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Three Iranian human rights activists rece...
Three Iranian human rights activists receive the Lech Walesa Prize
September 29, 2009
On September 29, 2009,
Ladan and Roya Boroumand,
historians and founders of the
Abdorrahman Boroumand
Foundation, and Shadi Sadr, a
lawyer, journalist, and human
rights activist, received
awards from the Lech Walesa
Institute Foundation. The Lech Walesa Prize honored their work to
promote human rights, freedom of expression, and democracy in
Iran.
Mr. Lech Walesa, who founded the Foundation, is the former
president of Poland, leader of the Polish trade union, Solidarity
(Solidarnosc), and winner of the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize. The
Lech Walesa Prize, established in 2008, honors “people who stand
for understanding and international cooperation in solidarity,
freedom, and for promotion of the fundamental values of
Solidarity Movement. This Prize is symbolic support for those who
are courageous enough to fight for non-violent world
development, stand against terrorism, and through their own
actions, give hope and open the possibilities of political and social
change. The Lech Walesa Prize shows solidarity with those who
struggle for a better tomorrow for their countrymen and the world
society.' 1 1
In addition to its Chairman, Mr. Walesa, the award selection
committee is comprised of several esteemed members, including
former Czech President Vaclav Havel, French Foreign Affairs
Minister Bernard Kouchner, former President of Belarus Stanislaw
Szuszkiewicz, former Prime Minister of Poland Jan Krzysztof
Bielecki, and former Minister of Foreign Affairs for Poland
W ladyslaw Bartoszewski.
— p __ U Ill I I
iran rights.org/engl ish/newsletter-13.ph p
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Three Iranian human hrihts activists rece...
ira li s i-'ru-ueriiu LraLv vuices
The Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation is grateful and honored
that its founders, Ladan and Roya, have been selected to receive
the prestigious Lech Walesa Prize. The Abdorrahman Boroumand
Foundation congratulates Shadi Sadr for her extraordinary work
on women's rights and against stoning in Iran. Ladan and Roya
consider this Lech Walesa Prize to be an acknowledgment of — and
homage to — all Iranian human rights defenders and activists. As
such, they dedicate their award to their “fellow human rights
defenders, in particular to those courageous men and women who
— at high risk — promote human rights and democracy inside the
country, and without whom the work of the Abdorrahman
Boroumand Foundation would not be possible.”
Lech Walesa award acceptance speech
echo their falsehoods.
They arrest, then deny an arrest ever took
place. They torture, but they say torture is
banned. They kill, but they say their enemies
did it. They murder the best of your fellow
citizens, and then they try to make you an
accomplice after the fact by believing and
repeating their lies. They require this complicity
from their citizens and want the whole world to
>> And more.. .
At first one feels lonely, isolated, and empty-handed in the face of
Evil, seemingly almighty and invulnerable.
But then one realizes that Evil has a mortal enemy. That enemy
is Truth. You understand that you do not need weapons to resist
the lies and tell the truth. You only need a strong mind, and a
sense of righteous purpose that will not bend or break.
You notice that Evil gets its strength less from raw violence than
from the way it tempts us to believe its lies.
You understand that truth is the power of the powerless.
by
Ladan Boroumand
September 29th, 2009
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Documenting the truth as much as we can is what Roya and I
have tried to do, with humility and perseverance, at the
Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation. In the daunting task of
telling the story of the victims of the Islamic Republic of Iran, we
have had the privilege of working with a dedicated team of
researchers. We have benefited so much from the technical,
moral, and financial support of the international human-rights
community. We would like to thank them all for their support and
commitment.
But more importantly we would like to thank our fellow Iranian
citizens who have braved danger and defied the power of the lie
by pouring into the streets and squares by the millions to tell the
truth about the stolen presidential election this past lune. They
told their government that they did not believe its lies, and they
would not be quiet about it. By refusing to accept those lies, they
shook the foundation of its totalitarian rule.
We have no doubt that the award we receive today is honoring not
only three human-rights advocates, but a nation's will to reject lies
and live in truth.
Mr. President, today by honoring three Iranian women with the
prestigious Lech Walesa prize, you and the honorable members of
the award committee are sending a message to our persecutors
that the world rejects their lies.
We thank you for this great honor, and for all you have done in
the cause of freedom.
Lech Walesa award acceptance speech
by
Roya Boroumand
September 29th, 2009
I would like to express my gratitude on behalf
all of us at the Abdorrahman Boroumand
Foundation to the Lech Walesa Institute
Foundation and to the Award Committee.
This recognition is a great honor as it comes
from individuals whose courage to do the right
thing and speak to the truth against all odds
was an inspiration to us in our formative years.
In this moving moment, our thoughts are with our fellow citizens.
I would like to dedicate this award to brave women and men, such
as Alieh Eghdamdust, Mohammad Sadiq Kabudvand, Farzad
Kamangar, and many others in Iran, who put their security and
lives in danger to promote human rights and democracy, and
without whom, our work would not be possible.
This award brings much needed visibility to our work and
strengthens our resolve. Thank you.
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Lech Walesa award acceptance speech
by
Shadi Sadr
September 29th, 2009
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am extremely honoured that the jury at the
Lech Walesa Award has chosen me as the
recipient of this prize. To be accompanied by
‘the founders of the Boroumand Foundation has
added to my delight. To be granted this Prize,
not only bears an honour but an importance. It
is important not only for myself, but also for the
battle going on in Iran for three decades: the
battle for freedom and for democracy. The Lech Walesa Prize is
given to support those who fight against political and social
terrors. In fact, on one hand, this prize is a reminder for those
who anxiously follow Iranians' daily struggle against political and
social tyranny through the media and, on the other hand for those
who do not know, it can be the beginning of awareness and
solidarity. All this is a heart-warming support for those people who
face batons, bullets, and knives on the streets of Tehran; for
those who spend hard days behind the high walls of Evin prison
and other jails in Iran; and for those who carry on the fight for
freedom in spite of horror and insecurity. This prize is the
recognition of millions of Iranians who are not prepared to tolerate
dictatorship and human rights violations anymore; and for this
reason it is even more important.
Two months ago, plain clothed agents violently arrested me in one
of the streets of Tehran and I ended up in Evin prison for the
second time. At that time, I could not dare imagine that one day
so soon I would be speaking in an open society against systematic
human rights violations in Iran free from the fear of being charged
with actions against national security. I was taken to another
building, separated from the section 209, and in the control of the
Intelligence and Security Ministry with about 15 imprisoned men.
The screams of these men being brutally beaten while
interrogated were meant to be my torture. At that time, I could
not dare imagine that one day so soon I would be speaking about
mental and physical torture of prisoners in Iran in order to extract
false confessions against themselves and against the protestors.
On the days that, blindfolded, I would be taken through the
corridors of the Section 209 of Evin prison to the interrogation
room to be persuaded that all my activities in defending women's
rights were a part of United States ploy to overthrow the Iranian
regime; and that me and others within the women's movement
and human right activists were nothing but puppets in the hands of
western countries who taught us change and with their prizes
created of us credible social agents of change and that ultimately
through us they would introduce secularism and equality to the
society at large, I could not dare imagine that I would be standing
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here and taking advantage of the Lech Walesa Prize as a tribune
to expose and discredit their meaningless justifications and
deceptions.
Today I am very happy to be here and to talk freely about the
lack of freedom in Iran. I am very happy for the opportunity to
remind everyone that for thirty years we Iranians have endured
systematic human rights violations; but more importantly to stress
that for thirty years we have resisted the systematic violations of
human rights. In the last ten years, as an advocate of women's
rights movement in Iran, I have witnessed how this movement
and other social movements such as that of the students',
workers', and ethnic minorities' have tried to take advantage of
even the smallest window of opportunity to further their aims
publicly. The flames of resistance have been kept alive throughout
these years in spite of insecurities, work and travel bans,
imprisonments, and activists have not allowed the flames to be
extinguished under oppression and tyranny.
However, after the result of the presidential elections in lune,
millions of Iranians showed that they even if they were not
counted in the last thirty years, that despite being humiliated,
oppressed, imprisoned, tortured and raped or even killed they
have a voice, that they do count and that they are not dead. They
came in their thousands upon thousands to the streets to make
themselves heard. If until now it appeared that we were just a few
who dared to say “No!” publicly, now millions of people have
raised their hands as a sign of final victory and have said “No!” to
dictatorship and human rights violations.
The response to this multitude of “No's” was a form of martial law
in the streets, beating people, arresting them, mental and physical
tortures, rapes, and finally death. For three months this has been
the practice in streets and prisons of Iran. These events are
reminders of the 1980's, when thousands of political dissidents
were silenced cruelly in prisons. The only difference between the
eighties and the post-election events is that in those years, the
opponents were affiliated to political organisations. lust like now
they were abducted, imprisoned, tortured, raped, and executed.
Now, however, although the same treatment is meted out the
people are members of the public with no affiliation to any political
groups or parties. Another difference is that in the last three
months, pictures and news about the daily human rights violations
are broadcast so rapidly through internet and citizen journalism
that unlike the eighties, the world is conscious and sensitive to
Iran. But this is not enough. We need a global action.
As a feminist, I would like to mention once again the issue of rape
and sexual tortures of prisoners, particularly women prisoners,
and demand international action. Many evidences point to the fact
that not only in the post-election events, but all through the last
thirty years, rape and other kinds of sexual tortures have not
been sporadic but systematic, used to intimidate, humiliate, and
break the morale of imprisoned women. For years this kind of
torture had been concealed, but now through the public
declaration of its victims and also throtich exnoses hv authorities
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of the regime, it has become a topic of social dialogue. But this is
only the beginning of a path which cannot be resolved without
global solidarity.
Today, all of us share a global responsibility with respect to these
systematic violations of rights in the past thirty years, of which
rape and torture of imprisoned women is just a part. I remind
myself and all others of our collective responsibility to bring to
justice the authorities who have been responsible of such acts of
systematic violations. The voices of the protesters in Iran have
only been heard after the sacrifices of hundreds with their lives,
sustained injuries and imprisonments. To hear the voices of this
movement, to create a worldwide solidarity with the Iranian
people who fight for freedom and democracy and to feel
responsible against the abuse of their human rights and to
convene a worldwide action to take the perpetrators to the court
of law and to seek justice is what we seek. Thinking of the victims
and sympathising with those whose body and soul is raped and
contaminated is not enough. Let's think every day as we wake up
what can we do to seek justice for the victims and the punishment
for the abusers.
Thank you
Lech Walesa Award Gala Speech
Roya Boroumand
I would like to say a few words
about the conception of our project
and what motivated my involvement.
Ladan today talked about the truth as
the weapon of the powerless. Those
who have lived under totalitarian
regimes know how difficult and how
crucial it is for those who fight for
1 freedom and democracy to undo the
I”official truth.” This is what we learn
las we read about the experience of
j other pro-democracy movements. My
commitment to truth telling also stems from the lessons I learned
during and after the revolution. In 1978, when I was in my last
year of high school, Iran was in turmoil. The government was
retreating in the face of pressure to liberalize from inside and
outside Iran and political actors were increasingly daring.
The perspective of a pluralist political regime brought hope and
enthusiasm to us and many around us. Ordinary Iranian citizens
seemed intrigued and cautious. There was a cautious excitement
but no hatred in the streets. Nothing then led me to believe that
events would take such a violent turn. One event however, in the
summer of 1978, played a key role, in my opinion, in laying the
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groundwork for what was to come next.
In August of that year, Cinema Rex, a movie theatre in the town
of Abadan in the south of Iran was set on fire. Close to 400 men,
women, and children burned alive. The religious opposition,
followed by all of us, attributed this fire to the government. I did
not question this belief, in spite of the government's denials. I did
not wonder why a regime, under pressure would bring upon itself
more hostility by doing something so ruthless. I was angry, and
for me, as I am sure for many other citizens, this fire was a
turning point.
In the following weeks, as the tension increased between
protesters and the regime, and the number of victims rose, we
hardly ever questioned the numbers and the information that was
circulated among us. After the revolution, we learned that it was
a group of religious activists who had helped carry out the plan to
set Cinema Rex on fire. We also learned that there were much
fewer political prisoners in Shah's prisons than we thought and we
learned that there were fewer victims in the demonstrations than
we were told.
The shock caused by the uncovered truth and guilt have been with
me ever since. I understood the impact of information on political
developments and the importance of seeking the truth and being
accurate in any effort aimed at bringing about change. The post-
revolutionary era was also a learning period. In 1979 and 1980,
the number of executions raised and individuals associated with
the former regime as well as ordinary citizens convicted for
prostitution, adultery, or homosexuality were killed in summary
trials, deprived of all the rights including the right to a proper
defense. The indifference of the post-revolutionary political elite
who criticized the previous regime for not respecting due process
of law, to the plight of ordinary Iranians victims of the
revolutionary terror was another sad surprise.
As the Islamic Republic consolidated itself through a systematic
terror that cost the lives of thousands of young men and women,
we lost hope in ever seeing a pluralistic political regime where
citizens are safe and their rights are respected. But then, we had
the chance to watch the Solidarity movement. We were glued to
our televisions every night waiting anxiously for the news. Lech
Walesa was our hero. Solidarity showed us that no regime is
eternal no matter how closed or evil it is. The success of Solidarity
revived our hope for a better future and taught us that we all have
a role to play no matter how strong the adversary is.
So the work of our Foundation and our methodology stem from
the lessons we learned as young activists. Finding out the truth,
focusing on due process of law, understanding human rights and
democracy, being inclusive, and constantly reminding our fellow
citizens that we are all equal in rights and dignity are our way to
contribute to the pro-democracy movement in Iran. Thank you for
recognizing the relevance of our work.
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Lech Walesa Award Gala Speech
Ladan Boroumand
Mr. President,
honorable members of
the Award
Committee, Ladies
and Gentlemen, good
evening.
The tyrants who
oppress Iran and its
people today have learned many a malign lesson from the
tyrants who persecuted Poland for almost ha l fa century after
the end of the Second World War. The Islamic Republic's
‘tevolutionary” tnbunals and committees, coerced confessions,
mass executions, vast purges, cultural revolution, “state
security” thugs, cults of the supreme leader, and the pressure on
citizens to spy on one another—these tactics all come from the
handbook of modem totalitarian ideologies. Certainly they are
not found in the tradition of the prophet of Islam. A regime that
dares to call itself “Islamic” has confiscated God and perverted
the Muslim religion into a totalitarian ideology.
Given the parallels between Poland's case and fran's, it is
unsurprising that we, the members of Iranian civil society,
should have taken an interest in how, not so very long ago, our
Polish brothers and sisters waged their own heroic struggle for
freedom in the face of terrible odds. Confronted with
totalitarianism in an Islaniist guise, we turned to the words and
deeds of the Poles Lech Walesa, Czeslaw Milosz, and Leszek
Kolakowski- ---phs such kindred spirits as Vaclav Havel,
Tzvetan Todorov, Hannah Arendt, Andrei and Yelena
Sakharov, and Aleksandr Solzhenitzyn, to name a few—in
order to make sense of what was happening to us. They helped
us understand the evil that prevailed in our country. it is from
them that we learned how ordinary citizens can resist a
totalitarian regime by not giving in to its lies. We learned that
telling the truth is the subversive power of the powerless, and
the revolutionary hope of the hopeless.
We knew that, even as ordinary citizens, we had to face our
own share of the responsibility for what had happened in our
country. We were well aware that for an evil of such scale to
take hold of a country you need not only the evil thought and
the executioner, but also all those ordinary people who kept
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second and the third, and so on. All those miffions of innocent
accomplices and guilty bystanders: us, I mean. From thousands
of kilometers away, we felt that we should first make amends
ourselves, break our silence, tell the truth, and bring the
wickedness and violence of our rulers to light.
Evil, we understood, consists in the eclipse of humanity. What
we could do after the fact of evil's triumph, we realized, was to
restore the universal essence of human nature and honor human
dignity. The perpetrators kill to eliminate their victims; the
victims' deaths cannot be undone, yet it is possible to bring
them back in memory. By violating their victims' human rights,
the perpetrators sought to deny their human dignity. To remedy
such an outrage, we could posthumously restore at least a
measure of the victims' humanity by refusing to let them be
slipped into the Onvellian “memory hole” down which the
tyranny wanted them to vanish. Hence the idea of creating a
virtual memorial dedicated to all individuals whose violent death
is imputable to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Onid is a memorial
in defense of human rights that intends to list and document,
insoifàr as possible, the story of every person killed without due
process of law by the Islamic Republic and to create a file in
both Persian and English that will serve as a virtual memorial to
them, to enshrine their stories and record their ordeals.
Roya said that the story of Solidamosc was a ray of light in the
darkness of our fate in the early eighties. We knew that
Solidarnosc' s victory would pave the way for our freedom
fighters, and we were right. The collapse of communism was
the prelude to the conversion of Iran's intellectual and political
elite to democracy and human rights. The triumph of the Poles
and others over communist totalitarianism created intellectual
and ideological conditions fiivorable to the emergence of a new
and innovative Iranian civil-rights movement, spearheaded by
women
Tonight, as we atefhlly accept the humbling honor of receiving
the prestigious Lech Walesa award, we know that through the
three ofus the award is honoring all the members of Iran 's
human-rights community. On this glorious occasion we would
like to pay homage to all our fellow defenders of human rights
—to those who, like the former political prisoners Monireh
Baradaran and Iraj Mesdaghi, have been persistently
documenting what happened during the eighties in the prisons of
the Islamic Republic; and also to those who, like Mansour
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Osanloo, suffer imprisonment for doing nothing more than trying
to organize a free and independent trade union. We also
remember those like 21-year-old Ronak Sathrzade, who has
been sentenced to six years in jail for peacellilly defending
women's rights; and Sadigh Kabudvand and Farzad
Kamangar, who have received sentences of eleven years and
death, respectively, for trying to safeguard human rights. There
are many more like these brave people in our thoughts tonight;
we feel that this prestigious award honors them too, and we
humbly accept it on their behalf.
When in 1980 our father, after whom our foundation is named,
sought asylum in Paris, he lived on l'Avenue Charles Floquet.
One day, with a smile on his face, he asked me WI knew who
Charles Floquet was. I said I had no idea. Monsieur Floquet,
my father explained, had been a premier of France under the
Third Republic, in the late 1880s. But more importantly, my
father continued, when Floquet had been a young lawyer
witnessing the 1 867 [ 2] state visit of Czar Aleksandr II to the
Palais de Justice (Court House) in Paris, Floquet was said to
have confronted the Russian autocrat with the cry, “/ive la
Pologne, monsieur!” (In my lather' s telling, this became
embellished to, “‘/ive la Pologne libre!”) How Roya and I wish
our father could be here tonight to witness the beautiful sight of
a free and democratic Poland honoring the struggle of his
people for a free and democratic Iran, the cause for which he
gave his life. As it is, we know that he is here in spirit, and we
must be content with that.
Thank you, Mr. President, for your support—and long live free
Poland!
Roya Boroumand Addresses the Gdansk Youth Forum
I- Introduction
On lune 12, 2009, millions of Iranians stood in sometimes hours-
long lines and voted. The election results, announced surprisingly
soon after the closure of the polls, stunned millions of citizens who
poured into the streets in protest. This was not the first time that
Iranians voted for change, nor was it the first time that they saw
their hopes shattered. But this was the first time in three decades
that they came out so massively to protest peacefully against
what they believed to be outrageous electoral fraud. The state's
response was immediate and ruthless.
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Neda's death, witnessed by millions around the world, made her
the symbol of young Iranians punished for exercising their right to
peaceful assembly. To date, more than 70 names and stories
have been documented, but according to unofficial sources, the
number of protesters killed in June and July is much higher. The
June protests also led to massive arrests of demonstrators,
political activists, lawyers, human rights activists, and journalists
around the country. In August 2009, the spokesman of Iran's
Judiciary admitted that close to 4000 people were arrested during
and after the protests. Reports earlier this month indicated that
more than 1100 were still in detention. Many of the detainees
were detained in very harsh conditions and were physically and
mentally tortured. An unknown number died in detention.
Kianush Asa for example, was a brilliant and passionate young
man. He had just finished his graduate studies in chemical
engineering and was planning to return to his home town of
Kermanshah to work and support his family, so that his older
brother could go back to university. He was shot during the
protest and taken to an unknown place. The coroner determined
that he died 4 days later. His family does not know where he was
during those days, nor what happened to him. He was only 25.
This is not the first time that the government detained citizens
without access to lawyers or their families, nor is it the first time it
killed in secrecy. In December 1982, Amnesty International
estimated the number of executions in Iran since 1979 at more
than 4000. Like today, many of the victims were buried secretly.
In 1988, international human rights groups reported weeks of
secret executions of political prisoners in prisons around Iran. Like
today, families were threatened and told not to mourn.
This is not the first time that the Iranian government got away
with murder. Iranian authorities have learned over time that their
violent treatment of dissidents will have no serious consequences
At worst, they will have to endure short-lived international
criticism. Victims are then forgotten, and survivors get used to
living with their pain, and to living without closure.
II- Background
For nearly three decades, the Islamic Republic of Iran has
preoccupied the international community with its foreign policy
and, more recently, its nuclear ambitions. Before June 2009, the
record of its human rights' violations rarely made the headlines.
By limiting foreign media access to Iran, monitoring reporters,
and restricting issues they can cover, Iran has prevented the
dissemination of detailed information that would allow for a more
accurate perspective on the situation inside Iran.
For example, the government's particular sensitivity regarding
those who call for accountability, criticize the electoral laws, and
promote the boycott of elections does not always get the attention
it deserves. That is why very few knew that the young Kurd,
Shawaneh Qaderi, who was killed by the security forces after the
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2005 elections actively promoted an electoral boycott. Scores of
students were regularly punished for the same reason but seldom
got visibility. The execution in the summer of 2008 of Ya'qub
Mehrnahad, the young founder of an association in Baluchistan
with a focus on discrimination and accountability, went quasi-
unnoticed, as did the conviction of his 15-year old brother Ebrahim
who is now serving a 5-year sentence for having tried to give
visibility to his brother's case.
To prevent the flow of information, the government has tried to
isolate and silence each new generation of activists, journalists,
and dissidents or to force them into exile where they lack financial
resources and the necessary language skills to remain active and
effective. Outside Iran, most of them, that is most of us, have
soon become irrelevant to governments, the media, and
sometimes human rights groups.
The Iranian leadership has used the nuclear issue to distract the
International community's attention. It has successfully deterred
governments, civil society, and human rights funders from lending
direct support to Iranians who fight for rights and democracy
inside Iran. It has criminalized rights defenders and journalists'
activities and prosecuted them for reporting about the human
rights situation, which it sees as detrimental to the Islamic
Republic's national security. Even activities in the area of women's
rights, which were once tolerated and hence better known outside
Iran, now trigger prosecutions and prison sentences. The
government has filled Iran's prisons with rights defenders and
dissidents confident that its actions will get short-lived attention, if
any.
For years the state of affairs has seemed hopeless, and experts
have talked about Iranians' apathy. But general apathy can hardly
explain the June elections and their aftermath, and over the past
few years, the high number of arrests and prosecutions, which in
fact indicate a steady positive trend.
I I I - A vibrant dvii sodety with increasing interest in
human rights
1. Human rights defenders
Reference to human rights and universal values is more common
among government critics who, unlike those of the 1960s and
1 70s, are not drawn to radical ideologies or armed resistance in
the face of government repression. Young Iranians, for the most
part, reject violence and look for alternatives ways to bring about
change (example of the One Million Signature Campaign).
2. Ordinary Iranians are more accessible and receptive
Massive participation in the 1997 and 2009 elections was largely a
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response to tne ianguage ana promises or opening ana rreeaom
used by the candidates in their campaigns. Through the web,
satellite communication, and printed publications, Iranians are
exposed to human rights news. Our organization regularly
receives information from Iran, and the e-mails and electronic
data forms that they send regarding victims increase noticeably
each time we publicly discuss our project, for example on Voice of
America radio programs. In fact, we receive more information
from Iran than from Iranians abroad. Translations of human
rights-related texts in Farsi are widely read. The guidelines for
documenting violence against women by state agents, the
Yogyakarta statement, and other documents in the Library have
been downloaded several thousand times.
3. Modern technology
In the past decades the progress in technology used to promote
human rights has been very encouraging.
Technology prevents the kind of isolation in which repressive
governments thrive. The Iranian government cannot afford to shut
the internet off completely, isolating businesses and universities.
4. The Islamic Republic's ambiguity vis-à-vis human rights
In spite of its rhetoric, the Islamic republic has never totally
dismissed human rights. Though the leaders have rejected these
rights as a Western plot, they did not withdraw from the
conventions ratified by the Iranian parliament before the
revolution. They have often denied access to human rights
monitors but have adopted the language, created an Islamic
Human Rights Commission and, most recently, a human rights
headquarters in the judiciary. The Iranian leaders refer to rights
and freedom when they travel outside Iran and try to project the
image of rulers in harmony with their people. Hence, their dislike
of reporting human rights violations.
Human rights monitoring does act as a deterrent and it is not
surprising to hear statements such as, “We don't cut thieves hands
in Iran because when we do so, we become a subject of human
rights discussions outside Iran.” This is the representative of the
Spiritual Leader in Shiraz who also hopes that someday, “We will
cut hands everywhere in the world.” The ambiguity that
characterizes Iran's altitude towards human rights opens a space,
albeit small, for progress.
Civil society in democratic countries, governments that include
human rights as a component of their foreign policy, and, most
importantly, the media can help make these changes durable. The
Islamic Republic's leaders, with a successful long-term strategy,
have exported their ideas and built a constituency outside Iran,
where their lack of legitimacy is less apparent. Positive as well as
negative developments in Iran will have an impact beyond its
borders. Therefore, the international community should not
exclude human rights promotion in Iran from its agenda. It should
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5/31/2011
Three Iranian human rights activists rece...
be consistent in its interest, and avoid laxity on definitions and
principles and promote the international standards to which
Iranian civil society aspires.
1 1 1 1 - The international community's role in supporting
Iranians' struggle for human rights and democracy
1. Be true to your values
Iranians who promote universal values rely on the support of
democracies. Their advocacy is undermined and their morale
affected when they perceive that civil society and democratic
governments do not uphold international standards when it comes
to them. We do have the same rights and the same needs.
2. Consistency and follow-up
Unlike the Iranian President, who can travel the world and talk on
behalf of Iranian citizens to civil society and foreign governments
and return to Iran, Iranian activists cannot travel freely, talk to
their counterparts, to the media, or to foreign governments
without risking prison sentences or worse. Human rights
defenders, in particular those with less notoriety, need recognition
and consistent support. The valuable efforts of activists who work
in the more isolated and difficult regions and whose work of
promoting rights is the most challenging should not be neglected.
As members of the youth forum, you can give visibility to
crackdowns on Iranian students and help publicize what exactly
triggered the abuses. Follow-up as long as activists are in prison.
Investigate the selection process in the universities, focus on laws
and practices that exclude a majority of Iranians from
participating in the government of their country and bring
attention to the impunity granted to the security forces and
authorities who abuse their power.
iran rights.org/engl ish/newsletter-13.ph p
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5/31/2011 _________
There is a need to fight back against government propaganda
regarding foreign support to human rights activists. Rather than
defending against the accusation of a “velvet revolution” and
regime change, the debate should move to Iran's reasons for
arresting activists. The Islamic Republic's leaders should be
constantly reminded that the reason for arresting a human rights
defender is not his or her criminal activities but it is an effort to
hide the government's despicable human rights record.
4. Keep us relevant
In the past few years, scores of activists and journalists have left
Iran. The international community can discourage the government
from forcing them into exile by keeping those who leave active by
providing them the means to continue their work effectively
outside the country
I would like to thank again the Lech Walesa Institute Foundation
for recognizing the relevance of our work. By keeping us relevant,
you will also help us be more effective.
The Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation is grateful to the Lech
Walesa Institute Foundation for the visibility that this award has
given to human rights violations in Iran.
Additionally, the Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation would like
to thank the staff of the Lech Walesa Institute Foundation for their
efforts in organizing this event.
The photographs in this Newsletter are courtesy of Krzysztof
Kuczyk.
For more information about the Abdorrahman Boroumand
Foundation, please visit www.iranricihts.org .
[ 1] http://www.ilw.org.pl/en /
[ 2] At the beginning of his reign,Alexander expressed the famous
statement “No dreams addressed for Poles, populating Congress Poland,
Western Ukraine, Lithuania, Livonia and Belarus. The result was the January
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ree Iranian human r ihts activists rece...
3. Need for increased moral and financial support
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5/31/2011 Three Iranian human rights activists rece...
uprising of 1863—1864 that was suppressed after eighteen months of
fighting.
Hundreds of Poles were executed, and thousands were deported to Siberia.
The price for suppression was Russian support for Prussian-united
Germany. Twenty years later, Germany became the major enemy of Russia
on the continent. All territories of the former Poland-Lithuania were excluded
from liberal policies introduced by Alexander. The martial law in Lithuania,
introduced in 1863, lasted for the next 40 years. Native languages,
Lithuanian, Ukrainian and Belarusian were completely banned from printed
texts, see a ,e.g., Ems U kase. The Polish language was banned in both oral
and written form from all provinces except Congress Kingdom, where it was
allowed in private conversations only.
Copyright © 2011, Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation I Back to ton
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