The state of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran has been criticized both by Iranians and international human right activists, writers, and NGOs.
The United Nations General Assembly and the Human Rights Commission  have condemned prior and ongoing abuses in Iran continue reading published critiques and several resolutions.
The government of Iran is criticized both for restrictions and punishments that follow the Islamic Republic's constitution and law, and for actions by state actors that do not, such as the torture, rape, and killing of political prisoners, and the beatings and killings of dissidents and other civilians.
Reported abuses falling outside of the laws of the Islamic Republic that have been condemned include the execution of thousands of political prisoners inand the widespread use of torture to extract repudiations by prisoners of their cause and comrades on video for propaganda purposes. Officials of the Islamic Republic have responded to criticism by stating that Iran has "the best human Essay On Human Rights Abuses record" in the Muslim world;  that it is not obliged to follow "the West's interpretation" of human rights;  and that the Islamic Republic is a victim of "biased propaganda of enemies" which is "part of a greater plan against the world of Islam ".
After the election of Hassan Rouhani as President, he stated "Women must enjoy equal opportunity, equal protection and equal social rights", although Iran still click the following article "a long way to go" to achieve gender equality. The topic of women's reform is contentious in Iran, with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini saying that gender equality was "one of the biggest mistakes of Western thought.
The Islamic revolution is thought to have a significantly worse human rights record than the Pahlavi Dynasty it overthrew. According to political historian Ervand Abrahamian"whereas less than political prisoners had been executed between andmore than were executed between and Prison life was drastically worse under the Islamic Republic than Essay On Human Rights Abuses the Pahlavis. However, the vast majority of killings of political prisoners occurred in the first decade of the Islamic Republic, after which violent repression lessened.
The predominantly reformist parliament drafted several bills allowing increased freedom of speech, gender equality, and the banning of torture. These were all dismissed or significantly watered down by the Guardian Council and leading conservative figures in the Iranian government at the time. The Tehran spring of ten years ago has now given way to a bleak political winter.
The new government continues to close down newspapers, silence dissenting voices and ban or censor books and websites. The peaceful demonstrations and protests of the Khatami era are no longer tolerated: In Essay On Human Rights Abuses police beat hundreds of men and women who had assembled to commemorate International Women's Day.
Since the founding of the Islamic Republic, human rights violations of religious minorities have been the subject of source and decisions by the United Nations and its human rights bodies, the Council of EuropeEuropean Parliament and United States Congress.
However, according to the organization Human Rights Watchwhen these officials did visit the country, found human rights conditions wanting and issued reports critical of the Islamic government, not only did the government not implement their recommendations", it retaliated "against witnesses who testified to the experts.
In the resolutions began again with Canada sponsoring a resolution criticizing Iran's "confirmed instances of torture, stoning as a method of execution and punishment such as flogging and amputations," following the death of an Iranian-born Canadian citizen, Zahra Kazemiin an Iranian prison.
The European Union has also criticized the Islamic Republic's human rights record, expressing concern in and on 6 October presenting a message to Iran's ambassador in Paris expressing concern over the worsening human rights Essay On Human Rights Abuses in Iran.
Later that year, Iran's government announced it would suspend dialogue with the European Union concerning human rights in Iran. One observation made by non-governmental sources of the state of human rights in the Islamic Republic is that it is not so severe that the Iranian public is afraid to criticize its government publicly to strangers. In Syria "taxi driver[s] rarely talk politics; the Iranian[s] will talk of nothing else.
A theory of why human rights abuses in the Islamic Republic are not as severe as Syria, Afghanistan under the Talibanor Iraq under Saddam Hussein comes from the American journalist Elaine Sciolino who speculated that.
Shiite Islam thrives on debate and discussion So freedom of thought and expression is essential to the system, at least within the top circles of religious leadership.
And Essay On Human Rights Abuses the mullahs can behave that way among themselves in places like the holy city of Qomhow can the rest of a modern-day society be told it cannot think and explore the world of experience for itself? Iranian officials have not always agreed on the state of human rights in Iran. In Aprilreformist president Mohammad Khatami stated "we certainly have political prisoners [in Iran] and Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other government officials have compared Iran's human rights record favorably to other countries, particularly countries that have criticized Iran's record.
In a speech to the United Nations, he commented on human rights only to say "certain powers" unnamed were guilty of violating it, "setting up secret prisons, abducting persons, trials and secret punishments without any regard to due process, The legal and governing principles upon which the Islamic Republic of Iran is based differ in some respects from the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Human rights abuses in the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir state are an ongoing issue. The abuses range from mass killings, enforced disappearances, torture. Learn About The Creative Essay Competition Sponsored By Youth For Human Rights. Learn How To Enter This Creative Essay Content, Download Or Order The “What Are. Alarming accounts of abuses of women’s human rights appear regularly in today’s media. Accounts tell of families who sell daughters for sex or servitude, of honor. Watch Video & Learn What Are? and How Human Rights Are Defined, As Fundamental Rights For Protection From Harm, Help Us Get Along And Live In . To find out more about E-IR essay awards, click here. In recent decades, a widely contested debate over the universality of human rights has emerged.
The Iranian fundamental law or constitution calls for equal rights among races, ethnic groups article Three recognized religious minorities "are free to perform their religious rites and ceremonies.
However, along with these guarantees the constitution includes what one scholar calls "ominous Catchs ", such as "All laws and Essay On Human Rights Abuses must conform to the principles of Islam. The Iranian penal code is derived from the Shari'a and is not always in compliance with international norms of human rights. The Iranian penal code distinguishes two types of punishments: Punishments falling within the category of Hududs are applied to people committing offenses against the State, such as adulteryalcohol consumption, burglary or petty theftrebellions against Islamic authorityapostasy and homosexual intercourse considered contrary to the spirit of Islam.
Following traditional shariah punishment for thieves, courts in Iran have sometimes sentenced offenders to amputation of both "the right hand and left foot cut off, making it difficult, if not impossible, for the Essay On Human Rights Abuses to walk, even with a cane or crutches. Shariah also includes stoning and explicitly states that stones used must be small enough to not kill instantly. The use of stoning as a punishment may be declining or banned altogether.
In DecemberAyatollah Shahroudihead of the judicial system, reportedly sent judges a memorandum requesting the suspension of stoning and asking them to choose other forms of sanctions. InAmnesty International reported that Iran was about to execute a woman by stoning for adultery. Amnesty urged Tehran to give reprieve to the woman.
Her sentence is currently on hold pending "consideration by the pardons commission. He added that if stoning sentences were passed by lower courts, they were overruled by higher courts and "no such verdicts have been carried out.
The Iranian legislation does not accord the same rights to women as to men in all areas of the law. In the inheritance law of the Islamic Republic there are several instances where the woman is entitled to half the inheritance of the man.
As a woman, if I want to get a passport to leave the country, have surgery, even to breathe almost, I must have permission from my husband.
Protection of Human Rights act 1993 , Chapter 1&2
Post-pubescent women are required to cover their hair and body in Iran and can be arrested for failing to do so. The press law prohibits "discourse harmful to the principles of Islam" and "public interest", as referred to in Article 24 of the constitution, which according to Human Rights Watch provides "officials with ample opportunity to censorrestrict, and find offense.
The constitution recognizes the freedom of ZoroastrianJewish, and Christian Iranians to perform their religious rites and ceremonies, and accords non-Shia Muslims "full respect" article Hudud statutes grant different punishments to Muslims and non-Muslims for the same crime. In the case of adultery, for example, a Muslim man who is convicted of committing adultery with a Muslim woman receives lashes; the sentence for a non-Muslim man convicted of adultery with a Muslim woman is death.
However, the International Religious Freedom Report reports that Baha'is were not included in the provision and their blood is considered Mobahi. Freedom to convert from Islam to another religion apostasyis prohibited and may be punishable by death. Article 23 of the constitution states, "the investigation of individuals' beliefs is forbidden, and no one may be molested or taken Essay On Human Rights Abuses task simply for holding a certain belief.
The small Protestant Christian minority in Iran have been subject to Islamic "government suspicion and hostility" according to Human Rights Watch at least in part because of their "readiness to just click for source and even seek out Muslim converts" as well as their Western origins.
In the s, two Muslim converts to Christianity who had become ministers were sentenced to death for apostasy and other charges. Ahmad Batebia demonstrator in the July Student demonstrations in Iran, was given a death sentence for "propaganda against the Islamic Republic System.
A photograph of Batebi holding a bloody shirt aloft was printed on the cover of The Economist magazine. Despite signing the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Iran, according to human rights groups, is the world's largest executioner of juvenile offenders.
Of the 43 child offenders recorded as having been executed since11 were still under the age of 18 at the time of their execution while the others were either kept on death row until they had reached 18 or were convicted and sentenced after reaching that age. A bill to set the minimum age for the death penalty at 18 years was examined by the parliament in Decemberbut it was not ratified by the Guardian Council of the Constitutionthe unelected body that has veto power over parliamentary bills.
On 10 Feb Iran's parliament changed the controversial law of executing juveniles. In the new law, the age of 18 solar year would be for both genders considered and juvenile offenders will be sentenced on a separate law than of adults. A Human Rights Watch document criticizes "Parallel Institutions" nahad-e movazi in the Islamic Republic, "the quasi-official organs of repression Essay On Human Rights Abuses have become increasingly open in crushing student protests, detaining activists, writers, and journalists in secret prisons, and threatening pro-democracy speakers and audiences at public events.
Extra-legal acts may work in tandem with official actions, such as in the case of the newsweekly Tamadone Hormozgan in Bandar Abbas, where authorities arrested seven journalists in for "insulting Ayatollah Khomeini ," while government organisations and Quranic schools organized vigilantes to "ransacked and set fire" to the paper's offices.
Article 38 of the constitution of the Islamic Republic forbids "all forms of torture for the purpose of extracting confession or acquiring information" and the "compulsion of individuals to testify, confess, or take an oath. Nonetheless human rights groups and observers have complained that torture is frequently used on political prisoners in Iran. In a study of torture in Iran published inIranian-born political historian Ervand Abrahamian included Iran along with " Stalinist RussiaMaoist Chinaand early modern Europe" of the Inquisition and witch huntsas societies that "can be considered to be in a league of their own" in the systematic use of torture.
Of these, the most prevalent was the whipping of soles, obviously because it was explicitly sanctioned by the sharia. These stints could last months — until the prisoner agreed to the interview.
Few avoided the interview and also remained sane. Others were forced to join firing squads and remove dead bodies. When they returned to their cells with blood dripping from their hands, Their roommates surmised what had transpired.
According to Abrahamian, torture became commonly used in the Islamic Republic because of its effectiveness in inducing political prisoners to make public confessions. These recantations served as powerful propaganda for both the Iranian public at large — who by the s almost all had access to television and could watch prime time programs devoted to the taped confessions — and the recanters' former colleagues, for whom the denunciations were demoralizing and confusing.
Scholars article source over whether at least some forms of torture have been made legal according to the Qanon-e Ta'zir Discretionary Punishment Law of the Islamic Republic.
Several bills passed the Iranian Parliament that would have had Iran joining the international convention on banning torture in when reformists controlled Parliament, but were Essay On Human Rights Abuses by the Guardian Council.
In March UK based medical charity Freedom from Torture published a report providing detailed evidence of torture being practiced in Iran. New Evidence of Torture in Iran Since the Elections" is a study of 50 Iranian torture cases and provides an alarming insight into the brutality of the Iranian authorities in the years since the elections.
The report found that torture was used by state officials as a method of repression, in order to obtain information and that a variety of torture methods were used in a highly systematic way. In one case a woman was raped twice during interrogations and some reported being forced to sign 'confessions' of their involvement in anti-regime activities.
Chronicle of Higher Education International, reports that the widespread practice of raping women imprisoned for engaging in political protest has been effective in keeping female college students "less outspoken and less likely to take part" in political demonstrations. The journal quotes an Iranian college student as saying, "most of the girls arrested are raped in jail.
Families can't cope with that. As with many revolutions there were mass executions and killing of opponents during the early years of the Islamic Republic.
Between January and the overthrow of President Abolhassan Banisadr in Juneat least government opponents were Essay On Human Rights Abuses. In the s there were a number of unsolved murders and disappearances of intellectuals and political activists who had been critical of the Islamic Republic system in some way. In these complaints came to a head with the killing of three dissident writers Mohammad Jafar PouyandehMohammad MokhtariMajid Sharifa political leader Dariush Forouhar and his wife in the span of two months, in what became known as the Chain murders or Serial Murders of Iran.
The attempted murder and serious crippling of Saeed Hajjariana Ministry of Intelligence operative-turned-journalist and reformer, is believed to be in retaliation for his help in uncovering the chain murders of Iran and his help to the Iranian reform movement in general.
Hajjarian was shot in the head by Saeed Asgara member of the Basij in March At the international level, a German court ordered the arrest of a standing minister of the Islamic Republic — Minister of Intelligence Ali Fallahian — in for directing the murder of three Iranian-Kurdish dissidents and their translator at a Berlin restaurant,   known as the Check this out restaurant assassinations.
On 16 JanuaryRev. Mehdi, a convert to Christianity was released from prison after more than ten years of confinement, "apparently as a result of the international pressure.
Six months earlier the man responsible for leading a campaign to free him, Bishop Haik Hovsepian Mehrhad met a similar end, disappearing on 19 January