to resign. She still faces restrictions in her work, but she believes in dialogue.
Come together
– The program of dialogue between civilisations that was presented by Mr Khatami, the president of Iran, has unfortunately failed because of conservative narrow-mindedness. 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.
Wants a human rights house
– One of the problems of human rights associations in Iran is to find an office where they can work for human rights. The price of apartments in Iran and especially in Tehran is very high, and as the state does not provide any financial help, having an office is like a dream for many human rights defenders. I hope that this dream can come true with the establishing of a human rights house in Teheran, – a house where one room could be dedicated to each group working with different issues of human rights, said Ebadi.
Cooperation
– The human rights house could be the fundament for establishing a human rights union in Iran. The cooperation of societies and groups that work for the freedom of speech, freedom of expression, defending political prisoners, the rights of the minorities, rights of children, women´s rights and rights of refugees, will strengthen the human rights in Iran. Such cooperation would be possible in a house where all of them could settle together, Ebadi said.
Networking
When asked by the audience how such a house could improve the human rights situation in Iran, she answered:
– Doors and walls cannot speak or defend human rights. Those who protect human rights are people, Ebadi said, underlining the need for cooperation and networking.
– Twenty three years ago, when a human rights defenders was put in prison, nobody heard about it. But today, because of the networks, everybody knows.
Read the manual on how to establish a human rights house
Read Ebadi´s speech below
Speech at the anniversary conference of the Human Rights House Network, titled “Activists under attack. Defending the right to be a human rights defender.”
Oslo, 13 October 2004
Translated from Persian (Farsi) by Nina Zandjani
Lecturer: Shirin Ebadi
Title: The importance of networks in strengthening the security of human right defenders
I am very pleased to be here among my own “family” that means together with people who believe in human rights and who are struggling for it, and talk to you.
The Human Rights defenders go to bed in the evening with a dream of peace and wake up in the morning with the wish of happiness for all human beings. In order to continue their activities they need security. But unfortunately most of them are exposed to various dangers, threats, pressure, jail and even death.
After the tragic event of September 11 some countries have put security on the schedule. Unfortunately establishing security has been given preference before the rights and freedom of people. In such a situation the working conditions of the human rights activists have become more difficult than before.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
please permit me to give a brief report on the conditions of human right defenders in Iran today.
The position of the human right defenders in Iran is not an easy one. The government of the Islamic Republic looks upon them with doubt and suspicion. Some of them are seen as agents and hired workers of foreign countries.
This has gone so far, that two years ago when Abbas Abdi, one of the famous journalists in Iran, was sentenced, on the list of his accusations one of his crimes was to have made a report on the human rights situation in Iran and the connection to the United Nations. Another crime was to sign an agreement with the Association “Galop” in order to make sociological researches, and asking people about their opinion. This person is still in prison.
One of the best lawyers of court of justice in Iran – Mr. Naser Zarafshan – is also in prison at the moment. He has been sentenced to five years imprisonment and has been in prison for more than two years now. His great crime was to accept a case that proved that the Ministry of Information and Security had given the order to kill the opponents. This case, which is known as the case of linking homicides, was one of the most important trials in Iran. Besides Zarafshan I was one of the lawyers in this case and have witnessed the struggle of my colleague day and night to practice justice.
I have also been to prison because I defended human rights. My crime was to defend the family of a student who was killed in an attack by the police and a pressure group on the students´ dormitories. I had a witness whose information stated that some of the statesmen in Iran who are among the well known conservatives, had been involved. Without using the information from the witness the court suddenly gave order to arrest me and my witness. We were accused of having disturbed public opinion and publish lies. The interesting thing is that my witness never, even under the hardest conditions, would take back his words. He had several proofs which showed that he was right. But unfortunately nobody listened to him or my defence. We had been sentenced in advance and more interesting is the fact that on the radio during the news at 11 hours in the morning it was announced that I had been arrested. But at that time I was sitting in my office working. I was very surprised to hear this news and was going to deny it the next day by sending out a message. But the same day at 7 o´clock in the evening two police officers came to my office and arrested me. Later I learned that the day before my arrest the head of the court where my case was under process, had given the order to arrest me. He had said to the officers that they should arrest me at the first possibility. And at 11 o´clock, as he was certain of my arrest, he had the news broadcasted by the radio unaware of the fact that the officers who were to arrest me, were not in such a hurry and had gone about their own private business. Two years earlier two of the lawyers at the court of justice, named Dadkhah and Soltani, were both sentenced to four months imprisonment. Their crime was had been defending their clients, and having claimed that the clients had been tortured in prison. They were imprisoned and later released. Their clients were among the most active political activists in Iran.
In Iran not only the political and the social activists are treated in this way and are put into prison, lawyers at court do not have the courage to defend the political activists. Few are willing to defend them, because this action may have consequences and aftermaths, parts of this you have heard about. To prevent this situation I and some of my colleague lawyers established an NGO, which we called “Association of Human Rights Defenders” three years ago. Our main work is to give free defence to political and ideologically accused persons. We also defend the family of the political prisoners. Another of our duties is to write reports on the human rights situation in Iran. I have the leadership of this association. The activity of the association has been so impressive that it managed to receive a human rights prize from the national committee for human rights from the French government in 2003 and has later become a member of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH). But it is surprising that until now the government of the Islamic Republic has not been willing to register us. And for about three years they have not carried out our request for registration, which is against the law.
So another problem of the human rights defenders is that the NGOs working with human rights, are not registered by the authorities, causing a lot of problems for them in their work. But the government itself as been taking steps to establish NGOs which are active in international societies and with their weak and non-political protests on the situation in Iran are attracting the attention of some states and are receiving economical help from them. These organisations try to deceive international opinion and call themselves spokesmen of the Iranian people whereas they do not have the slightest connection with the population.
Freedom of speech has been injured in Iran. During a period of less than two years more than ninety newspapers and periodicals have been closed down. A large number of our best journalists, writers and translators are spending their time in prison right now. Three of them: Saber, Rahmani and Alidjani have been in jail in uncertainty for more than one year. These three persons had been arrested several times already. Their crime has been to defend the expression of free speech and thoughts.
The important point is that according to the Iranian press-law criticizing the Constitution is a crime and will result in punishment. That means that even teachers of the Constitution may be judged guilty.
The representatives of the parliaments in every country are free to speak in parliament and bring forward their criticism. But in Iran this right has been subdued. Even representatives bringing up peoples´ problems, are not safe from prosecution and punishment. In the sixth Majlis (parliament) a number of the representatives who where reformists and critical of the way of governing, were prosecuted. A case was made against them because they had objected in parliament. Amongst these is the case of Mrs Haqiqatdju.
Another problem is that for most of the defenders of human rights there have been opened criminal cases with unjust accusations and these are held over their heads as Damocles´ swords to reduce their strength of action and their ability to protest. But I am glad to say that none of these actions are efficient in taking away people´s courage to struggle for human rights. Every day the number of human rights defenders increases in Iran. Twenty-four years ago, in the beginning of the Islamic revolution when the number of conservatives was much higher than today, nobody dared openly defend basic human rights. When the right wing newspapers wanted to offend me, they called me a western human rights supporter and a feminist. They used these designations at the same level as “betrayer” or “agent”. But today defending human rights has become a social value. A lot of statesmen and even conservatives call themselves supporters of human rights. Even though some of them are obstacles to human rights.
One of the problems of human rights associations in Iran is to find an office where they can work for human rights. The price of apartments in Iran and especially in Tehran is very high, and as the state does not provide any financial help, having an office is like a dream for many human rights defenders. I hope that this dream can come true with the establishing of a human rights house in Teheran, – a house where one room could be dedicated to each group working with different issues of human rights. This could be the fundament for establishing a human rights union in Iran. The cooperation of societies and groups that work for the freedom of speech, freedom of expression, defending political prisoners, the rights of the minorities, rights of children, women´s rights and rights of refugees, will strengthen the human rights in Iran. Such cooperation would be possible in a house where all of them could settle together.
The program of dialogue between civilisations that was presented by Mr Khatami, the president of Iran, has unfortunately failed because of conservative narrow-mindedness. 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.
