On the 25th of July in London, England, under the banner of 'United for Iran', demonstrations were held outside the Iranian Embassy on Princes Gate, and in attendance was Amnesty International (AI) who were visibly yellow amongst the white, green and black. I spoke to Drewery Dyke, who is the prominent Iran Researcher at AI, to gauge his viewpoint on the current situation in Iran and his message to the Iranian people at the demonstration:
EA:
Briefly, what is the role of AI with regard to the current Iran crisis?
DD:
Our role now is to stand shoulder to shoulder in solidarity with the Iranian people: to convey to them that they are not alone; that their voices are not going unheard; to bear witness to human rights violations in Iran; to campaign for their end and for the victims to be redressed. It is about seeking justice.
At the same time, our long term campaigning on violations of women’s rights and the repression of dissent; the use of the death penalty against juvenile offenders all remain on the agenda, too.
We are not able to go to Iran to research these issues, but have succeeded in reporting on violations against the Ahvazi community, Baluchis and Kurds; other reports, too, are in the pipeline; and we have been campaigning on an international scale to support the women’s movement in Iran, focusing on the women human rights defenders active in the Campaign for Equality.
EA:
So AI does not have a current presence in Iran?
DD:
AI is a membership movement. Where members’ numbers warrant it, a structure may be formed; where the numbers of members is very large, they form a section, like in parts of Latin America, Asia and Europe, for example. While we have a growing number of members in Iran, including prominent human rights activists, their number do not warrant the formation of a local group; not yet at any rate.
Moreover, AI has been banned from undertaking research missions to Iran since 1979, so conducting research into violations there is difficult. It is a problem we share with colleagues working on Saudi Arabia, Burma, or Myanmar, and other countries.
EA:
These individual members - are they of Iranian origin, and have they been accounted for in terms of safety?
DD:
Yes, AI members in Iran are Iranian. We welcome them into the global membership. Members in many countries have faced violations but we hope, of course, that our friends in Iran remain safe.
EA:
Have you been in contact with Iranian politicians inside Iran, such as the reformist groups, or is your position neutral?
DD:
In order to understand the dynamics of how human rights practices are implemented in Iran, we try to speak to as many opinion and policy formers as is sensible. We have spoken to number of those who have been called ‘reformist’ in the media, but also others who would not, notably in the judiciary. The importance of prosecutors, judges and judicial experts should not be overlooked in any country since they can help build a culture in which the rule of law is scrupulously upheld but upholding human rights standards at the same time.
EA:
What kind of work are you doing internationally behind the scenes with regard to Iran?
DD:
AI makes its position known publicly, on a wide range of issues. What we would like to see, though, is greater engagement by the international community in working to get the Iranian authorities to understand the important of upholding human rights standards. We have been working to have the UN’s human rights bodies remain engaged on the question of Iran, not to speak of the many other countries we work on, and to ensure that human rights issues are not left off the table when the international community discusses Iran.
EA:
What kind of reports have AI been dealing with/heard with regard to the government crackdown and the detention of prisoners?
DD:
With regard to prisoners, a wide range; from families who are saying that they have had no contact with loved ones, including the families of Mostafa Tajzadeh; Ramazanzadeh; to the brief call that Mirdamadi made the other day; others have had brief calls from family members but all this is unsatisfactory and flies in face of standards to which the Iranian authorities have committed themselves.
Some have been describing cases of excessive use of force; how they were taking part in peaceful demonstrations and then fell to the ground, having been struck with great force over their head by a baton. Others, for example, have told us how they have seen people shot.
There has also been some, but not consistent information about prison conditions - likely to be Evin but nothing confirmed ... and some have reported no or little ill treatment, to others who have said that they were badly beaten.
EA:
A little more on the prison conditions if you will, and the types of injuries AI has been hearing about?
DD:
In terms of injuries, one that comes to mind involved a young man - the family did not want his name used - a common request by those with little 'political leverage'. He had not returned from taking part in one of the events following the election. His family searched for him and he eventually called from a secure hospital and told his family that he had been operated on for a bullet wound that entered his abdomen then exited on his right side. Eventually he was permitted to meet with his mother at a Monkerat Office.
While the basement of the Min of Interior .is not a prison, there are reports of some brutal beating and torture emerging from those who were detained there.
Conditions on detention appeared to be marked by interrogation sessions, some accounts of which point to ill treatment. That said, it has been very difficult to gather verifiable information: the climate of fear is so great that victims are reluctant to speak.
EA:
What can you tell us about the true number who have died in the recent clashes?
DD:
Very little I am afraid. While we acknowledge that the authorities have stated that some 21 [people] have been killed our records point to much higher figures, so we will be calling on them to investigate and we will be referring to testimony stating [that] Basij personnel killed these people[,] in order to ensure that the best investigations are carried out.
We also collate reports of killings and see if these correlate with other information we receive such as those from eyewitnesses or those near to an incident, but we simply cannot verify the accounts. Only a truly independent investigation will be able to get to the bottom of this issue. The numbers referred to the government and used in the press differ considerably to the much large numbers we have received, though these remain, of course, unconfirmed. We will make public the information we have and put it to the authorities that these reports need to be investigated in a transparent manner, adhering to international standards, and ensuring that those suspected of having commited a crime are brought to justice.
EA:
In a June 2007 report Amnesty branded Iran as “the world's last official executioner of child offenders” – in 17 October 2008 it was reported that Iran instructed all courts to stop issuing death sentences against juvenile offenders. Has this status remained intact?
DD:
No it has not. Iran executed 8 juveniles in 2008 and has done so in 2009. It is astonishingly simple: there is an absolute prohibition on the taking of life by the state of those who may have committed a capital offence while under the age of 18. Iran has chosen to ignore international law on this point.
EA:
How do you see human rights development in the time you been dealing with Iran?
DD:
I have dealt with Iran on an off for 10 years. While there is no ranking in such matters, it is difficult to avoid saying that the situation is markedly worse now than it was then.
However, in current Iranian law, the age of criminal responsibility is the lunar year equivalent of 9 (female) and 15 (male), below the age the government agreed it would apply by agreeing to the ICCPR, an international human rights treaty. Add to that the fact that murder is classed as a type of ‘private’ crime which the state, according to Sharia' principles, cannot intercede; there can be no state pardon for murder. And its punishment is not even, notionally or definitionally (sic) 'execution' but rather retribution (قصاص), so in the authorities' view they are not executing, rather administering retribution.
EA:
Surely Iran is the most democratic country in the Middle East, and say, a country like China has a worst human rights record?
DD:
Some places may not be ‘democratic’ but adhere to human rights standards; others may be ‘democratic’ yet have glaring human rights issues. No country is faultless but most countries try, year on year, to improve. Sadly, the failure by the Iranian authorities to engage with the international human rights institutions, where UN, belonging to specific states or NGOs, suggests that the authorities do not take human rights seriously. Yet it is this that Iranians are calling out for more than anything else.
EA:
You’ll be speaking at the protest tomorrow; what kind of message will you/AI want to send out to A) the protesters, B) to the Iranian people in Iran, C) and to the regime?
DD:
Tomorrow we want to say that we are here, that we hear the suffering of families; that we do not forget the victims of state repression and torture; we will call for prisoners of conscience to be released and we will also call for the Basij to be taken off the streets - the excessive use of force and reports of killings are so grave that they simply need to be pulled back and the regular police re-instated, and an investigation launched into their conduct. Our calls go to the Supreme Leader. He has the constitutional responsibility for the overall direction of the state and it is time for the Bayt-e Rahbari, the Office of the Supreme Leader to make good on its duties to ensure that the international treaties to which his government signed up to are implemented. We would like to see the reps of the Supreme Leader throughout Iran and the world (eg Maida Vale!) come out and say that televised confessions have no moral standing that torture is not on in any culture; that those found to have killed Iranian citizens in the manner that Neda Agha Soltan was killed needs to be brought to book.
