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U.N. On Iran Human Rights & Minorities
27.1.2007 |
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The United Nations
General Assembly called on authorities in Iran to
“ensure full respect for the rights to freedom of
assembly, opinion, and expression, and for the right
to due process of law, to eliminate the use of
torture and other cruel forms of punishment.”
The resolution, put forward by Canada and
co-sponsored by forty-three nations, expressed
“serious concern” over Iran’s human rights abuses
and called for the elimination “in law and in
practice,” of “all forms of discrimination based on
religious, ethnic, or linguistic grounds, and other
human rights violations against persons belonging to
minorities, including Arabs, Azeris, Baha’is,
Baluchis, Kurds, Christians, Jews, Sufis, and Sunni
Muslims.”
In its latest human rights report on Iran, the U.S.
State Department said, “members of the country’s
non-Muslim religious minorities, particularly
Baha’is, reported imprisonment, harassment, and
intimidation based on their religious beliefs.”
Ethnic minorities too, suffer political and economic
discrimination.
Fakhteh Zamani is the director of an Azeri-Iranian
human rights group based in Canada. She says that in
Iran today, “all minorities, including Azerbaijanis,
Kurds, Arabs, and others are deprived of their basic
right to live in freedom and express their cultural
differences.” Ms. Zamani says, “those who demand
respect for their culture are subject to
humiliation, arrest and persecution.”
Iran's internal fabric is comprised of the following
ethnic groups:
1-Persians, who largely dominate the country’s
political institution, in addition to its culture,
literature and official language.
2-Azeris, (Azerbaijani) who share the same faith of
the current regime and who have noticeable control
of the trade markets
(bazaars) in Tehran and other major cities.
3-Kurds, who are mainly spread in northwestern Iran,
or what the Kurds refer to as Eastern Kurdistan, the
most prominent
cities of which are Mehebad (Mahabad), Sine (Saqqez),
Karmanshah and Sardasht.
4-Arabs, who live in Khuzestan, or what is referred
to by Arab Iranians as ‘Arabistan’. The most
renowned cities of which are
Ahvaz (Ahwaz) and Khorramshahr, and some parts in
the eastern coast of the Gulf.
5-Turkmen, who are spread out in southern
Turkmenistan.
6-Baloch, who live in the areas of Kerman and
Zahedan.
White House spokesman Tony Snow says the United
States wants Iran’s government to respect the human
rights of all Iranians:
"We believe the people of Iran – like the people of
Afghanistan and Iraq and throughout the world ---
deserve to have a free democracy so that they can
explore, each and every one of them, their unique
talents and genius, and to feel not only the joys
that freedom brings, but also the fulfillment."
President George W. Bush says Iran “is a proud
nation with a fantastic history and tradition.” In
an address to the U-N General Assembly, Mr. Bush
told Iran’s people, “the greatest obstacle to this
future is that your rulers have chosen to deny you
liberty.”
voanews com
Iranian Kurdistan (Kurdish: Kurdistana Îranę or
Kurdistana Rojhilat (Eastern Kurdistan) or Rojhilatę
Kurdistan (East of Kurdistan)) is an unofficial name
for the parts of Iran inhabited by Kurds and has
borders with Iraq and Turkey. It includes the
greater parts of West Azerbaijan province, Kurdistan
Province, Kermanshah Province, and Ilam Province.
Kurds form the majority of the population of this
region with an estimated population of 4 million.
The region is the eastern part of the greater
cultural-geographical area called Kurdistan.
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