Europe Pushes Iran on Human Rights

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — European politicians are expressing concern about Iran's human rights record such as judicial executions and rights of minorities including Kurds in the Islamic republic.

Jean Lambert, a British member of the European Parliament, told Rudaw that the European Union regularly raises the death penalty issue with Iran and other countries where it is used, including the United States.

“In Iran there is ongoing oppression, lack of real protection under the law and a judicial process that all too often delivers summary justice in Iran,” she said. “But we have to push Iran to deliver on fundamental human rights.”

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran and the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center report that since President Hassan Rouhani took office in June last year with promises of pursuing moderate policies, executions have not declined. According to Amnesty International, Iran acknowledges having executed 369 people in 2013 ”while reliable sources reported at least 335 additional executions. Reports indicate that at least 11 of those executed may have been under the age of 18 at the time of their alleged crimes.” 

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is setting up a subcommittee on Iran that will follow up on the country’s death penalty policies as well as other human rights issues, said council member Dutch MP Tiny Knox.

Kurdo Baksi, a Green Party official in Sweden, maintained that western nations ignore what is happening in Iran.

”No one protests against the Tehran regime, which doesn’t respect basic human rights.  There should be more focus on human rights and not only Iran’s nuclear program,” he said.

The concerns are shared on the other end of the political spectrum. Per Stig Moller, chairman of the Danish parliament’s foreign affairs committee and a conservative, has called the treatment of the Kurds in Iran "extremely worrying." He has met with Amans Pirmeh, who met with Danish politicians about Kurdish rights on behalf of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran.

The Kurds are one of the largest minorities, with an estimated 8 million population. There is no legal political party in the country, however, and some Kurdish groups have fought with Tehran over the right to self-determination and cultural and linguistic rights.

Nikolaj Villumsen, a Danish MP and member of the European Council, believes that human rights and minority issues in Iran are overlooked because of the focus on Iran's disputed nuclear program.

"It’s critical that we are pushing Iran to stop the oppression of minorities and executions," Villumsen said.

He argued that the Iranian government has double standards when it comes to human rights issues.

"They criticize other countries in the Middle East for suppressing minorities, but they themselves are violating human rights."

According to Philip G. Kreyenbroek, director of Iranian Studies at the University of Gottingen in Germany, western nations don’t focus on the Kurds in Iran because most aren’t “as disaffected as those in Iraq and Turkey.”

“The languages, Persian and Kurdish, are very close, whereas Arabic and Turkish are totally different from Kurdish, and in Iran there isn’t the same feeling of being complete outsiders as you find elsewhere,” he said.

Internal divisions within Iranian Kurdish parties may have also hurt their ability to lobby internationally, Kreyenbroek maintained.

However, he argued, “It’s difficult to be more divided than the PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) and the KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party) were in the 1990s, and they still managed to keep things going.”

Janne Bjerre Christensen, a researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, maintained that EU criticism will make little difference.

"Iran isn’t listening to western criticisms because the EU has lost legitimacy and undermined its own moral position to criticize Iran," Christensen said.

"Until the sanctions are lifted, the Iranians won’t listen to the EU and the west," she predicted.

Lambert agreed, arguing “The west would have greater credibility if some countries making the case didn’t already have nuclear weapons of their own.”