Iran Tribunal to investigate Ayatollah's hidden legacy

As the Arab uprising is breathing a new life into the Iranian opposition, a remarkable new venture is slowly gathering pace outside the country: a sort of Russell Tribunal to investigate possible crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Iranian regime in the 1980s – especially in the summer of 1988.

In the summer of 1988, the Islamic Republic of Iran executed in secret a large number of political prisoners across the country – men, women and children. The killing was ordered by a fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini. The victims were intellectuals, students, leftists, members of opposition parties and ethnic and religious minorities. Many were jailed for no more than distributing leaflets, having a banned book or being accused by “a trusted friend of the regime.”

The estimated number of victims ranks between 4,000 and 7,000.  The massacre was the climax of a massive elimination process executed by the regime from 1981 to 1988, under which around 20,000 dissidents disappeared, either dying under torture or being executed by firing squads. (Read my article on the massacre in the Toronto Star.)

The regime has never acknowledged the massacre, revealed how many were executed nor why. The execution of such a large number of people within such a short time and without any due process, violates many international human rights treaties to which Iran is signatory; yet the world has remained largely silent (Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch tried to raise the alarm, but the world was not interested). Most of the perpetrators are still in power today.

Many believe that the absence of accountability for those crimes has led to the culture of impunity so rampant in today’s Iran, where intellectuals are murdered, women stoned, students tortured.

“Nobody has been brought to justice,” Drewery Dyke, Amnesty International’s Iran researcher, told me when I interviewed him for a piece about the massacre in the New Internationalist (read it here). “Impunity for such appalling crimes only leads to further human rights abuse.”

This picture is part of Prison Memoir in Painting by Iranian artist Soudabeh Ardavan. She spent eight years in Iranian prisons and survived the 1988 massacre. She painted this and many other prison's paintings by using her hair as a brush and toothpaste or tea as paint. She now lives in exile in Sweden.

Over the past 22 years, survivors of the massacre and families of the victims have pleaded for justice before the international community – to no avail. Every September since 1988, they have commemorated the massacre in Iran and all over the world, holding vigils, organizing rallies and seminars, and disseminating information on the internet — willing the world to listen, acknowledge and condemn the terrible events the Islamic Republic wants the world to forget. But no one is listening.

So now, the survivors and families of the victims have decided to act on their own.   They have set up the Iran Tribunal – a sort of Russell Tribunal to investigate these crimes and judge them according to international law.

Like the second and more recently established Russell Tribunal - the Russell Tribunal on Palestine -  the Iran Tribunal won’t have any legal status, but will act as a Tribunal of conscience to deal with violations of international law that have not been recognized nor dealt with by existing international jurisdictions.

After two and a half years of groundwork and preparation, the Iran Tribunal recently formed a Steering Committee, in charge of organizing the tribunal, selecting judges, prosecutors and defense teams and the jury.   The committee is comprised of prominent jurists and human rights activists from Iran and around the world, and chaired by John Cooper QC, a British criminal law and human rights barrister.

The Tribunal is expected to be operational by early 2012. For more information, click here.

Global day of action in support of peaceful protestors in Egypt

Thousands of Amnesty International supporters, Egyptian activists, trade unionists, students and others will come together at a mass rally in Trafalgar Square in central London, and elsewhere in the world, this Saturday (12 February) to mark a “Global Day of Action” in solidarity with protestors in Egypt and the wider region, who are demanding greater human rights.

 With a large screen providing a TV link-up with protestors in Egypt’s Tahrir Square, the event is being billed as a “Trafalgar to Tahrir” act of solidarity, with social media activists live-tweeting and uploading solidarity images in real time.

 Saturday’s event  is part of a series of global solidarity demonstrations on 12 February being held in around 20 countries, including Australia, USA, Spain, France, South Korea and Norway.

The event is organised by Amnesty International and supported by the ITUC, Human Rights Watch, the NUS, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network and the Arab Program for Human Rights Activists among others. For a full list, click here.  

In Trafalgar Square, demonstrators wearing red, black or white clothing and face paint (the colours of the Egyptian flag) will assemble at 12 noon to hear speeches from Amnesty International Secretary General Salil Shetty, ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow, Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation chair’s Bianca Jagger, CAABU Director Chris Doyle and young Egyptian activists, among others.

 AI’s Salil Shetty said:

 “We are gathering in Trafalgar Square and public places like this around the world to demonstrate our solidarity with the people of Egypt and those across the region who are standing up for their human rights.

 “Their demand and ours is for an end to repression and for fundamental human rights reforms so that all people can live in dignity. We stand in solidarity with the protesters and we stand in defiance against those who oppose human rights change.

 "We want the people of Egypt to know that while governments outside Egypt may be wavering in their support for change, the people's movements are not.”

 In recognition of the part played by social media activists in the protests, people who cannot be present at the event are being asked to upload solidarity images here to. Some of these images will be displayed on the Trafalgar Square screen during the rally.

 The event is being communicated on social media via the hashtag #feb12Global and will be live tweeted @amnestyuk

Afghan women need equal seat at peace table

I went to an interesting lecture by Zainab Salbi at the LSE about the need for women in Afghanistan to participate fully in peace negotiations in their country. Salbi is the founder and CEO of Women for Women International, a grassroots humanitarian and development organisation helping women survivors of wars rebuild their lives. 

After a decade of war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, US and UK governments are talking about bringing their troops back in the near future.  As the Taliban is unlikely to be defeated, the Afghan government has started negotiating with hardline militia.  And Afghan women fear this will be at the detriment of their hard-won rights.

While the treatment of Afghan women at the hands of the Taliban was cited as a key reason for invading the country, women’s rights are now seen as a secondary issue.

Salbi, who has testified before the US senate, says: "There is a clear, clear opinion (among US politicians) that women's rights were a) not that relevant and b) irreconcilable with peace in Afghanistan."

Women are excluded from taking full part in the peace negotiations, which will determine the future of their country.   “But progress and peace start with women,” said Salbi, who grew up in Baghdad during the Iran-Iraq war.

 “There is no peace without women.”  Not only women bear the brunt of war, but they are the ones who keep families and communities together. They bring stability and help rebuild countries.

Women for Women International is demanding that women have an equal seat at the negotiating table and an equal voice in determining their future and the future of their country.  WFWI is circulating a petition, which will be presented to your Foreign Secretary of State, calling for urgent action so that Afghan women can play a full part in the peace negotiations.

Sign the petition here.

Over 100 countries mark World Leprosy Day

Tomorrow (30 January 2011) is World Leprosy Day – a day to remember that this biblical-times disease is still with us and millions of people across the word still suffer from it.  To mark the day, over 100 countries will undertake activities and advocacy to raise awareness of leprosy and to ensure that this neglected tropical disease is not ignored.

When I was very young – just after high school – I worked in a leprosy centre in Polambakam, Tamil Nadu, India, for a few months.  At the time, the multidrug therapy hadn’t been developed yet and the stigma of the disease was so strong that very few Indian medics wanted to work there.

Leprosy has now been curable for the past 25 years, but is still a global problem, affecting more than 15 million people worldwide  (including 100 in the UK), and each year, nearly a quarter of a million new cases are detected - that is almost one person diagnosed every two minutes. Over half of all newly-reported cases of leprosy occur in India.

And the stigma of the disease is still as present as it was when I was young and often more damaging than the disease itself. Many countries around the world, including India, China and even England, still have discriminatory policies that mirror the social exclusion people with leprosy face daily. Too often, people with leprosy cannot get married, lose their jobs, are rejected by their families and communities, and their children are not allowed to go to school.

 “I can endure losing fingers and toes, but not the rejection of my family nor my family being rejected by society,” said one sufferer at Kothara hospital in India, run by the Leprosy Mission England & Wales (TLMEW).

On World Leprosy Day, schools, groups and churches will organize activities and events focused on advocacy, education and fundraising for leprosy. In the countries where leprosy exists, the day will be used to lobby governments and to publicly campaign to dispel some of the myths about the disease: that it is highly contagious and not curable. Since 1982 leprosy has been curable with a combination of antibiotics called multidrug therapy.

Leprosy is a mildly infectious disease, which attacks the nerves. If treated early there will be no long-term damage, but if treatment is delayed the person may develop permanent nerve damage and disability.

The Leprosy Mission England & Wales provides a free resource pack to help people mark the day.

New human rights magazine by and for young people launched in UK

I stumbled into a very exciting and unexpected new magazine called The Right Stuff - a human rights magazine by and for children and young people.

When you’d think that young people are only interested in appearing cool on Facebook or the latest fashion and celebrities’ antics, here is a bunch of under 18 year-olds from across England, who have designed and written a magazine to try to promote young people’s interest in children’s human rights and encourage them to take action.

The first/taster issue, launched last week, covers wide-ranging topics, such as the experiences of children in care; how children seeking asylum in the UK are treated; student protests; human rights fashion; protest music; and discrimination based on hair colour.  The magazine feels passionate and relevant. It is engaging, accessible and visually appealing.

A management team of 10 young people made sure the project ran smoothly and made decisions about the budget, distribution and the launch event, while more than 20 others contributed creative content, illustrations, photographs, and worked with the design company.

Young people were supported throughout the project by the Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE) and received advice and training from media and human rights experts.  The project is funded by Mediabox, a consortium, which enables young people to create media projects and get their voices heard.

Phillip, 18, a member of The Right Stuff’s design and content team, says:

“I was really surprised to hear this would be the first ever magazine dedicated to children's rights, so it was great to be able to get involved! It's so important that young people can gain this type of knowledge through a medium they can enjoy. I have learnt a lot, such as the inner workings of creating a magazine and I have had a great time doing so."

Kiran, 13, a member of the management team, adds: ''I really enjoyed the project of creating the magazine. It was great getting to know people from all around the country and learning more about the rights that we have. It felt so good knowing that there are people out there who are working hard for children’s rights.''

1,000 printed copies of The Right Stuff will be distributed to children and young people across England. To read an electronic version of the magazine, click here.

Haiti earthquake - one year on: international failure, suffering, but also resilience

Photograph: Thony Belizaire/AFP/Getty Images 

 

Haiti one year on looks depressingly similar to Haiti six months ago. Things have hardly moved:  the country is still in ruins, nearly one million people are still living under tents and tarpaulin and only 5% of rubble left by the devastating January 12, 2010 earthquake has been cleared.

An Oxfam report, published ahead of the earthquake anniversary on Wednesday, says government dithering and lack of coordination between aid agencies and donors have crippled rebuilding efforts in Haiti.

The destruction of the capital and death of an estimated 230,000 people prompted a huge international relief effort last year, with $2.1bn (£1.4bn) pledged. Thousands of aid agencies and missionary groups flocked into the Caribbean nation.  But according to the UN's special envoy for Haiti, only 42% of that was spent.

The country's Oxfam's director said near paralysis in Haiti's government had been compounded by mistakes in the international response. "Too many donors from rich countries have pursued their own aid priorities and have not effectively coordinated amongst themselves or worked with the Haitian government.”

The agency also accused the interim Haiti recovery commission, led by the former US president Bill Clinton and Haiti's prime minister, Jean-Max Bellerive, of being "lacklustre" in managing funds and improving Haiti's technical capacity to spend them.

Haiti's sense of drift was underlined by last week's announcement that political wrangling has delayed the second round of the disputed presidential election until February, leaving Haiti's leadership also in limbo.

To a litany of woes – unemployment, cholera, extreme poverty – an Amnesty International report last week added sexual violence. Armed men prey with impunity on girls and women in displacement camps, worsening the trauma of having lost homes, livelihoods and loved ones, says the report.

But as cholera and political instability dominate headlines around the quake's one-year anniversary, life goes on in Haiti, even in the shadow of tragedy. People do what they can to cope.

AlertNet, the global humanitarian news service run by Thomson Reuters Foundation, has created a space for ordinary Haitians to tell their story.   Their multimedia documentary One-Day in Port-au-Prince transports us to the streets and tent cities of Haiti’s capital.  Each of the 14 people featured, tell their story in their own words and evoke issues central to the country’s recovery, from education and health to resettlement and reconstruction.

From the homeless schoolgirl who studies science by candlelight to the doctor who built a makeshift operating theatre in the ruins of a hospital, One Day in Port-au-Prince tells stories of resilience, ingenuity and courage.

There is a Voodoo priest who takes a stand against mass burials, a young mother forced to sell her own body, a former professional goalkeeper who rhapsodises about soccer's power to heal and a woman who sells textbooks yet can't afford to send her own kids to school. 

AlterNet hope that "One Day in Port-au-Prince" will be the beginning of an exchange between those who are doing their best to cope with the Haiti quake and people around the world who support Haiti's recovery.

Passing Clouds

Happy New Year everyone!


I wanted to start the year writing about something warm, cozy and fun, so how about Passing Clouds in Dalston, East London? This hippy-named newish venue on Richmond Road is a collective of artists and musicians. The house, once occupied by the Hackney Gazette, is split on two floors with a stage and bar on the bottom floor and another bar, DJs and film-screening areas on the top floor. The club is furnished with a mishmash of fabulous makeshifts objects, and offers an eclectic programme of funk and reggae nights, drum workshops, golden oldie film screening, jam sessions - and every Sunday, "the People's Kitchen."


You can come to "the People's Kitchen" on Sundays to chop, peel, dice and cook food collected from Spitalfields Market and local businesses, which would otherwise have been thrown away. And so, you can eat a leek and courgette tortilla or a bowl of spicy aubergine pasta, curled up in one of the worn velvet and leather armchairs in front of a film or later, grab a plate of bread and cheese before settling in for the evening's jam session. And the food is free (although they ask for donations). Bliss!