NCRI – The 10-point plan presented by Iranian opposition leader Mrs. Maryam Rajavi for a future free Iran should be supported by the international community of nations in order to ensure global peace, former Italian lawmaker Elisabetta Zamparutti has told a Geneva conference on the sidelines of the 30th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Iranians plan to rally outside the United Nations in New York on September 28 to denounce the visit by the mullahs’ President Hassan Rouhani to the UN General Assembly.
The rally, which is being organized by the Organization of Iranian-American Communities (OIAC), will press the international community to hold the regime in Iran accountable for its abhorrent human rights record.
The mullahs’ regime in Iran continues to execute more of its citizens per capita than any other U.N. member state. Some 2000 people have been executed under Rouhani in the past two years.
Text of remarks by Mrs. Elisabetta Zamparutti, Co-president of Hands off Cain, former Italian MP:
Human Rights Situation in the Middle East
Friday 18 September 2015 (15h30 – 17h00)
Palais des Nations – Room XXI
I am very happy to speak today before so many people attending this meeting. For me it’s really important that you are here because maybe something can change if so many people are attending this meeting. But of course we will discuss the situation in Iran but in a different way from the real politic speak about Iran.
Former speakers refer to the last agreement on the nuclear. And of course with this agreement the International Community gave Iran a new international political legitimacy and also allowed the regime to have around 150 billions of dollars because of the effect of this agreement on the sanctions. And I don’t want to evaluate this deal on the nuclear, but I want to say that the International Community after this agreement has a great responsibility to call Iran to respect human rights. Because the respect of human rights is the most important deal for international security because international security is based on the universality of human rights and on the rule of law.
Former speakers made their intervention on the problem of the death penalty. As the chair of this meeting said, I am the representative of a NGO Hands off Cain, whose main goal is to call for a universal moratorium on capital executions. And our main work is to monitor the situation of the death penalty all over the world and we continue to record in Iran the worst number of executions.
More than 2000 executions in Iran have been carried out under the presidency of Rouhani. Last year in 2014 at least 800 people were executed. And this is the highest number in the last 15 years. And this year the numbers are worse because till June we recorded at least 657 people executed. And if we compare the number of executions to the population we can say that Iran is the first country for the number of executions.
But as already said, the problem is not only the death penalty, we know how Iran violates the basic international standards of human rights. I think we as civil society have the duty to draw attention to this. We have also the duty to draw attention to on cases like the case of Mohammed Ali Taheri, the physician who has been sentenced to death only because he used an alternative method for medicine as a physician.
But also on the case as Hamid Kokabi who is in prison since 2005 because he refused to collaborate with the Iranian regime on the military nuclear research. And after the agreement it is really incredible that these people are in prison and that western countries have nothing said to try to solve these cases.
But as politicians, I think that we have to reflect on the responsibility of Iran also on the situation of Syria in the Middle East to reflect on how we can solve these that are the most important problems of our time. And as a radical I think that we have to towards a common transition towards democracy and towards the rule of law. And if we believe that this could be the alternative, the solution to the problems of our time…and I repeat the situation in Syria and the situation in the Middle East.
We have also to find those political references to discuss with and to support, and I think that in regard to Iran I think that only the PMOI and the Iranian resistance could be the reference. And this is the reason why we have to try to convince our governments, our parliaments to discuss with them and recognize them as a political reference. Because we know what is the program of Maryam Rajavi, we know the ten points of her program, and this is what not only Iran but what the International Community need for a peaceful world and a peaceful Middle East. I think it is an important occasion to draw on all these issues.
It is the beginning next week of the UN General Assembly. I think that we and I repeat as civil society we have to try to mobilize attention on the number of executions and there is also this campaign on Stop Executions in Iran that could be supported also through Twitter because there is also this hashtag (#StopExecutionsIran) but we have also to press our government to pose this problem and to support a transition towards a democracy based on the universality on human rights. Thank you.
