Iran earthquake: How to help


Survivors are in desperate need of food and shelter
Global aid agencies have launched urgent appeals for donations to help those affected by the earthquake in Bam, Iran.
Tens of thousands of people are desperately in need of food, water and shelter following the devastating quake, the worst in the region for more than a decade.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has launched a preliminary appeal for $12.3 million to assist survivors.

Online donations can be made via their website at www.ifrc.org. Iranian residents can contact their domestic Red Crescent branch through www.rcs.ir, while UK residents can donate via www.redcross.org.uk and US residents via www.redcross.org.

The UK branch of the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), which says it has already rushed more than 40 tons of aid to the stricken area, has also called for funds to help save children from infections, water-borne diseases and exposure to the cold.

"Right now, children are living on the streets and this makes them very vulnerable, specially in the freezing, cold nights," Deputy Executive Director of Unicef UK Fiona Hesselden said in a statement.

"We must not allow this devastating earthquake to take any more lives."

UK residents can donate through the website at www.unicef.org.uk.

Unicef will also shortly announce details of its worldwide fundraising campaign for victims of the earthquake.

International aid charity Islamic Relief has also urged people to donate and has provided a list of phone numbers on its website at www.islamic-relief.com.

World Vision has launched an appeal from all its regional offices for donations which can be made by visiting their website at www.wvi.org and selecting the regional website for your local World Vision office.

Further contacts

Children of Persia: Donate blankets and winter clothing at locations detailed on website www.childrenofpersia.org or call +1 301 315 0750.

Medicins Sans Frontieres: Donations can be made through the website at www.msf.org. Middle East residents can call the United Arab Emirates Branch on +971 (0)2 631 7645 or the branch in Dubai on +971 (0)4 345 8177. www.msfuae.ae

World Concern: Donations can be made by calling +1 800 755 5022. World Concern, Iran Earthquake Relief, 19303 Fremont Ave. N Seattle, WA 98133, USA www.worldconcern.org

Give a helping hand
Mercy Corps on-line

Call 1.800.292.3355 ext. 250 and use a credit card to make a contribution, or send a check to: Mercy Corps, Iran Earthquake, Dept. W., PO Box 2669, Portland, OR 97208-266

Nobel peace prize winner Shirin Ebadi's Account:
Shirin Ebadi , Account No. 8080, Name of financial institution: Saderat Bank of Iran, Branch: Yousef-abad Ave, Kalantary square Branch, Location: Tehran, Iran.

Red cross

Human rights law guarantee everyone the Human Right to Adequate Housing


"Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood...."
--Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 25

"The States Parties ... recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions...."
--International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Article 11

"States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in rural areas ... to ensure ... the right ... to enjoy adequate living conditions, particularly in relation to housing, sanitation, electricity and water supply, transport and communications...."
--Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, Article 14


Reuters
Rescuers say today is probably the last hope of finding more survivors from Iran's devastating earthquake as officials warn the death toll could reach 30,000 and that disease is now a threat.

The stench of death filled the flattened ancient Silk Road city of Bam as the world united in relief efforts and U.S. airmen worked alongside soldiers from the Islamic Republic that President George W. Bush once branded an "axis of evil" state.

As searches went into a fourth day, rescuers said they were no longer finding survivors -- only the mangled remains of people killed when the world's most lethal earthquake in at least 10 years levelled much of Bam.

"(Rescue operations) will continue at least for one more day (until midnight on Monday) when an assessment will be made to continue or not," Alain Pasche, a representative of a U.N. rescue coordination team, told Reuters.

Round-the-clock relief efforts were complicated by piles of bodies in the streets, overflowing cemeteries, bitterly cold nights, rain, aftershocks, confusion, some looting and the crash of an army helicopter that left the two people on board missing.

"I believe the (death) toll will reach 30,000," said a government official in Kerman province, where the quake struck before dawn on Friday while most people were still sleeping and destroyed about 70 percent of Bam's mostly mud-brick buildings.

DISEASE WARNING

Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi-Lari said some 20,000 bodies had been recovered, but the death toll was likely to be much higher.

Warning disease was a threat, he said: "We have instructed various bodies to immediately start cleaning up. If we don't bring hygiene back to the city we will have major problems."

Some 30,000 people were injured in the quake, which measured 6.3 on the Richter scale.

Aid workers estimated more than 100,000 people might have been left homeless in the Bam area, some 1,000 km (600 miles) southeast of the capital Tehran.

Aid poured in from around the world to help deal with a disaster that President Mohammad Khatami said his oil-producing country could not cope with on its own.

Some young men armed with pistols and Kalashnikov assault rifles drove into Bam in vans and stole Red Crescent tents. Others on motorbikes chased aid trucks, picking up blankets thrown out by soldiers.

As cemeteries battled to cope, mullahs in shirt-sleeves rather than their usual robes and wearing face masks against the dust and smell tore sheeting to shroud corpses.

There was no time to wash the bodies according to Islamic rituals.

Bodies were brought in blankets, sprayed with disinfectant to guard against disease and tipped into trenches hollowed out by mechanical diggers.

Parisa Hafezi, Reuters

Genral Assembly UN rebukes Human Rights situation in Iran. Resolution voted 22 Dec

belgium.indymedia.org
Genral Assembly UN rebukes Human Rights situation in Iran. Resolution voted 22 Dec.
by Brian Vatteroth Wednesday December 24, 2003 at 03:14 AM
bvattero@wanadoo.be


after 18 years of UN-resolutions condemning Iran for it violations of human rights, there was no resolution in 2002. After a year of high hopes the UN concludes that in spite of good intentions nothing has changed on the ground.


On 22 December the General Assembly of the United Nations approved a resolution rebuking the Human rights situation In Iran. The draft resolution was adopted earlier, on 21 November 2003, by the Third Committee (Social and Humanitarian), where it had been tabled by Canada. Last year, 2002, was the first time since 18 years that no resolution on the violations of human rights in Iran was approved in the General Assembly. The last resolution had been tabled by Belgium in 2001. The E.U. withdrew its proposal in 2002. Still concerned about the situation in Iran the E.U. hoped for more results through a “human rights dialogue” with Iran. Iran, in its turn, invited and UN-rapporteurs after years of refusal. Hopes were high that the reformist government would be willing and able to turn the tide. This makes this new resolution more dramatic: in spite of good signs, the situation has worsened.

During the past year international NGO’s like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and The International Federation for Human Rights have urged repeatedly for a new UN-resolution. In spite of positive steps on paper by the government, the human rights situation got worse. This is a result of the repressive reaction of the conservative clergy, which has the real state power, and rules both judiciary and security forces.
On October 13th the E.U Council on General Affairs and External Relations concludes the third round of the human rights dialogue with an expression of its concerns with continuing human rights violations in Iran. The council warns Iran that the dialogue will not prevent Europe from tabling or sponsoring a new UN resolution if necessary.
From 3 to 10 November Mr. Ambeyi Ligabo, Special UN Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, visits Iran. He says on his return that the government was co-operative, but he expressed his concern about the prisoners of conscience and urged Iran to release them all. He said those he met with complained of a variety of injustices, including torture and solitary confinement. He called the situation in Iran complex: Iranian Constitution and many laws provide for protection of the right to freedom of opinion but that they are open to wide interpretation when they are implemented. (Radio Free Europe, 11 November 2003 http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2003/11/11112003164329.asp)
On 21 November the Third Committee (Social and Humanitarian) approves a draft proposal, tabled by Canada, which (a.o.) would “have the General Assembly express its grave concern about continuing human rights violations in that country. Also, the Assembly would call on that Government to abide by its obligations under the International Covenants on Human Rights to expedite judicial reform, guarantee the dignity of the individual, ensure the full application of due process of law, by an independent and impartial judiciary, and eliminate discrimination against religious minorities”. This approval added the draft-resolution to the agenda of the General Assembly, where it has now been approved, on 22 December 2004. 68 in faour, 54 against en 51 abstantions. Belgium voted in favour, as it did earlier, in the Third Comittee.

www.guardian.co.uk
Iran Dancer Detained After Performance

Thursday December 25, 2003 9:01 PM


By ALI AKBAR DAREINI

Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's best-known female dancer and 24 of her students have been detained on charges of dancing in public - for an all-female audience, her husband said Thursday.

Although there are no written laws against dancing, Iran's hard-line clerics have banned the activity, which they consider a promotion of moral corruption.

Farzaneh Kaboli and 24 of her students were detained Wednesday night as they were performing folk dances on the second night of a two-week program at Tehran's prestigious Vahdat Hall, Hadi Marzban said.

Marzban said the students were freed Thursday after signing statements pledging not to perform again but Kaboli was taken to Evin Prison, north of Tehran.

``It was a program of rhythmical movements displaying folk dance of various provinces of Iran to an all-female audience. The program had been authorized by the Culture Ministry,'' a distressed Marzban told The Associated Press.

Marzban said efforts by pro-reform government authorities failed to prevent police from taking Kaboli to prison. She has not yet been charged.

Judicial officials were not available for comment, as Thursday is the first day of the weekend in Iran.

Marzban, an actor, insisted that his wife did not teach dancing.

``She was not teaching dance. She was just displaying various rhythmical programs existing in different parts of Iran,'' he said.

Although Kaboli has acted in some films shown on hard-line-controlled state-run television, she was banned from working for several years in the 1990s after the circulation of a video that showed her dancing before a male audience in a private party.

Kaboli's dance programs, available on bootlegged video, are widely watched by Iranian women.

Last year, a hard-line court in Tehran barred Mohammad Khordadian, Iran's top male dancer, from giving dance classes for life and banned him from leaving Iran for 10 years.

Khordadian, based in Los Angeles, returned to the United States after an appeals court lifted the travel ban. The appeals court also cut in half a 10-year suspended jail term against Khordadian.

Khordadian, whose dance programs are widely watched by Iranian expatriates and many inside Iran via satellite, has reportedly resumed dance classes in Los Angeles - meaning he would likely be jailed if he returns to Iran.

Sweeping social restrictions imposed after the 1979 Islamic revolution have gradually been eased since the 1997 election of reformist President Mohammad Khatami. However, the judiciary, controlled by unelected hard-liners, does punish women who break the longtime taboos.

Under Iranian law, women must wear head scarves in public and the mingling of unrelated men and women is frowned upon by hard-liners.

www.peyvand.com
Examination of dissident Aghajari's situation on Iran parliament's agenda
Iranian parliament has put on its agenda examination of the situation of the jailed outspoken university professor Hashem Aghajari, IRNA reported from Tehran on Saturday.

The parliament is to read out at a public session Sunday a report prepared by the Article 90 commission of the parliament for the file case of Aghajari, said Jamileh Kadivar, Rapporteur of the Commission on Saturday.

The Majlis presiding board had three weeks ago put the examination of Aghajari's case on its agenda for the second time before the intense lobbying by some political and influential figures resulted in removing it from the Parliament's agenda, said the MP.

Kadivar told the IRNA that the Commission report is expected to be read out in the parliament session after much delay.

On December 9, some 161 MPs in a statement honored academic Hashem Aghajari and said that the injustice to which Aghajari has been exposed to is the price the nation is paying for the cause of freedom of expression.

Aghajari, 46, was initially sentenced by a court in Hamedan, western Iran, to death on charge of blasphemy but the sentence was quashed by the Supreme Court after the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered a review.

The sentence were related to Aghajari's speech in August last year in which he called for religious restructuring and criticized the Islamic principle of emulating religious leaders in Iran.

Aghajari is a war veteran, who lost his leg as well as his brother during the Iraqi imposed-war of 1980-1988.

The death sentence drew angry criticism, with students staging several days of protest rallies to call on the Judiciary to suspend the ruling.

The ruling against Aghajari was commuted as the influential figures intervened in the whole saga.

December 14, 2003
Rudd Luberrs
Commissioner o f U.N.H.C.R.
Geneva, Switzerland

Dear Mr. Luberrs

We are alarmed at the situation in which the members of Mojahedin Khalgh Organization (MKO) and its sympathizers find themselves. Due to recent negotiations and the alleged understanding reached between the "Islamic Republic of Iran" and the "Governing Council in Iraq", many of the MKO members and their families will be expelled from Iraq. In addition, there is the eminent danger that they will be sent to Iran. Under the Geneva Convention, the United States and the United Kingdom as occupying powers in Iraq have the obligation to protect refugees, which include the MKO. Systematic violation of human rights in Iran will endanger their lives. In the hands of despotic regime in Tehran, the opposition members will be in a disastrous predicament -- it is paramount to throwing them into the lion’s den!

We, Iranian Human Rights activists and groups in Europe, Canada and U.S.A, are extremely anxious about the future of those refugees who may be dealt with harshly by the governments in question, without considering their Human Rights, and ignoring international conventions on asylum seekers.

We urgently request that you take notice of this critical situation and to do your utmost to protect the rights of these refugees, and help put together a humanitarian solution in order to transfer them to a safe place immediately.


Thank you for your attention to this matter,

Regards,



Human rights defense association of Iran, Montréal, Canada (www.addhi.com) - Human Rights defense comity of Iran, Sweden (www.defakomite.com ) – The action committee for the release of Prisoners of conscience in Iran, Paris, France (irancalppo.free.fr ) – Center for tought, dialogue and Human Rights in Iran, Toronto, Canada (ctdhumanright@yahoo.com) - Vereinigung zur Verteidigung der Menschenrechte im Iran,Bremen, Deutschland (www.bashariyat.de) - Stichting voor de Verdediging van Democratie in Iran, Nederland ) kdaddih@hotmail.com) – Iranian – Canadian community Association of western Canada, Vancouver (yebarak@yahoo.ca) - Committee to Defend Human Rights in Iran, California, U.S.A. - ( defendhriran_ca@yahoo.com) - noran (supporting committee for human rights in iran ), Norway – (noranali2003@yahoo.no ) – Activist of Human Rigts (www.irantestimony.com)

PUBLIC
AI Index: MDE 13/041/2003
15 December 2003
UA 364/03 - Fear of imminent execution
IRAN - Kobra Rahmanpour (f), aged about 22

Amnesty International fears that Kobra Rahmanpour is at risk of imminent execution. She was sentenced to death for the premeditated murder of her mother-in-law in 2000, and her husband, the victim's son, has demanded that the death sentence be carried out. According to a report in the Iranian daily newspaper, Yas-e No, the execution may take place within the next month.

On or around 10 November, Kobra Rahmanpour's husband reportedly presented documents establishing him as the legitimate representative of his mother's heirs. He is therefore entitled to request that the death sentence be carried out, as 'retribution in-kind' (qisas-e nafs). According to Iran's Penal Code, the decision to inflict retribution (qisas-e nafs) rests with the heirs of the victims. After being confirmed by the Supreme Court, death sentences imposed for murder can only be commuted if the victim's heirs forgo their right to retribution and ask instead for the payment of blood money (diyeh), or if the Head of the Judiciary invokes his power to revoke a finalized verdict if it is flawed, and refer the case to another court. It is reported that Kobra Rahmanpour's lawyer will ask for clemency from the victim's family.

Kobra Rahmanpour was reportedly arrested on 5 November 2000 after killing her mother-in-law. She allegedly acted in self-defence after her mother-in-law tried to attack her with a kitchen knife. At an unknown date, she was tried by Branch 1608 of Tehran's Criminal Court, where she was sentenced to death. Her lawyer has reportedly complained that the court did not consider, nor conduct any investigation into, her claim that the murder was in self-defence. Her lawyer is believed to have alleged that wounds on Kobra Rahmanpour's right hand had been sustained due to pulling the knife from the hands of her mother-in-law. In January 2003 her death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court. Kobra Rahmanpour has been held in prison, possibly in Tehran, since her arrest three years ago.

It is alleged that Kobra Rahmanpour was forced into marriage against her will by her parents, and had been the victim of domestic violence since her marriage.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Amnesty International has recorded 106 executions so far this year in Iran, although the true figure may be much higher.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Iran is a state party. Article 6 of the ICCPR states: In countries which have not abolished the death penalty, sentence of death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in Persian, English, French or your own language:
- stating that Amnesty International recognizes the rights and responsibilities of governments to bring to justice those suspected of criminal offences, but strongly opposes the death penalty as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment;
- urging that the death sentence imposed on Kobra Rahmanpour be commuted immediately;
- asking to be given details of the trial proceedings, and enquiring whether Kobra Rahmanpour has been allowed to appeal against her conviction and sentence as guaranteed by Article 14 (5) of the ICCPR;
- expressing concern at the lengthy imprisonment without bail of Kobra Rahmanpour
- calling for the allegation of self-defence to be properly investigated and considered in any appeal or re-examination of the case;
- urging the authorities to ensure that the victim's family is made aware of its right, under Islamic law, to pardon the condemned;
- reminding the authorities that the death penalty is in violation of the ICCPR, to which Iran is a state party.

APPEALS TO:
Head of the Judiciary
His Excellency Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi
Ministry of Justice, Park-e Shahr, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Telegram: Head of Judiciary, Ministry of Justice, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: + 98 21 879 6671 (please keep trying; please mark "care of Director of International Affairs, Judiciary")
Salutation: Your Excellency

and to diplomatic representatives of Iran accredited to your country.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat, or your section office, if sending appeals after 27 January 2004.

Prize in Oslo, warnings back home for Shirin Ebadi
Wed Dec 10, 5:33 AM
TEHRAN (AFP) - As human rights activist Shirin Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Islamic hardliners back home handed her a warning that she will have to pay for her decision to appear in public overseas without a headscarf and for allegedly shaking the hand of a man here in Tehran.


"Mrs Ebadi has not only put into question Islamic precepts by unveiling herself," fumed a statement from student members of the Basij, a radical volunteer militia attached to Iran's Revolutionary Guards.


"She has also provoked the religious sentiments of students by publicly shaking the hand of a man at Amir Kabir university, which has provoked several weeks of tensions at the university," said the statement, which was carried by the ultra-conservative Jomhuri Islami newspaper.


The Basij group is believed to have been behind an attack on Ebadi last week, when around 50 hardliners stopped her giving a speech at Al-Zahra women's university in Tehran by chanting slogans including "Death to Ebadi" and "Shirin the American, ask for pardon".


Their statement also warned university officials of a "reaction" if those involved in the attack were expelled from the campus.


The radical Ya-Lessarat weekly also plastered Ebadi on its front page, with the headline "Monafeqin (hypocrites) have no place at university" -- using a term the regime usually reserves for the Iraq (news - web sites)-based People's Mujahedeen armed opposition group.


Ebadi, whose campaign for the rights of women and children and her defence of dissidents has earned her the wrath of hardliners, did not escape attention in other conservative papers.


On Monday, the Kayhan newspaper branded her "Sharon Ebadi" -- a reference to the hardline Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites).


In a caricature, it showed the two main enemies of the Islamic republic -- Sharon and US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) -- embracing, with Bush asking "How are you, Shirin?"

Human rights take center stage Wednesday

By Jack Loftus
jloftus@seacoastonline.com

PORTSMOUTH - At the request of the Seacoast Group 550 of Amnesty International, Mayor Evelyn Sirrell has declared Dec. 10 "Human Rights Day 2003."

This is the second such proclamation by the mayor's office, with the first-ever Human Rights Day having been declared Dec. 6, 2002.

The request for the proclamation was brought about by Peter Somissch, coordinator for Group 550, at a Portsmouth City Council meeting on Monday.

The day is an international event that stems from the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights that was proclaimed and signed by the United Nations, Somissch said.

Portsmouth Human Rights Day 2002 was the result of Group 550's desire to recognize the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to former President Jimmy Carter for his decades of humanitarian efforts, Somissch said.

The Dec. 10 date also recognizes the efforts of then-chairman of the U.N. Human Rights Commission, Eleanor Roosevelt in 1948.

This year, there will be a Human Rights Day celebration at the North Church Parish Hall at 7 p.m. Wednesday. The event will be open to the public, Somissch said, and refreshments will be served.

During the celebration, special recognition will be given to the most recent Nobel Peace Prize winner, Shirin Ebadi, a Muslim woman who has been an active member for civil rights in her native Iran.

Amnesty International members will also be giving out information on two Iranian prisoners and one Turkish prisoner, each of whom Amnesty has said is being held in violation of the guidelines of the 1948 declaration.

Ahmad Batebi and Akbar Mohammadi were arrested in Iran in July 1999 as they protested a government closure of the reformist newspaper, Salam.

Leyla Zana, a former member of the Turkish Parliament, was jailed 10 years ago for refusing to denounce her Kurdish ethnicity after becoming a member of Parliament.

Somissch said he hopes that Human Rights Day 2003 will serve to educate the public about these cases, as well as the more recent cases of Guantanamo Bay and the al-Qaida members being held without legal representation as part of the U.S. war on terrorism.

"We want to educate people on why these rights are so important to people everywhere," he said.

english.aljazeera.net

Ebadi says receiving death
threats is nothing new to her
Shrugging off criticism, Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi is to cast off her headscarf when she goes to Oslo this week to formally receive her award.
....
"I want Iranian women to be free to wear or not wear the hijab," she said of the Islamic dress code enforced in the republic since the 1979 revolution and a symbol seized upon by many feminist activists.
...
Death threats

Coupled with that, however, are death threats. But these were shrugged off as part and parcel of campaigning on issues in opposition to powerful hardliners.

"These are nothing new. I've been receiving threats for 10 years now - telephone calls, letters. I've turned down offers of bodyguards, although when I go somewhere where there is not many people, I do inform the interior ministry," she explained.

Ebadi also shrugged off the disappointment of those in the Islamic republic hoping she would be taking on a more public role in her opposition to the conservative figures that pull many of the strings in Iran and have frustrated the reform efforts of President Muhammad
Khatami.
....
Referendum

"I tell people that they have to fight for their rights themselves, and that I will be among those who defend them. I believe in the parliamentary struggle, and the constitution has a method for reform - a referendum."

"The human rights situation has been getting worse over the past two years, even though it is better than it was 20 years ago..."


Reforms, she argued, "have to be carried out peacefully" - even though to many people the Iranian parliament has failed to deliver the changes that voters mandated it to deliver in 2000.

"People have not fought like they should have. They tired too quickly," she said of the current Majlis, which comes up for re-election on 20 February 2004.

But she did warn against a boycott, or a low turnout such as during municipal elections in February this year that saw conservatives win:

"When people leave the arena, the conservatives or the United States profit. We don't want conservatives or a military occupation

One-year suspended sentence passed on journalist Emadoldin Baghi

Reporters Without Borders today voiced outrage at the suspended sentence of one year in prison which the sixth revolutionary court of Tehran has passed on journalist Emadoldin Baghi without making public its reasons.

At the same time, the organisation also called on the Iranian courts to give assurances as to the state of health of Iradj Jamshidi, the editor of the economic daily Asia, of whom there has been no word since his arrest on 6 July and incarceration in Evin prison.

Baghi, who worked for Neshat, a daily closed down by the authorities, was tried on 9 November, but the sentence was announced only yesterday. It could be changed to an actual prison sentence at any time during the next five years.

This threat is clearly an attempt to silence Baghi, who often writes about violations of freedom of expression in Iran for the reformist dailies Shargh and Yas-e-no.

"I was unable to defend myself in this travesty of a trial which last only a few minutes, and I was barely able to speak," Baghi told Reporters Without Borders. "What kind of trial is it where there is neither lawyer nor judge, or where the judge is prosecutor at the same time and where the defendant is not even told of the charges against him ?"

In his book, "The Tragedy of Democracy in Iran," Baghi accused the Iranian authorities of being involved in a series of murders of intellectuals and journalists in 1998. He has already been imprisoned because of his articles in the reformist press. In his most recent previous trial, on 23 October 2000, he was given a three-year prison sentence for "threatening national security" and "disseminating false news."

After his release on 6 February of this year, Baghi was repeatedly harassed by the judicial authorities, summoned frequently to appear in court and banned from leaving the country. The harassment stepped up after last month's visit to Tehran by Ambeyi Ligabo, special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression for the UN Commission on Human Rights.

Reporters Without Borders is very concerned about the fate of the 11 journalists currently in prison in Iran. In addition to Jamshidi, they include they include three journalists who were arrested at the same time on 14 June : Taghi Rahmani of Omid-é-Zangan, Reza Alijani, the editor of Iran-é-Farda (who is a Reporters Without Borders-Fondation de France laureate), and Hoda Saber, managing editor of Iran-é-Farda.

Rahmani's wife, Narges Mohammadi, told Reporters Without Borders : "The last family visit for the three journalists was on 30 October. Since then, for the past 32 days, neither their lawyers nor their families have received any news of them. We still don't know what they are charged with. They have not yet been brought to trial. That means that they have been in preventive detention

Akbar Ganji
A prominent jailed Iranian dissident journalist, Akbar Ganji, was treated in hospital for respiratory problems, members of the Iranian Journalists Association said.(AFP/File/Behrouz Mehri)

Amnesty International annual reports - Iran
2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997

www.amnesty.org
UN drafts new treaty against 'disappearances'
Hundreds of thousands of people around the world remain "disappeared". They were arrested or abducted by state agents, but governments deny holding them. New cases are recorded in dozens of countries each year.

"Disappearances" cause extreme agony for victims and their relatives. Often the victims are tortured or killed. Their relatives are unable to find out whether their loved ones are alive or dead.

After more than two decades of campaigning by organizations of relatives of the "disappeared", the UN Commission on Human Rights has begun drafting an international treaty against "enforced disappearance" - the UN term for "disappearances". As currently discussed, the draft treaty would include measures for preventing "disappearances", bringing perpetrators to justice and affording reparation to victims. Also under discussion is an urgent judicial remedy which relatives could invoke to discover victims' whereabouts and ensure their well-being.

The working group's next formal session will be in January 2004. AI is calling for the speedy adoption of a treaty giving strong protection against "enforced disappearance".

www.amnesty.org
THE PAIN MERCHANTS
Security equipment and its use in torture and other ill-treatment
....
Iran among 20 countries in the world manufacturing chemical irritants such as tear gas during the years 1999-2003, which break down regionally as follows:
Number of companies manufacturing chemical irritants 1999-2003
RegionNumber of companies
Europe and CIS23 companies
Asia / Pacific15
North and Central America15
Middle East8
Africa3
South America1
Whole report

The life of Ahmad Batebi is in grave danger !


Political prisoner under torture

Ahmad Batebi

In November 2003, Ahmad Batebi, on medical leave from prison

met with the Special Rapporteur for the Promotion and Protection

of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression. One hour

later he 'disappeared'. Officials at Tehran's prosecutor's office threatened

his father with arrest and later admitted that his son had been re-arrested

Nobel Winner Calls for Legal Equality for All in Iran
VOA News

The Iranian woman who won this year's Nobel Peace Prize says the Islamic Republic must grant legal equality to women and religious minorities.
During a news conference in Tehran, Shirin Ebadi also said she believes the Iranian constitution already gives women the right to run for president of Iran. That interpretation is contested by conservatives in the Islamic republic.

Ms. Ebadi was speaking at a news conference before she travels to Norway for the presentation of the Nobel Prize next week.

She said once again that she does not intend to begin a political career herself, although she believes more women should run for office and seek a greater share of power in Iran.

She also repeated her call for the release of political prisoners in Iran.

Ms. Ebadi is a lawyer and former judge who has been a champion of human rights in Iran, particularly for women and children. She told reporters Tuesday the Nobel Prize gave her courage and showed she was on the right track.

Iran refuses to take critical UN resolution on human rights lying down
By Channel NewsAsia's Iran Correspondent Roxana Saberi
TEHRAN : Iran is calling a recent United Nations resolution criticising its human rights record "worthless" and "politically motivated."

A UN committee had approved the resolution accusing Tehran of human rights violations such as torture and the suppression of free speech

The latest UN move is adding to the recent pressures Iran has been facing on the international scene.

At a recent rally at the University of Tehran, demonstrators called for the release of reformist professor Hashem Aghajari.

He was condemned to death last year after questioning the rule of Iran's powerful Shiite clerics.

Now Aghajari is awaiting a review of that sentence.

"The cruelty that is done to Aghajari is cruelty to the great nation of Iran," said reformist MP Mohsen Armin.

The criticism has been echoed in a recent UN committee resolution, rebuking Tehran for breaches of human rights.

The resolution accuses Iran of suppressing press freedom, jailing political dissidents, and discrimination against women and religious minorities.

"I think that the issuance of this resolution was a clear message to the Iranian government, especially the conservatives, including the judiciary, that they should change their course of action regarding the human rights field," said Hossein Hafezian, Center for Middle East Strategic Studies.

Iran's human rights scene had already been thrust into the spotlight by several recent developments; three examples come to mind.

Shirin Ebadi, a lawyer working in the fields of human rights and democracy, became the first Iranian to win a Nobel Peace Prize.

The death of Iranian-Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi, while in Iranian custody, has ignited tensions between the two countries.

There is also increasing disillusionment with the slow pace of reforms, which many accuse the country's hardliners of blocking.

UN human rights monitor Ambeyi Ligabo, who visited Iran in November, says part of the problem are unclear laws that seem to provide for freedom of expression but often do not.

"They seem to lack appropriate precision and definition, criteria and are therefore open to wide interpretation when implemented," said the UN Special Rapporteur.

Iran has responded to the resolution by saying it is based on a "selfish agenda" and contradicts Iran's efforts to promote human rights at home and abroad.

Some Iranian leaders have said women and religious minorities enjoy many liberties, including posts in the country's parliament.

They also claim that recent student demonstrations are clear signs of "political openness."

Indeed, some Iranians, like the demonstrators at an annual anti-Israel rally (picture), say the critics are being hypocritical.

"America only speaks about human rights. It doesn't know anything about human rights. They don't even know the ABC's of human rights," said one protestor.

The renewed focus on Iran's human rights record is intensifying pressures on Tehran, which Washington has accused of pursuing nuclear weapons - a charge Iran denies.

The UN draft resolution now goes to the full General Assembly.

Observers expect it to get a vote of approval. - CNA

URGENT APPEAL - THE OBSERVATORY


IRN 004/0012/OBS 125.03
Iran
Detention
28th November 2003


The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint program of the FIDH and the OMCT, requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Iran.

New information:

The Observatory has been informed that Mr. Nasser Zarafchan's appeal to the Supreme Court was dismissed on November 25, 2003. With this decision, the Court confirmed M. Zarafchan's five years' imprisonment sentence, which aimed at sanctioning his activity as a lawyer of the families of the Iranian intellectuals murdered by intelligence
services agents in 1998.
He is still being held at Evin prison, and could not meet neither his counsel Mrs. Chirin Ebadi, nor Mr. Ligabo, Special Reporter of the United Nations on freedom of expression who visited Iran in November 2003.
On March 18th 2002, Mr. Zarafchan was sentenced to three years in jail by the Military Tribunal of Tehran for “weapons and alcohol possession ". He was also sentenced to two years of imprisonment for his statements to the press regarding the lawsuit of the alleged murderers of Iranian intellectuals, which ended in January 2002. This decision was confirmed in appeal by the Military Court of Tehran on July 15, 2002.

The Observatory considers Mr. Zarafchan's condemnation and detention as arbitrary, and recalls that the procedure is in contradiction with the principles of a fair and impartial trial.
Action requested:
Please write to the authorities of Iran, urging them to:

i. Proceed to Mr. Zarafchan's immediate release in the absence of any charges against him, and to guarantee his physical and psychological integrity in all circumstances.

ii. Guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Nasser Zarafchan, as well as any human rights defenders in Iran.

iii. Conform with the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the United Nations' General Assembly on 9 December 1998, in particular its article 1, which states that “everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental
freedoms at the national and international levels ".

iiii. Conform with the disposals of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, and with the regional and international instruments which bound the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Addresses:

- His Excellency Hojjatoleslam val Moslemin Sayed Mohammad Khatami,
President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, The Presidency, Palestine
Avenue, Azerbaijan
Intersection, Tehran (Iran); E-mail: khatami@president.ir

- His Excellency Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi, Head of the
Judiciary, Ministry of Justice, Park-e Shahr, Tehran (Iran); Fax: +
98 21 879 6671

- The Iranian Embassy of your country


Paris, Geneva, the 28th of November 2003

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this
appeal in your reply.

The Observatory, a joint FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the
protection of Human Rights Defenders, and aims to offer them concrete
support in their time of need.

To contact the Observatory, call the Emergency Line:
E-mail: observatoire@iprolink.ch
Tel and Fax: FIDH: +33 (0) 1 43 55 25 18 / 01 43 55 18 80
OMCT: +41 22 809 49 39 / 41 22 809 49 29

--
=Fédération Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l'Homme
International Federation for Human Rights - FIDH
17, passage de la Main d'Or
75011 Paris - France
tel : ++ 33 1 43 55 25 18 / fax : ++ 33 1 43 55 18 80
www.fidh.org

www.msnbc.com
A Crime And Its Cover-Up

The killing of an innocent journalist in state custody is re-energizing Iran’s reformists

By Babak Dehghanpisheh
NEWSWEEK INTERNATIONAL

Dec. 8 issue — With his suit, thin-rimmed glasses and trim beard, Said Mortazavi could pass as a college professor. But few of Iran’s literati would mistake him for a colleague. During a three-year stint as head of Tehran’s Press Court, Mortazavi was responsible for shutting down dozens of reformist newspapers and jailing more than 20 journalists. Critics dubbed him the “butcher of the press.” In recent weeks, Mortazavi, who was appointed Tehran’s public prosecutor in May, has been grabbing headlines again—not for jailing a journalist, but for his alleged role in covering up the death of one.

4 november 2003
To : Special reporter of U. N. in freedom of speech

Dear Mr., Ligabo,
Your pre-scheduled visit to Iran on July 17, 03 was called off by the Iranian Regime while a new wave of suppression was ordered against peaceful pro democracy protests. The religious dictatorship arrested more than hundreds of students, Political activists, journalists and any one who was willing to practice basic Human Rights and freedom of speech. They went under tremendous torture (physical and psychological) such as being confined in isolation cells for long periods of time, to confess crimes they have never committed, particularly before TV cameras.
The arrest of Ms. Kazemi as a spy, her torture in the prison to confess and caused her death, is just a count of countless crimes in the prison system of the regime. Ms. Kazemi's case shows the understanding of the Regime's judiciary of Human rights.
We would like to bring to your attention some of the many systematic Violations of Human rights in Iran:
We have registered about 810 cases of violation of human Rights in Iran in the first 10 months of 2003. Almost three cases every single day.(The report in detail will be delivered to Your office in Geneva In person by delegates of our groups).
The report proves that the regime uses many dirty tactics, such as suspending students for sometime from studying, assaults, insults, threats , suppressions, tortures and execution to try to prevent individuals from using their basic human rights .
We, Iranian Human Rights groups in Europe, Canada and U.S.A, request you to diagnose the tactics and announce the violence, discrimination and …by the regime against those individuals who are willing to express themselves but are denied and are restricted, in order to improve human Rights in Iran and to help and heel the wounds of the victims in this state of violence against them.
A list of political prisoners is attached.
Please consider:
1. The list is not completed due to a lack of freedom of information in Iran and the limitation of our access to the victims and sources.
2. Many of the students who have been detained since June 2003 are still waiting to stand before a security court. They are denied bail and are denied free access to lawyers and visits from their families.
3. There is a possibility that some of the prisoners will be transferred to an unofficial jail in order to prevent them to have access to you freely.

8 November 2003
Obstacles for the three independent observers
to get an entry visa to Iran for the trial of ms. Kazemi

Three independent Canadian observers who are going to attend the trial of Ms. kazemi in Tehran who is supposed to be held on Nov 15, have not received their entry visas from the Iranian embassy in Ottawa, yet.
Mr. Gaston Labrèche, Mr. Pierre Poupart and Mrs. Tanya Churchmuch are respectively representatives of international and Canadian human rights, journalists, and social N.G.O s who are demanding a full independent inquiry for the cause of the murder of Ms. Kazemi his son.
One of the observer has applied on Oct. 3, 03 but has not received any response from the embassy.
This delay tactic is another proof that the Iranian regime is not willing to cooperate with international communities and organizations to find out the truth.
The obstruction of the authorities for the entry visas and considering systematic and organized Human Rights abuses in Iran, leads to the conclusion that the leadership of the regime was at the center of the plot from the beginning of this case, that started with her arrest for allegations of espionage to her murder.
We, Iranian Human right groups in Canada, EU and U.S. join the voices of the world and Canadian in particular for the justice of Ms. Kazemi. The justice of ms, kazemi will go through an independent inquiry to find the truth out surrounding the case and the return of the body to Canada as her son, Stephane Hachemi, wishes.