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New wave of attack to human rights deffenderes
By IHRV | April 20, 2010
In recent weeks, the Islamic Republic of Iran Television network (Seda Va Sima) and a number of government and Intelligence media publicized a series of documents in connection with the activities of the Coalition of Human Rights Advocates in Iran and the outside activities of its senior officials. According to these documents, senior officials of this organization were accused of association with western countries including the United States of America and a number of political organizations.
At the start of its activities, the Coalition of Human Rights Advocates requested an operational permit from the corresponding legal institution in an effort to act as a legal entity. But, the requests were denied on numerous occasions for variety of reasons. The organization’s daring request was for the government to legitimize its activities. Of course the organization’s primary concern has always been based on securing the rights that have been granted under the constitution, and a devotion toward human rights activities.
However, as the trend of confrontations with human rights institutions and even non-governmental organizations have expanded, confrontations with activists have also been expanded. But the method behind recent confrontations with activists has been somewhat different, with the motives noted below:
• Creating an atmosphere of fear in society
• Promoting a sense of suspicion and mistrust in reference to news and reports released by these sort of organizations, especially news in reference to instances of human rights violation in Iran.
• Detention of many activists and charging them with a variety of wrongdoings
• Intimidating other political activists in an effort to dissuade them from lending support to imprisoned activists
• Blocking the activists from making contact with masses of the population through promoting made-up charges and fabricated accusations
• Evading and entering the personal lives of political activists under the disguise of national security
• Controlling human rights related activities
For these purposes, the suppression and curtailment of civil and human rights advocates is on top of the list among Intelligence and judicial institutions. Along these lines, a large swath of civil rights activists across the country in different areas including feminists, students, and labor supporters were detained, whose numbers are substantially greater than those of political detainees. Recently, a number of political activists were released, however there has not been any news in connection with the release of civil rights and human rights activists.
Therefore, dismantling of a number of human rights organizations is on the list of the Ministry of Intelligence and other institutions working in parallel with the Ministry. Among the organization that were targeted in isolation by Intelligence forces are the Coalition of Human Rights Advocates, the Human Rights Defense Center, the Committee of Human Rights Reporters and the Kurdistan Human Rights Organization.
For instance, about five or six months earlier, it became noticeable to the Coalition of Human Rights Advocates that they would encounter problems. The members from this organization were being summoned and subjected to questioning, just short of being arrested. It appears, Intelligence institutions were mostly interested in collecting and profiling information to technically handle the organization’s members more effectively. Later, each individual member from the Committee of Human Rights Reporters were detained, members from the Defense Center were also imprisoned. During January and February, about 43 members from the Kurdistan Human Rights Organization were detained. Approximately 32 members from the Coalition of Human Rights Advocates have also been detained, and among them were individuals who were never a member of this organization, and ex-members. For example, Intelligence agents also raided firms which were providing services to this Coalition of Human Rights Advocates, and during the raid, the firms’ belonging were confiscated. To set a precedent, Intelligence agents also confiscated passwords and encryption tools, so that other firms may shy away from any future co-operation or assistance.
It appears that a timely backlash by international organizations and the lack of any public interest in such heavy-handed tactics has temporarily put a stop in carrying out the Ministry’s plans, or perhaps Intelligence forces are preparing for yet another attack following the first raid.
Topics: analysis |