The Globe and Mail: Ottawa to push Iran on Kazemi case: Pettigrew

The Globe and Mail: Ottawa to push Iran on Kazemi case: Pettigrew

RAPE, TORTURE, LIES

Dr. Shahram Azam, the doctor who examined Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi in an Iranian hospital before she died, appears Thursday at a news conference in Ottawa.
Photo: Tom Hanson/CP

Kazemi was tortured: Iranian doctor

Last Updated Thu, 31 Mar 2005 05:03:25 EST
CBC News
MONTREAL - Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi showed signs of being savagely beaten when she was brought to a Tehran hospital in 2003, said an emergency room doctor on duty at the time.

Shahram Azam, a former staff physician in Iran's defence ministry, said he examined Kazemi, the 54-year-old Iranian-born Montrealer, early on June 27, 2003, according to reports published in the Globe and Mail and Montreal's La Presse.

Kazemi had been arrested four days earlier while photographing a demonstration outside Tehran's Evin prison. She died in Iranian custody in July 2003. Iran's government admitted she'd been beaten but maintains her death was accidental. An Iranian security agent was charged and acquitted of killing her.

According to Azam, who now lives in Canada, Kazemi's entire body had strange markings all over it.

Azam described massive bruising around her head and ears. Her skull had been fractured and her nose broken. Two fingers were also broken and were missing fingernails.

Kazemi also had several abdominal bruising and showed evidence of being flogged on the legs. There were also signs of a "very brutal rape," according to the doctor.

Azam, who recently received political asylum in Canada, intends to tell his story at a news conference in Ottawa on Thursday.

He fled Iran last August, going first to Finland, then Sweden, before contacting Kazemi's son, Stephan Hachemi. With the help of Canadian lawyers, Hachemi helped Azam and his family get to Canada.

This month Azam received landed-immigrant status as a refugee sponsored by the Canadian government.

Azam told the Globe he wants to renew worldwide attention on Kazemi's case. He hopes it will ultimately lead to the "indictment" of Iran's Islamic Republic.

TheStar.com - Editorial: Calling Iran to account

TheStar.com - Editorial: Calling Iran to account

Reporters sans frontires - UN human rights commission urged to sanction Iran

Reporters sans fronti�res - Iran

swissinfo NEWS - UN human rights body faces "do or die" moment

swissinfo swiss information business culture news informations of switzerland :NEWS - d�tail

IOL: Two Iranians hanged publicly

IOL: Middle East

TheStar.com - Pettigrew targets Iran rights record

TheStar.com - Pettigrew targets Iran rights record

Reporters sans frontires - UN human rights commission named as world's biggest prison for the press

As the UN Commission on Human Rights began its 61st session today in Geneva, Reporters Without Borders pointed out that four of the commission's members - China, Cuba, Eritrea and Nepal - are the countries with the largest number of imprisoned journalists in the world. In all, 70 journalists and 62 cyber-dissidents are detained by countries that are commission members.

To draw attention to this, the press freedom organization today put up 70 posters showing the silhouette of an imprisoned journalist around the perimeter of the United Nations complex in Geneva and on the walls of the city's streets.

"The United Nations Commission on Human Rights continues to discredit itself," Reporters Without Borders said. "No one can seriously claim today that it does its job properly or that it really helps to improve respect for human rights in the world.

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Human Rights Watch's Priorities for the 61st Session of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights (Human Rights Watch, March 10, 2005)

Iran

Respect for basic human rights in Iran, especially freedom of expression and opinion, deteriorated in 2004. Torture and ill-treatment in detention, including indefinite solitary confinement, is used routinely to punish dissidents. The judiciary, which is accountable to Supreme Leader Ali Khamene’i rather than the elected president, Mohammad Khatami, has been at the center of many serious human rights violations. Abuses are carried out by what Iranians call “parallel institutions”: plainclothes intelligence agents, paramilitary groups that violently attack peaceful protests, and illegal and secret prisons and interrogation centers run by intelligence services.

The Commission should adopt a resolution that would:


Re-establish a special mechanism to monitor and report on the human rights situation in Iran.


Call on the Iranian authorities to facilitate and expedite the requested visits by the U.N. Special Rapporteurs on torture, and freedom of religion and live up to its own commitment under the standing invitation for monitoring procedures with respect to all future request by these procedures.


Make public and time-based commitments to full implementation of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and other Special Rapporteurs’ recommendations.


Call on Iran to:


Ratify the CEDAW and CAT treaties, and announce an official review of reservations entered upon ratification of other major human rights instruments.


Release all political prisoners.


Authorize an independent and impartial investigation into judicial abuses by the Office of the Chief Prosecutor.


Abolish the death penalty for juvenile offenders (persons convicted for offences committed under the age of 18) as a first step towards total abolition of the death penalty.


Amend the press law to safeguard freedom of the press and permit publications closed by unlawful judicial procedures to reopen.


Establish strict limits on the use of solitary confinement in prisons, as well as the use of videotaped confessions.


Establish and enforce strict limits on incommunicado detention, and ensure prompt access to lawyers and family members for detainees. Courts should not admit as evidence incriminatory statements obtained through use of coercion.


Initiate a program of action to identify and address discrimination against minority groups.
Human Rights Watch's Priorities for the 61st Session of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights (Human Rights Watch, March 10, 2005): "Iran

Respect for basic human rights in Iran, especially freedom of expression and opinion, deteriorated in 2004. Torture and ill-treatment in detention, including indefinite solitary confinement, is used routinely to punish dissidents. The judiciary, which is accountable to Supreme Leader Ali Khamene�i rather than the elected president, Mohammad Khatami, has been at the center of many serious human rights violations. Abuses are carried out by what Iranians call �parallel institutions�: plainclothes intelligence agents, paramilitary groups that violently attack peaceful protests, and illegal and secret prisons and interrogation centers run by intelligence services.

The Commission should adopt a resolution that would:


Re-establish a special mechanism to monitor and report on the human rights situation in Iran.


Call on the Iranian authorities to facilitate and expedite the requested visits by the U.N. Special Rapporteurs on torture, and freedom of religion and live up to its own commitment under the standing invitation for monitoring procedures with respect to all future request by these procedures.


Make public and time-based commitments to full implementation of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and other Special Rapporteurs� recommendations.


Call on Iran to:


Ratify the CEDAW and CAT treaties, and announce an official review of reservations entered upon ratification of other major human rights instruments.


Release all political prisoners.


Authorize an independent and impartial investigation into judicial abuses by the Office of the Chief Prosecutor. "

Iran News - Int'l Human Rights Festival opens in Geneva

Iran News - Int'l Human Rights Festival opens in Geneva

Iran: The Commission must restore the recently discontinued mandate of a human rights monitor for Iran. In the past year, human rights conditions have significantly deteriorated in the country, where abuses include torture and ill-treatment in detention, including indefinite solitary confinement used routinely to punish dissidents.
Reuters AlertNet - U.N. Rights Body Must Fight to Restore Credibility: "Iran"

Human Rights Watch: U.N. Rights Body Must Fight to Restore Credibility

Iran: The Commission must restore the recently discontinued mandate of a human rights monitor for Iran. In the past year, human rights conditions have significantly deteriorated in the country, where abuses include torture and ill-treatment in detention, including indefinite solitary confinement used routinely to punish dissidents.
Reuters AlertNet - U.N. Rights Body Must Fight to Restore Credibility: "Iran"

Human Rights Watch: U.N. Rights Body Must Fight to Restore Credibility

Iran: The Commission must restore the recently discontinued mandate of a human rights monitor for Iran. In the past year, human rights conditions have significantly deteriorated in the country, where abuses include torture and ill-treatment in detention, including indefinite solitary confinement used routinely to punish dissidents.
Reuters AlertNet - U.N. Rights Body Must Fight to Restore Credibility: "Iran"

Human Rights Watch: U.N. Rights Body Must Fight to Restore Credibility

Iran: The Commission must restore the recently discontinued mandate of a human rights monitor for Iran. In the past year, human rights conditions have significantly deteriorated in the country, where abuses include torture and ill-treatment in detention, including indefinite solitary confinement used routinely to punish dissidents.
Reuters AlertNet - U.N. Rights Body Must Fight to Restore Credibility: "Iran"

Human Rights Watch: U.N. Rights Body Must Fight to Restore Credibility

Iran: The Commission must restore the recently discontinued mandate of a human rights monitor for Iran. In the past year, human rights conditions have significantly deteriorated in the country, where abuses include torture and ill-treatment in detention, including indefinite solitary confinement used routinely to punish dissidents.
Reuters AlertNet - U.N. Rights Body Must Fight to Restore Credibility: "Iran"

Human Rights Watch: U.N. Rights Body Must Fight to Restore Credibility

Iran: The Commission must restore the recently discontinued mandate of a human rights monitor for Iran. In the past year, human rights conditions have significantly deteriorated in the country, where abuses include torture and ill-treatment in detention, including indefinite solitary confinement used routinely to punish dissidents.
Reuters AlertNet - U.N. Rights Body Must Fight to Restore Credibility: "Iran"

Human Rights Watch: U.N. Rights Body Must Fight to Restore Credibility

Iran: The Commission must restore the recently discontinued mandate of a human rights monitor for Iran. In the past year, human rights conditions have significantly deteriorated in the country, where abuses include torture and ill-treatment in detention, including indefinite solitary confinement used routinely to punish dissidents.
Reuters AlertNet - U.N. Rights Body Must Fight to Restore Credibility: "Iran"

Human Rights Watch: U.N. Rights Body Must Fight to Restore Credibility

Iran: The Commission must restore the recently discontinued mandate of a human rights monitor for Iran. In the past year, human rights conditions have significantly deteriorated in the country, where abuses include torture and ill-treatment in detention, including indefinite solitary confinement used routinely to punish dissidents.
Reuters AlertNet - U.N. Rights Body Must Fight to Restore Credibility: "Iran"

Human Rights Watch: U.N. Rights Body Must Fight to Restore Credibility

Iran: The Commission must restore the recently discontinued mandate of a human rights monitor for Iran. In the past year, human rights conditions have significantly deteriorated in the country, where abuses include torture and ill-treatment in detention, including indefinite solitary confinement used routinely to punish dissidents.
Reuters AlertNet - U.N. Rights Body Must Fight to Restore Credibility: "Iran"

Human Rights Watch: U.N. Rights Body Must Fight to Restore Credibility

Iran: The Commission must restore the recently discontinued mandate of a human rights monitor for Iran. In the past year, human rights conditions have significantly deteriorated in the country, where abuses include torture and ill-treatment in detention, including indefinite solitary confinement used routinely to punish dissidents.
Reuters AlertNet - U.N. Rights Body Must Fight to Restore Credibility: "Iran"

Christian Today > Imprisoned Iranian Pastor may Face Death Penalty

Christian Today > Imprisoned Iranian Pastor may Face Death Penalty

Christian Today > Imprisoned Iranian Pastor may Face Death Penalty

Christian Today > Imprisoned Iranian Pastor may Face Death Penalty

JTW News - Iranian Blogging Round The Globe

JTW News - Iranian Blogging Round The Globe: "Human"

Reporters sans frontires - International Women's Day

Reporters Without Borders pays tribute to women journalists under threat worldwide
Police in Iran on 2 March 2005 arrested weblogger Najmeh Oumidparva, (http://www.faryadebeseda.persianblog.com - Dawn of Freedom) wife of weblogger Mohamad Reza Nasab Abdolahi, who is also imprisoned. She is three months pregnant and has been told she could spend ten days in prison. Days before her arrest, she had posted on her weblog a message written by her husband shortly before his arrest in which he claimed the right to free expression and said he was "waiting for police handcuffs".

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Iran: Dissident Wins Award for Besieged Writers (Human Rights Watch, 7-3-2005)

The Iranian author Taqi Rahmani, who has spent a total of 17 years in prison, was awarded a Hellman/Hammett grant for persecuted writers, Human Rights Watch said today.
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Amnesty International: Threats against Kurdish human rights defenders must stop

Amnesty International is alarmed at reports that human rights defenders in Sanandaj, Iranian Kordestan, working on children and women's rights are facing threats in connection with their human rights work. It is feared that such harassment may increase towards International Women's Day on 8 March.

The organisation appeals to the Intelligence Section of the Law Enforcement Forces (LEF, or Hefazat-e Ettela'at-e Nirou-ye Entezami) in Kordestan to stop its apparently unjustified interference with these activists and to work towards protecting human rights.

In recent days members of the legally recognised non-governmental organisation (NGO), Association for the Defence of Children's Rights (ADCR, or Kanoun-e Defa' az Hoqouq-e Koudekan) and the unrecognised Association of Kurdish Women Defending Peace and Human Rights (AKWDP&HR or Kanoun-e Zanan-e Kord-e Modafa' Solh va Hoqouq-e Bashar) have endured summons, interrogation, telephone threats and harassment, apparently in connection with their human rights work.
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RÉUNION DE PROTESTATION – SEATING

15 MARCH / MARS 2005 - 14:00 PM

GENEVA / GENÈVE

PLACE DES NATIONS
ON THE OCCASION OF THE OPENING OF THE 61TH SESSION OF THE UN’S HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION

À L’OCCASION DE L’OUVERTURE DE LA 61ÈME SESSION DE LA COMMISSION DES DROITS DE L’HOMME DE L’ONU



EN PRÉSENCE DES VICTIMES DE LA VIOLATION DES DROITS DE L’HOMME EN IRAN

WITH THE VICTIMS OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN IRAN

RSF: An editor banned from working for two years, a daily suspended and nine journalists summoned

Reporters Without Borders condemned government hounding of the press after an independent journalist was given a six-month suspended sentence, a daily newspaper was suspended and nine journalists summoned.

A high court in Tehran on 1st March upheld a suspended jail term imposed in March 2004 against Mohammad Hassan Alipour, editor of the daily Aban, along with a two-year ban from working. He could end up serving the sentence since he is being questioned in a new case.

The daily Nedai Azarabadegan was suspended for two months by a court in East Azerbaijan Province in north-east Iran while nine journalists in Iranian Kurdistan were summoned to appear before the courts.

"On the eve of the 61st session of the UN Commission on Human Rights, Iran has yet again distinguished itself as one of the most repressive countries in terms of press freedom. The summonses and suspended prison terms act like a sword of Damocles over the heads of journalists who fail to censor themselves.


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P U L S E | Blogging his way to jail

Forced to stand trial without his lawyer and behind closed doors, Arash Cigarchi was recently sentenced to 14 years in jail in Iran for the commentary he published in his blog; he was officially charged, among other crimes, with “aiding and abating hostile governments and opposition groups.” Bizarrely, Cigarchi himself may not even have been present at his trial, which Human Rights Watch has condemned as a “sham,” that “violated international standards for fair trials.”

Widney Brown, deputy program director of Human Rights Watch, stated that the “Iranian government is sending a message to its critics: keep silent or face years in prison.”

Other bloggers in Iran, including Mojtaba Lotfi and Mojtaba Saminezhad, have been thrown into jail as a result of the political commentary they published in their blogs.


—Mimi Hanaoka

PolitInfo.com - State Department Reports Cite Human Rights Problems in Mideast - Mar 1, 2005 Washington

The report on Iran criticized that country’s Guardian Council for disqualifying virtually all reformist candidates -- including several sitting members of parliament -- from the February 2004 parliamentary elections.

The report on Iran also noted that its government suppressed independent media outlets during the year through arrest and intimidation of journalists.
More: "Iran"