Saturday 10 December is Human Rights Day – the international celebrating and honouring of the date in 1948 on which the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). This was essentially the setting down of the first human rights charter intended to have worldwide application and effect, and is regarded as one of the major enduring achievements of the nascent UN.
Resolution 423(V) was subsequently passed at the 317th Plenary Meeting of the UNGA, inviting all UN member states and all interested parties to mark the day as they deemed fit.
It is also traditionally the date upon which the five-yearly UN Prize in the Field of Human Rights and Nobel Peace Prize are awarded.
Of course, this year, Human Rights Day falls at a time of acute problems and great challenges for those looking to uphold and carry forward the banner of peace, human and democratic rights, and social justice.
The outbreak of war; the critical environmental crisis; the sharpening of the cost of living crisis; the exponential growth of poverty and in the divide between rich and poor; as well as the boom in populist politics and rhetoric – all of which are very much interlinked factors – combine to present a near perfect storm for progressive politicians and decision-makers around the world.
Iran is a country whose optimistic and outward-looking people look forward to, and welcome initiatives for, the promotion of peace, justice, and human and democratic rights!
A popular protest movement is currently underway in Iran. These protesters, with the country’s women and youth at the very forefront, have courageously and steadfastly taken to the streets in towns and cities right across Iran to campaign for some of their most basic human and democratic rights, as well as for the fundamental political changes necessary in order for this to be realised – all despite the increasingly grave risks involved, particularly the brutal response of the theocratic state and its repressive apparatus.
This movement was originally sparked on Friday 16 September by popular and widespread revulsion at the killing of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the detention of the country’s so-called “morality police” and has since naturally evolved into one pushing for fundamental democratic changes in Iran. Despite all of the obstacles thrown in its way and the inherent risks to those involved, under a political system which brokers little if any dissent, the movement is now rapidly approaching its three-month anniversary, a significant milestone as far as today’s Iran is concerned.
At least 400 people have been killed, and over 15,000 arrested in the course of the current protests. Calls for the most basic of human and democratic rights to be upheld in Iran – a country which is signatory to the UDHR as well as other international agreements, and whose own constitution offers specific protections – have been met by the state with bloody, even lethal, violence in the streets; arbitrary arrest and detention; torture (including rape and sexual violence); as well as arraignment before the courts on charges carrying the death sentence. It should be noted that these court proceedings fall far short of the criteria and standards internationally recognised as affording due process.
As testament to the courage and tenacity of the protesters in Iran; demonstrations have continued in earnest in defiance of a warning by the head of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) that they must cease, as well as a vote by 227 of Iran’s 290 legislators in November that the death penalty be applied to those protesters brought before the courts on charges of serious crimes against the state – which include non-lethal offences.
And, in an ominous development, just two days before Human Rights Day, the Islamic Republic government confirmed that it had carried out the first death sentence issued in relation to the protests by executing 23-year-old Mohsen Shekari. A visibly bruised and shaken Mr. Shekari had “confessed” in court to blocking a street and wounding a regime militiaman, and was subsequently convicted on charges of “moharebeh” (“enmity against God”) under Sharia law – which carries a mandatory death sentence.
Despite international calls for the Iranian authorities to exercise restraint – as well as promises from the judiciary in Iran that any death sentences issued would be subject to appeal – Mr. Shekari was hanged on the morning of Thursday 8 December. According to an Amnesty International report earlier this week, “at least 28 people, including three children, could face execution in connection with nationwide protests as the Iranian authorities use the death penalty as a tool of political repression to instil fear among the public and end the popular uprising.”
Senior figures in the IRGC have called for such sentences to be carried out without delay as was the case with Mohsen Shekari.
As we mark Human Rights Day, Liberation believes it is time to step up campaigning to promote, protect, and uphold human and democratic rights in Iran; to help send a clear message to the ruling regime in Iran that it will be held accountable for its abuses of these rights; and to reassure the long-suffering Iranian people that their calls and hopes are not in vain, and that they are not alone.
Photo: C.Suthorn / cc-by-sa-4.0 / commons.wikimedia.org
