9 November 1992

Doc. 6718

MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION

on violations of and departures from

international law and human rights principles

in the Islamic Republic of Iran

presented by Mr ESPERSEN and others


1.       The representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran have no hesitation to recommend publicly that prisoners and ordinary citizens be tortured, particularly be means of the widespread practice of whipping women in public. Several thousand women have been arrested for wearing the veil in a "non-standard" fashion. This makes them liable for 74 strokes of the whip.

2.       The Islamic Republic of Iran, with the support of the Iraqis, is endorsing a draft "declaration of human rights" in Islam. This declaration dogmatically and systematically refers to the Sharia. It introduces intolerable discrimination against non-Moslems and women and confirms the legitimacy of corporal punishment. It is thus in complete contradiction with the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations' Convenant on Civil and Political Rights.

3.       The Islamic Republic of Iran, which has recovered its position as a regional power and is recognised as such by our democratic regimes, is liable to use its new "international responsibility" as a pretext for violating human rights within its frontiers and promoting abroad its unacceptable conception of "Islamic" rights as set out in its declaration.

4.       The Assembly,

i.       publicly expresses its condemnation of the resurgence of serious human rights violations in the Islamic Republic of Iran;

ii.       vehemently protests against the political assassinations of political refugees in Europe, which flout international law, and demands that the Islamic Republic of Iran withdraw its death sentence on Salman Rushdie;

iii.       asks the Islamic Republic of Iran to authorise representatives of the Red Cross, the Red Crescent and Amnesty International to visit prisons and meet prisoners of their choice;

iv.       decides to investigate the question of Iranian violations of international law and human rights, inter alia, those which are intended to be effected in the territories of the member states of the Council of Europe.

Signed:       Espersen, Szent-Ivanyi, Panov, Berg, de Puig, Wielowieyski, Moczulski, Finsberg, Bratinka, Bokov, Lentz-Cornette, Fabra, Jung, Baarveld-Schlaman.