Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Iran Human Rights Activists Raped, Tortured: UN

Mi scuso per il (e mi dissocio dal) termine "human", ma sottoscrivo 
l'incazzatura.
 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/11/iran-human-rights-activists_n_1959739.html
 
 
Iran Human Rights Activists Raped, Tortured: UN
 
Reuters  |  Posted: 10/11/2012 6:57 pm EDT Updated: 10/12/2012 12:27 pm EDT
 
By Michelle Nichols
 
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Human rights activists in Iran are 
subjected to beatings with batons, mock hangings, rape, sleep 
deprivation, and threats that family members will be raped or killed, a 
U.N. rights investigator said in a report released on Thursday.
 
The U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, said 
in a report to the U.N. General Assembly that Iranian authorities 
undermined press freedoms, watched some journalists constantly and 
detained and persecuted others unfairly.
 
"The authorities recently banned domestic news outlets from reporting on 
the impact of economic sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic of 
Iran," Shaheed said.
 
The Iranian currency has plunged in the past few weeks, sparking street 
protests. Officials from the United States and other Western countries 
blame the drop on a combination of economic mismanagement and sanctions.
 
Iran is under U.N., U.S. and European Union sanctions for refusing to 
halt nuclear enrichment, which Western powers and their allies say is 
part of a plan to amass the capability to produce nuclear weapons. 
Tehran denies the charge, saying its atomic work is for medicine and 
generating electricity.
 
Shaheed said Iranian authorities executed at least 223 people in the 
first six months of this year, most of them for drug-related offenses. A 
large number of those executed were convicted at unfair trials.
 
About 670 people were executed in Iran in 2011, according to Shaheed.
 
The report provides "a deeply troubling picture of the overall human 
rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran, including many 
concerns which are systemic in nature," he said.
 
Shaheed, a former foreign minister of Maldives, said the Iranian 
government had not allowed him to visit Iran while making his 
assessment, but that he had interviewed 99 people, of which 
three-quarters gave first-hand accounts and the rest were reliable 
sources or eyewitnesses.
 
 
WOMEN WORTH LESS THAN MEN
 
"In two dozen interviews ... human rights defenders reported being 
arrested and held incommunicado in solitary confinement for periods 
ranging from several weeks to 36 months, without charge or access to 
legal counsel," Shaheed said.
 
"Most of them also reported that they were subjected to severe physical 
torture during interrogations, which were aimed at coercing confessions 
or soliciting information about other human rights defenders and human 
rights organizations," he said.
 
The report said: "Methods employed reportedly included severe beatings 
with batons and other objects, mock hangings, electrocution, and actual 
rape.
 
"Other forms of psychological torture allegedly included sleep 
deprivation, denial of food and/or water, and threats of arrest, 
detention, rape or murder of family members. Several victims also 
reported being drugged with hallucinogens."
 
Iran ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 
in 1975 - four years before an Islamic revolution ushered in a 
clergy-led government that said it took its guidance from Islamic 
scriptures.
 
The report said Iran has maintained that the constitution of the Islamic 
Republic guarantees freedom of expression, religion, assembly and 
association. Tehran dismisses criticism of its human rights record.
 
Iran's U.N. mission did not respond immediately to a request for a 
reaction to Shaheed's report.
 
Shaheed said Iran's Islamic Penal Code contravenes international law 
because a woman's court testimony and her life is valued at half that of 
a man's. Girls are recognized as legally culpable at 9 years old and 
boys at 14.
 
He said the penal code also deems moharebeh (enmity against God) and 
fisad-fil-arzz (corruption on earth) as capital crimes, punishable by 
execution, crucifixion, amputation of the right hand and the left foot, 
or banishment.
 
"A number of interviews conducted and reports received by the special 
rapporteur show that individuals arrested for political and human 
rights-related activities are often charged with moharebeh and 
fisad-fil-arzz," Shaheed said. (Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
-- 
Namib
--
I have examined maps of the city with the greatest care, yet have never 
again found the Rue d'Auseil (HPL)

As the dust settles on the Almaty 2 talks, the media is beginning to take a step back and wonder whether the current format of engagement with Iran is worth continuing. A worthy subject to ponder.
For some reason, too many in the media have already jumped on the bandwagon of sanctions relief as their recommended panacea. The excitement over a recent “report” issued by the pro-Iran lobby in the US – not to mention the conclusions of a new Carnegie document we mentioned in a recent post- are unmistakable.
Read more about Iran human rights  
http://goo.gl/hTIYC