Candid Discussions: Gissou Nia on Irans Human Rights in 2014

Gissou Nia is the Deputy Director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI), an independent human rights organization based in New York City. She is an expert on human rights in Iran and on international law. Ms. Nia previously served as Executive Director of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC). Under her leadership, IHRDC produced comprehensive human rights reports and documentations on political prisoners, violation of rights of women as well as those of marginalized groups such as religious and ethnic minorities.

Prior to her tenure at IHRDC, Ms. Nia worked on war crimes trials at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), where she represented former government ministers from Bosnia and Kosovo in pre-trial, trial, and appellate proceedings. Ms. Nia also assisted in proceedings at the International Criminal Court (ICC) related to allegations of crimes against humanity committed during the 2007/2008 post-election violence in the Republic of Kenya.

Ms. Nia lectures and publishes frequently on human rights developments in Iran as well as the rule of law in post-conflict and transitional societies. Her work has been profiled by NPR, CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, Forbes, FPA Blogs, and other major media outlets. Ms. Nia sat down with Reza Akhlaghi of the Foreign Policy Association to discuss Irans human rights record in 2014 and share her perspectives on the challenges the Iranian society faces in greater recognition of human rights.

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How would you describe the state of human rights in Iran in 2014?

The state of human rights in Iran in 2014 is, rather unfortunately, not where we envisioned we would be when we started out the year. Shortly after the inauguration of President Rouhani in August 2013, the Iran human rights community had some cause to be optimistic with the release of more than a dozen prominent political prisoners in September 2013, the publication of a draft Citizenship Rights Charter in November 2013 and a general feeling that the authorities tight grip on personal freedoms might be loosening somewhat.

However, fast-forward a year later and it seems that instead of improvements in line with President Rouhanis campaign pledges to bring civil and social reforms to the country there has actually been regression along a number of human rights indicators. An on-going power struggle between the Rouhani administration and the hardliner-controlled intelligence ministry and judiciary has resulted in new detentions of journalists and activists, with a rising number of individuals arrested for online activities. Womens rights have deteriorated with a series of acid splashing attacks targeting women in Isfahan followed by widely believed to be insufficient response from the authorities to the attacks. The number of executions in the country, particularly for drug-related offenses, has increased since the year priorplacing the Islamic Republic among the worlds leaders in death sentences per capita. Additionally, the leaders of the Green Movement and other civil society actors, who were jailed for their role in events following the disputed June 2009 presidential election, remain imprisoned.

This lack of improvement has not been lost on the international community. Indeed, this lack of improvement in human rights condition was noted in November at Irans Universal Periodic Review (UPR)a process that examines the human rights performance of all 193 UN member states. At the UPR, Irans country peers expressed concern that many of the recommendations made to Iran, which were accepted by the Iranian authorities in the last UPR process four years ago, had yet to be implemented. These recommendations addressed a whole range of issues such as Irans high rate of executions; practice of public and juvenile executions; stoning; restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly; torture; mistreatment of detainees; lack of fair trial standards; due process of law; and discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities.

Rouhanis presidency has consistently come under fire for its lack of progress on the human rights front. The worsening of this situation has been widely interpreted as a demonstration of power plays by Irans hardliners who are determined to dash Iranians hopes for more moderate and liberal socio-political and cultural policies. What do you attribute to the worsening of human rights conditions in Iran over the past year?

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Candid Discussions: Gissou Nia on Irans Human Rights in 2014