- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 29 January 1982 (27th Sitting) (see Doc. 4835, report of the Political Affairs Committee). Text adopted by the Assembly on 29 January 1982 (27th Sitting).
- Thesaurus
The Assembly,
1. Recalling its
Resolution 712 (1979) on the situation in Iran, in which it denounced and condemned very numerous cases of disregard of the law, arrests, summary verdicts, executions and discriminatory measures, tolerated if not encouraged by the authorities of this United Nations member country ;
2. Recalling Europe's hopes, expressed after the fall of the police state represented by the rule of the Shah, of finding in a democratic Iran a partner to which it would be bound by the same principles of individual freedom, political freedom and the rule of law ;
3. Alarmed at the wave of terror which instead continues to engulf Iran where, according to Amnesty International, more than 3 350 people —including many children—have been executed since the revolution in February 1979 ;
4. Shocked by the maltreatment of children, women and old people and the inhuman pressures brought to bear on them, to the point of demanding that parents denounce their own children ;
5. Concerned about the growing fanatisation of young people and press reports of grave exactions against members of the Episcopalian, Jewish and other communities because of their religious convictions and practices and of their lawful links with their co-religionists in western countries ;
6. Noting that the victims of executions, usually after summary trials, cannot, in most cases, be regarded as traitors, counter-revolutionaries or political opponents, but simply belong to ethnical, philosophical ou religious minorities, such as the Baha'i community, or whose morals are deemed to be not entirely in accord with the fundamentalist precepts of Ayatollah Khomeini,
7. Recalls the commitment by members of the UN, in ratifying the United Nations Charter, in connection with the practice of tolerance as laid down in the Preamble, and with the universal and individual respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms “for all without discrimination as to race, sex, language or religion” specified in Article 55 of this Charter ;
8. Repeats its hope that the sufferings of the Iranian people will soon come to an end, and that they will find peace based on respect for elementary rights ;
9. Notes with regret the inadequacy of the means of influence or persuasion of governments of the Council of Europe member states with regard to the present Iranian rulers ;
10. Resolutely supports the attitudes of the Sub-commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities (of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights), which has, inter alia, urged the Secretary General of the United Nations to remind the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran of its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by that state, with a view to preventing further attacks on the life and rights of minorities, as well as the resolutions adopted by the European Parliament on 19 September 1980 and 10 April 1981 ;
11. Expresses its solidarity towards persons and communities, including the Baha'i community, who are unjustly treated or persecuted ;
12. Calls upon the Iranian authorities to extend to the Baha'i community the constitutional guarantees with respect to religious, ethnic and philosophic minorities included in the new Iranian Constitution ;
13. Calls upon the governments of the Council of Europe member states to utilise every possible opportunity, including European Community and United Nations channels, with a view to convincing the Iranian Government of the necessity to respect the law and international conventions to which it is a party, guaranteeing the security of persons and their property, as well as their individual rights and fundamental freedoms.
