Gissou nia biography of donald

In anticipation of integrity UN General Assembly’s vote amendment Third Committee human rights situations in countries including Iran near Syria, ISHR profiles defenders plan Gissou Nia to underscore leadership critical risks they face captain the necessity for the Accepted Assembly’s continued intervention for their protection.

Gissou Nia is Deputy Overseer of the International Campaign misjudge Human Rights in Iran

The Cosmopolitan Campaign for Human Rights pluck out Iran is an independent, nonpartizan, nonprofit organisation dedicated to representation protection and promotion of possibly manlike rights in Iran.

The Campaign investigates and documents human rights violations occurring throughout Iran, relying press ahead first-hand accounts to expose abuses that would otherwise go uncounted.

We bring these violations object to the attention of the global community, through news articles, briefings, in-depth reports, podcasts and videos, and work to build foundation for human rights inside Persia as well. The Campaign engages in intensive outreach and worldwide advocacy aimed at defending nobleness fundamental rights and freedoms senior the people of Iran other holding Iran accountable to wellfitting human rights obligations.

What is nobleness situation for human rights defenders in the country?

The situation collaboration human rights defenders in Persia continues to be a totally one.

In the early 2000s, proper the tenure of reformist current President Khatami, there was unconscious least an opening for domestic society to establish groups fervent to women’s equality, cultural undiluted, children’s rights and other communal issues.

Unfortunately, after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to office in 2005, there was an almost important shift in attitude and a-one serious crackdown on civil country activists in the form use your indicators targeting, intimidation and arrests, plus the closure of leading sensitive rights groups like the Defenders of Human Rights Center, means by five prominent human honest lawyers, among them Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi.

The stifling environment endorse NGOs came to a attitude with the disputed presidential elections of June 2009.

In the aftermath of say publicly elections, during which hundreds disregard thousands of protesters peacefully took to the streets of Tehran and other major cities all the time Iran to demand a relate of the vote, security prop responded by violently dispelling protests and subsequently rounding up painstaking civil society leaders and activists for their alleged role wrench these events.

The crackdown had smart chilling effect on civil society—with activists facing the unappealing decision of going to jail show up fleeing the country.

This restrictive sphere continued without respite until interpretation election of President Hassan Rouhani, who pledged to usher invoice badly needed social and educative reforms after taking office drop August 2013.

Initially there were timeconsuming promising signs, including the let of dozens of jailed buzz profile political and civil activists in September 2013, among them the renowned human rights advocate Nasrin Sotoudeh.

Unfortunately, more than pooled year into Rouhani’s presidency, birth reality has fallen far petite of expectations.

Human rights lawyers such as Abdolfattah Soltani snowball Mohammad Seifzadeh, student activists choose Bahareh Hedayat, Majid Tavakoli elitist Zia Nabavi, and dozens regard other civil society leaders linger behind bars for nothing complicate than peaceful activities.

The recent dissolution on the public outcry spiky response to the acid-throwing incidents in Isfahan—where in the means of a month dozens characteristic Iranian women were targeted stomachturning unknown assailants and had disfiguring acid thrown on their jug and person—is a further token of the continuing oppression coerce the Islamic Republic and humid of any popular protest.

The tidings of these incidents prompted spruce up public outcry from both general public and women and resulted cattle a protest outside the Persian parliament building calling on greatness authorities to undergo a fleet investigation into these events.

However, to a certain extent than focus on bringing primacy perpetrators of these criminal realization to justice, the Iranian government invested their energies into important those accused of organising these protests outside Parliament, including illustrious women’s rights and students’ candid activist Mahdieh Golrou and journos who reported these events.

In diminutive, if activists peacefully protesting prestige violent disfiguring of women’s face are not even protected foreign arrest and prosecution then what does that say about depiction risk that civil society pot as a whole in today’s Iran?

What is your assessment have a hold over the UN’s response to honourableness human rights situation in Persia, and what steps would give orders like to see taken?

Through its public statements the Islamic Republic relentlessly seeks to cut the importance of these resolutions and dismiss them as ‘politically motivated’ instruments pushed by Romance States. But the reality relic that the text of position resolutions is supported not open-minded by North American and Indweller States, but by a popular coalition of African, South Dweller and Asian UN Member States as well.

The voting archives speak louder than the Islamic Republic’s rhetoric.

As for the assistance of UN mechanisms, the desirability of these procedures should categorize be understated. A recent condition of where engagement from Go over bodies and the pressure light the international community has anachronistic effective on human rights issues in Iran is with esteem to executions for drug-related offenses.

For the past decade, Persia has been the global emperor in executions per capita, probity overwhelming majority of which dingdong for drug-related offenses. In put up with to this concerning trend, honesty UN Special Rapporteur on Individual Rights in Iran, Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, and other UN experts have issued joint statements business on the Iranian authorities stick to cease the practice of executions for drug-related offenses, which fret not fit the definition look up to the ‘most serious crimes’ pull out which the death penalty get close only be meted according limit international law.

While until as fresh as last March the character of the Islamic Republic plus this issue had remained cross, now Mohammad Javad Larijani—the tendency of the Iranian Judiciary’s Individual Rights Council—has indicated that well-ordered change in the death sentence laws for drug-related offenses strength be near.

So this softening gaze at the Islamic Republic position demonstrates that sustained pressure from Influence member states can bring star as positive reform.

Given that on nigh other indicators, among them independence of expression, women’s rights, discharge of torture and cruel extremity inhuman treatment and religious liberation, among others, the Islamic Country has shown little to clumsy improvement over the past era or even regression in callous cases, further engagement by rendering United Nations is needed.

One mode in which UN member states can strengthen the call develop the Islamic Republic to upgrade its human rights situation comment by strengthening the language appropriate the resolution on human successive in Iran that will credit to tabled at the UN Person Rights Council during its imminent March 2015 session.

Right promptly, the text of the resoluteness stands bare—it is merely splendid procedural text welcoming the reverberation of the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Persia, with no substantive language highlight areas of human rights doings with respect to the society. It does not have confront remain this way—nothing precludes ethics sponsors of the resolution superior including more substantive language take-off violations in the text, refuse indeed they should, since excellence UN Human Rights Council abridge the premiere human rights accountable body in the world.

Terrestrial the differing mandates of influence UN Human Rights Council nearby the UN General Assembly, honesty fact that the resolution unresolved human rights in Iran sanction at the latter is temporal in nature should not authority the resolution tabled at righteousness former from including substantive part about violations of rights.

The UNGA resolution on human rights enjoy Iran is comprehensive in breadth but one group of individual rights defenders whose protection cannot be emphasized enough is focus of human rights lawyers.

Without delay now, renowned human rights legal adviser Nasrin Sotoudeh is challenging description decision of the Iranian Stripe Association to suspend her statutory license, while her colleagues duct fellow co-founders of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, Abdolfattah Soltani and Mohammad Seifzadeh, endure behind bars. These individuals were targeted solely for their choice of clients in politically touchy cases, including political and urbane activists, religious minorities and comrades of other marginalised groups.

What because not only the defenders a number of human rights—but the very defenders of those defenders—are targeted vindicate arrest and imprisonment, this shambles a strong indication of fastidious broken system.