Behshad Hastibakhsh of the Constitutionalist Party of Iran has sent the following letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper:

Friday, August 27, 2010

The Right Honourable Stephen Harper, P.C., M.P.
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A2

Re: Human Rights Violations by the Theocratic Regime in Iran

Dear Prime Minister Stephen Harper,

I urge the Government of Canada to strongly condemn systemic human rights violations by the theocratic regime in Iran, and to lead international efforts in adopting urgent measures to end the practice of arbitrary arrests, imprisonments, gender and religious discriminations, torture, rape, stoning, public executions, and other shameful crimes against humanity.

Over the past three decades, the clerical regime of Iran has violated the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Iran has long been a signatory. These acts of human rights violations have been reported and publicly denounced by several international human rights agencies and organizations, including the United Nations’ Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee, United Nations’ Commission on Human Rights, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and The International Federation for the Defense of Human Rights.

Most recently, Amnesty International has condemned the reported sentencing of seven Baha’i leaders in Iran who have been subjected to summary judgments of twenty years of prison on politically motivated charges. In a statement, the deputy director of Amnesty International, Hadj Sahraoui, has described this verdict as “a sad and damning manifestation of the deeply-rooted discrimination against Baha’is by the Iranian authorities” [1]. The 300,000 member Baha’i community, which constitutes the largest religious minority in Iran, has witnessed the execution of 200 of its members, wrongful imprisonment of hundreds, and the denial of access to jobs, business and educational opportunities to tens of thousands.

Human Rights Watch reports that in the aftermath of last year’s fraudulent presidential election the theocratic regime in Iran has unleashed widespread crackdowns against pro-democracy leaders, student activists, reporters and others to suppress freedoms of assembly and speech. Human Rights Watch also cites reports by political prisoners who have been “subjected to torture and/or coerced to make false confessions... Some released detainees [have] told Human Rights Watch that they were held in solitary confinement, and deprived of food and proper healthcare. Security forces used beatings, threats against family members, sleep deprivation, and fake executions to intimidate detainees and to force them to confess that they instigated post-election riots and were plotting a velvet coup.” [2] There have also been records of rape, as thousands of detainees have been held in secret prisons without charge and access to proper legal representation.

Around the world, human rights activists are outraged about death by stoning verdicts against mainly women who have been accused of adultery [3]. The international community has condemned this barbaric practice along with the strict application of other fundamentalist Islamic laws that curtail women’s rights and role in society, including but not limited to women’s educational and professional opportunities, reinforcing male control over women in the family, imposing gender segregation in many arena such as sports activities, requiring all women to wear dark and concealing uniforms, and adding discriminatory features to the criminal code.

The above are just a few examples of widespread concerns raised by international human rights organizations that in recent years have seen moving images of pro-democracy protestors being shot, wounded and/or beaten in cities across Iran. As the current theocratic regime in Iran violates basic human rights of its citizens, it pursues an aggressive foreign policy with nuclear ambitions that is bound to further threaten the future of regional and global peace.

Hence, I urge the Government of Canada to lead international efforts to call on the clerical regime in Iran to immediately release all religious and political prisoners in adherence with Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Furthermore, I encourage the Government of Canada to support the Iranian people’s quest for peaceful transition from theocracy to democracy.

I thank you sincerely for your consideration and offer my unconditional assistance on this urgent matter.

Yours sincerely,

Behshad Hastibakhsh
The Constitutionalist Party of Iran (Vancouver, BC)

Cc: Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs
Honourable Peter Milliken, M.P. The Speaker – House of Commons
Andrew Saxton, M.P. (North Vancouver, BC)

(Endnotes)

[1] http://www.amnesty.org.nz/news/heavy-sentences-against-jailed-iranian-ba...
[2] http://www.hrw.org/en/node/87713
[3] http://stopstonningnow.com/