By René Wadlow

The United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council whose Spring session ended on April 5, 2024 voted on April 4 to continue the mandate of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran. The Mission is a three-person group, all women, chaired by Sara Hossain of Bangladesh. The Mission was created in 2022 in response to the death in police offices of Jina Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman of the Iranian-Kurdish community. The protests had begun in the Kurdish areas but quickly spread to many areas of the country and became known by their protest cry of “Woman, Life, Freedom”.

The Mission has collected material from many sources including reports and statements from Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) such as Amnesty International and the Association of World Citizens (AWC). The Mission is to continue for the year 2024 in order to complete and write up its findings.

The vote on the continuation of the Mission is a reflection of the political divisions of the 47-member Human Rights Council. 24 States voted for the continuation, 8 against and 15 abstained. Those States voting against were the Asian countries: China, Vietnam, Indonesia, the African: Algeria, Sudan, Burundi, Eritrea, and Cuba for Latin America. Abstaining were the Asian States: Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Maldives, the African States: Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, South Africa, the Arab States: Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and the Central Asian: Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

In addition to the vote on the continuation of the Fact-Finding Mission, there was a positive vote also on April 4 to continue the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran who is since July 2018 Mr. Javaid Rehman, Professor of Law at Brunel University in London. The position of a Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council, usually devoted to a specific country or to a topic such as food, education, or housing, has taken on a real importance. The Special Rapporteur, usually an academic who has had earlier contact with the UN human rights efforts, is not a member of the UN Secretariat and is not paid – the idea being that this increases his independence. His expenses are covered on the days on which he is working on his topic, and he has secretarial and clerical help from the UN Secretariat.

Each year Professor Rehman regrets that the Iranian government refuses his entry into the country, but like the Fact-Finding Mission, he carries out a large number of interviews with Iranians in exile, scholars, and the representatives of NGOs. He usually covers the same issues and makes recommendations. It is impossible to know how the recommendations are discussed by the Iranian authorities. However, in practice, there are few signs of progress.

Topics regularly analyzed are the use of the death penalty, arbitrary arrest, use of torture and degrading treatment, freedom of opinion and expression, arrests of human rights defenders and lawyers, sexual violence, discrimination against members of the Baha’i faith and other religious minorities, discrimination against ethnic minorities and the position of women and children. The analysis is followed by recommendations for meeting UN human rights standards. All on 42 pages this year.

The reports of the Special Rapporteurs are part of a process of awareness building. There are seldom obvious victories, but a central task of our time is to evolve a world order based on principles of peace and justice. A useful analysis of the role of Special Rapporteurs is a book by Alfred de Zayas, Building A Just World Order. (1) De Zayas had been for 16 years a member of the UN human rights Secretariat. On retirement, he became an academic in Geneva. For six years he was the Human Rights Council Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order (2012-2018). We knew each other well when I was an NGO representative at the UN in Geneva and often worked on human rights issues.

Professor Rehman’s analysis of Iran is a good overview and serves as an agenda for NGO action.

Note

(1) Alfred de Zayas, Building A Just World Order (Atlanta, GA: Clarity Press, 2021, 466 pp.)

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.