Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development

Sous-comité des droits internationaux de la personne du Comité permanent des affaires étrangères et du développement international

For immediate release

Ottawa, May 08, 2018 -

Iranian citizens continue to endure persistent and widespread violations of their human rights and fundamental freedoms. This was the overarching message conveyed through Mark Dubowitz and Payam Akhavan’svivid testimony to the Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development (the Subcommittee) during its sixth annual Iran Accountability Week.

Iranian citizens exercising their rights to freedom of thought, conscience and expression, as well as their freedom of assembly, face arbitrary detention, ill-treatment or worse. State-sanctioned discrimination against women and girls, ethnic and religious minorities and human rights defenders continues unabated, unencumbered by due process. The Iranian regime’s scorn for democratic values is further evidenced by its sponsorship of terrorist organizations and its destabilizing role in the Middle East.

The Subcommittee lends its voice to the international community’s condemnations of the Iranian regime. The Subcommittee extends its friendship and support to all Iranians claiming the full measure of their internationally protected human rights, particularly women and girls.

The Subcommittee will continue to shine a light on human rights violations committed by the Iranian regime, and its ever expanding terrorist network across the Middle East. We encourage the Government of Canada to use every opportunity to call on Iran to fully respect its human rights obligations, in law and in practice.

QUOTES

“There is no doubt that the Iranian regime brutally represses the human rights of its citizens. Iran’s destabilizing influence affects not only the Middle East, but the whole international community. Relations with Iran must be unambiguously conditioned on the regime ending its state support for terror, and improving its abysmal record on human rights.”

-Michael Levitt, Chair

“We must not relent in our condemnations of the Iranian regime’s myriad violations of human rights. Prisoners of conscience continue to languish in prison. I once again have the unfortunate duty to call for the release of at least 77 Baha’i individuals who remain imprisoned.”

-David Sweet, Vice-Chair

“We are distressed at the continuing violations of due process and the right to a fair trial; the arbitrary arrests and detentions; continuing executions, including of juvenile offenders; the new restrictions placed upon freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly and access to information; on conditions of detention. In the strongest possible terms we urge the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to cease and desist in all forms of repression against its own citizens.”

-Cheryl Hardcastle, Vice-Chair