WRITTEN QUESTION E-3447/02

by Bob van den Bos (ELDR) to the Council

(6 December 2002)

Subject: Human rights situation in Iran resolution in the UN General Assembly Third Committee

On 21 October 2002 there was a discussion in the Council (for General Affairs and External Relations) on the human rights situation in Iran and the Union's position on this subject. A central issue was how to reconcile the possible tabling by the EU of a resolution on Iran in the UN General Assembly Third Committee with the human rights dialogue agreed with Iran as part of a package including negotiations on a trade and cooperation agreement. It was eventually agreed that the EU would not table a resolution on Iran in the Third Committee this year and would make any follow-up action (for instance at the Human Rights Commission in Geneva) partly dependent on the course of the planned dialogue with Iran.

1. Does the Council agree that the human rights situation in Iran has deteriorated in the period since then?

2. Does the Council agree that the EU's human rights dialogue with Iran does not preclude the possibility of placing the human rights situation in Iran on the agenda in other fora by means of resolutions? If so, why has it decided not to table any resolutions in the UN General Assembly Third Committee?

3. What is the human rights dialogue with Iran expecting to achieve, when on the day before an EU delegation visited Teheran (on 30 September 2002) five people were hanged in Teheran in public? What impact has this event had on the dialogue between the EU and Iran?

4. Does the Council agree that the decision to table a resolution at the 59th meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission in 2003 must not be dependent on the course of the human rights dialogue, but on the actual human rights situation in Iran? If not, why not?

Reply

(8 May 2003)

1. The first session of the EU-Iran human rights dialogue, established by the Council's conclusions of 21 October 2002, took place in Teheran on 16 and 17 December 2002. The format of the session consisted of a roundtable including members of civil society from both the EU and Iran, and separate officials' meetings. The themes addressed in the roundtable were discrimination and torture prevention. In the officials' meetings, those themes and all other issues of concern to the EU about the human rights situation in Iran were addressed. The Council has not yet had the opportunity to assess the results of this first session of the dialogue, nor to take a position on whether or not the human rights situation in Iran has in fact deteriorated since October 2002.

2. In its conclusions of 21 October 2002, the Council reaffirmed its position of principle that the establishment of a dialogue is without prejudice to the tabling of a resolution at the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly or the UN CHR. This position is already enshrined in paragraph 9 of the EU's Guidelines on Human Rights Dialogues adopted in 2001.

The Council decided on 21 October 2002 not to table a resolution on the human rights situation in Iran at the 57th session of the UN General Assembly in October/November 2002. The Council took no decision on 21 October 2002, however, as to whether or not it would table a resolution on Iran at future sessions of the UN General Assembly or of the UN CHR.

3. The purpose of the dialogue with Iran is to achieve concrete progress in the situation of human rights on the ground. The EU human rights expert delegation, which visited Iran on 30 September and 1 October 2002, expressed its concerns to the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs during that visit about the public executions to which the question refers.

In order to monitor whether the dialogue is achieving concrete progress in the human rights situation in Iran, the Council will assess the results of the dialogue on a regular basis. The benchmarks by reference to which progress will be measured refer to all the areas of concern to the EU, including the imposition of the death penalty.