{"id":1264,"date":"2018-05-02T13:27:24","date_gmt":"2018-05-02T13:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1264"},"modified":"2018-05-02T13:27:24","modified_gmt":"2018-05-02T13:27:24","slug":"rouhanis-citizens-rights-charter-a-harmful-distraction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1264","title":{"rendered":"Rouhani\u2019s Citizens\u2019 Rights Charter: A Harmful Distraction"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/iransos.com\/en\/photo\/2011\/r\/rohani-gov.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"405\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/span> <span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Human Rights Deteriorated in Iran Since Signing of Charter, With Many Abuses by Rouhani\u2019s Own Intelligence Ministry<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">May 1, 2018\u2014President Hassan Rouhani\u2019s signature domestic initiative\u2014a Citizens\u2019 Rights Charter which lays out in 120 articles the rights and freedoms of Iranian citizens as stated in Iranian law\u2014has no ability to impact the human rights situation in Iran in any meaningful way and has in fact done harm by distracting attention from the causes of rights abuses in Iran and the reforms needed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><!--more-->This assessment, outlined in\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/iransos.com\/en\/photo\/pdf\/Harmful-Distraction-Final-2.pdf\"><strong style=\"font-style: inherit;\"><em style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;\">A Harmful Distraction: The Implications of Rouhani\u2019s Citizens\u2019 Rights Charter for Human Rights in Iran<\/em><\/strong>,<\/a> a new 28-page briefing by the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), underpins CHRI\u2019s recommendation that the charter should no longer be used as a reference point for progress on human rights in Iran.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/iransos.com\/en\/photo\/2011\/r\/rohani-harmful.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"344\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong style=\"font-style: inherit;\">Download the report\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/iransos.com\/en\/photo\/pdf\/Harmful-Distraction-Final-2.pdf\">here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u201cPresident Rouhani\u2019s Citizens\u2019 Rights Charter has only helped to mask the deterioration in human rights that has occurred in Iran,\u201d said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of CHRI.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u201cIf Rouhani wants to impact the rights situation in Iran he can start by reigning in his own Intelligence Ministry, which has played a leading role in the unlawful arrests and persecution of rights activists,\u201d Ghaemi added.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Among the key findings of the briefing:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Since the charter\u2019s signing in December 2016, there has been a deterioration in all major areas referenced in the document, including the right to freedom of expression, association, assembly and demonstration and the right to due process and a fair trial.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Even in ministries under Rouhani\u2019s direct control, rights violations are routine, especially unlawful arrests and charges against rights activists by the Intelligence Ministry.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">With no means of implementation or enforcement, the charter cannot impact the human rights situation in Iran; it should not be viewed as a sign of progress.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Rouhani no longer intends to submit the charter to Parliament as a bill; he now states the charter\u2019s purpose is to document Iranians\u2019 rights and promote public awareness. It does not address the fact that these rights already exist in Iranian law, and they are ignored with impunity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The charter is harming the rights situation in Iran by:<\/span><\/li>\n<li>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Giving a false sense of progress.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Reducing pressure to address rights violations.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Diverting attention from actions Rouhani could take, such as holding his own Intelligence Ministry accountable to the law and, as the enforcer of Iran\u2019s Constitution, publicly addressing violations of citizens\u2019 rights by the Iranian Judiciary.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u201cUntil the people of Iran are able to freely express their views and dissent and Iran\u2019s intelligence and security agencies are held to the rule of law\u2014and the Judiciary acts to defend that law, no charter, or any mere recitation of rights, will address the human rights crisis in Iran,\u201d noted Ghaemi<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>May 1, 2018\u2014President Hassan Rouhani\u2019s signature domestic initiative\u2014a Citizens\u2019 Rights Charter which lays out in 120 articles the rights and freedoms of Iranian citizens as stated in Iranian law\u2014has no<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[244],"class_list":["post-1264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights","tag-hassan-rohani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1264"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1265,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264\/revisions\/1265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}