Death penalty for VUB visiting Professor rises the concern about the lack of human rights in Iran that needs to be fully addressed by a collective conscience.

In the XXI century lack of human rights should not be a concern anymore.

Persia is a historically important place that has seen the birth human civilization in Mesopotamia and the first King of the Persian empire, Cyrus the Great, wrote the first Chart of Human Rights. Interestingly, in his chart, inscribed in Old Persian, the king described his treatment of the inhabitants of Babylonia after its conquest by the Iranians. 

By quoting the same king we can see how respectfully he treated his people:

“I am Cyrus. King of the world. When I entered Babylon... I did not allow anyone to terrorise the land... I kept in view the needs of Babylon and all its sanctuaries to promote their well-being... I put an end to their misfortune. From The First Charter of the Rights of Nations Cyrus, The Great, 539 B.C.”

It is unacceptable that such a country, with a beautiful, history perpetrates such unseemly conduct even against its own people. In fact the story of Professor Ahmadreza Djalali is unfortunately one of the many such cases where the government of Iran has in-prisoned, “physically and psychologically tortured.. and not given a fair or public trial” to its people. Examples such as him who suffered the same faith for going back to Iran are Iranian Canadian Photographer Zahra Kazemi and Iranian Canadian University Professor Kavous Seyed Emami. Local Iranians professors, doctors, journalists, members of religious minorities, lawyers, human-rights advocates, women who removed their Hejab for advocating equality between men and women who have been in prison with unknown status and awaiting for death-sentence after being tortured are so many that the list would be too long to mention. For reference their names are meticulously written in the United Nations, which has condemned Iran for the violation of the Human Rights.

According to the Declaration of the Human Rights:

“Everyone has the right to freedom of

thought, conscience and religion; 

this right includes freedom to change his

religion or belief, and freedom, either

alone or in community with others and

in public or private, to manifest his

religion or belief in teaching, practice,

worship and observance.”

As shown by the large body of evidence such human rights are not put into practice by the unseemly unjust government.

This is an international responsibility that all needs to be conscious about. We cannot consider humanity only limited to one Nation or a group of Nations we have most interest with. In fact if one part of humanity suffers then all the rest is affected either directly or indirectly. For example if in one part of the world there is a high level of pollution then the atmosphere of the Earth will become polluted. We observed this already by the greenhouse and the ozone depleting effects. 

All the governments of the world should consider carefully such an issue that has been arising in Iran and move accordingly to a universal system of justice that has still to be enforced in such a way that no violation of the human rights would be acceptable to be conducted in this age. The concept of European Union has been that of brining peace in a continent that has seen the two major wars. The economical and social system has been providing an instrument to keep the tranquility of the nations by declaring where the funding has been going avoiding that armaments would have been made secretly.  Moreover the United Nations have also provided a sense of security and unity across the more than 120 Nations represented. The United Nations General Assembly recognized the need for a permanent mechanism to prosecute and punish those who have committed the most serious crimes in 1948 after the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials. Soon after that the General Assembly established the International Law Commission. The desire of having an international Tribunal has been renewed from time to time in the modern history. Eventually the International Criminal Court jurisdiction has been established to prosecute perpetrators of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. This court operates accordingly to the Rome Statue and complementary to national criminal courts.

This is very important as humanity has reached the maturity in prosecuting international criminals. There is therefore a need for having an international tribunal that respects the human rights in every country of the world.

For the purpose of enforcing the respect of human rights in those countries, such as Iran, where this has been an issue, there should not be a power of veto when it comes to big problems arising such as the violation of the human rights. The executive power of the UN should become more effective and without any negotiation by few countries who could easily burgeon their veto with economical interests from those countries perpetuators of injustices that are to be condemned for the violation of the declaration of the human rights itself. History should teach us that it is the responsibility of all political forces, representing their people, to take such steps without considering the instantaneous interests of each country alone, but focusing on the whole organ of humanity as solely one entity. We should have a long-term vision safeguarding our future best interests for us and our kindreds.