Iran makes a travesty of human rights 
By Irwin Cotler and Payam Akhavan
June 22, 2006
The Globe and Mail
Original Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060622.wxcoiran22/BNStory/specialComment/home

The moral and juridical basis for the inaugural meeting this week of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva is being seriously undermined by the presence in the Iranian delegation of two notorious Iranian officials. The alleged involvement of both in the cover-up of Montreal photojournalist Zahra Kazemi's murder in Tehran's Evin prison -- where former University of Toronto professor Ramin Jahanbegloo is presently incarcerated -- is of particular relevance to Canada as Ottawa seeks a principled foreign policy towards Iran, and a principled human rights council.
One of the Iranian delegates to the UN council, the Prosecutor-General of Tehran, Saeed Mortazavi, played a prominent role in the Kazemi affair, when he was the judiciary's chief interrogator at Evin prison.
A report under the reformist Khatami administration found that for the first 21 hours of her detention in Evin prison, Ms. Kazemi was in the custody of the judiciary and interrogated personally by Saeed Mortazavi. Subsequently, Mr. Mortazavi apparently obstructed the investigation of a parliamentary commission which, in its 2003 report, accused him of tampering with evidence and coercing witnesses to withdraw or alter their testimony.
The other Iranian delegate to the UN council, Justice Minister Jamal Karimi-Rad, was the judiciary's spokesman and chief apologist during the Kazemi affair's diplomatic fallout. He blithely dismissed Ottawa's demand that an international team of forensic scientists examine Ms. Kazemi's body, explaining that it does not conform with Iranian laws or international regulations. 
The Iranian government's defiant dispatch of these delegates to Geneva makes a mockery of the UN Human Rights Council and Canada's demands for justice in the Kazemi affair. Apart from protesting abuses against Canadian citizens -- and the undermining of the UN council -- Ottawa should also exercise its influence at the UN to promote a multilateral process aimed at holding accountable any Iranian leaders accused of systematic human rights violations against Iranian citizens. At a time when the world is focused on Iran's nuclear ambitions, it should be understood that justice for the Iranian people is both a moral imperative and an essential instrument of global governance. 
Holding individual officials responsible for international crimes can be a highly effective policy. It is a means of stigmatizing and isolating those implicated in human rights atrocities while simultaneously empowering progressive movements committed to democracy and pluralism.
Canada should lead a UN coalition demanding that Iran -- in adherence to its own constitution -- prosecute all those accused of serious human rights violations, in particular widespread or systematic executions, torture, unlawful imprisonment, and religious or political persecutions, amounting to crimes against humanity under international law. 
If, as is likely, Iran fails to do so, a UN commission of inquiry or other multilateral investigative mechanism should be established to document crimes, blacklist implicated officials, ban their travel, freeze personal assets and commit to a process that would ultimately lead to trials before an international tribunal unless circumstances allow for effective trials before Iranian courts at some point in the future. 
Far from an imposed justice by Western powers, this process would be a partnership between the international community and the majority of Iranian people -- especially the restless 70 per cent of Iranians under the age of 30 who seek justice and the rule of law in their country.
In the shifting sands of Iran's increasingly fragmented politics, and in the context of an emerging democratic consciousness, an indication that those responsible for atrocities will one day be held accountable will help shift the balance of power in favour of more progressive forces. A new cost-benefit calculus will prevail as today's expedient alliances become tomorrow's political liabilities. For Iran's promising new generation of leaders, this will encourage a culture of governance built on human rights and civil society.
In particular, international judicial intervention is warranted in Iran because of the national judiciary's conspicuous failure to prosecute alleged perpetrators of crimes against humanity. To date, the only effective accountability efforts have been before foreign courts. In 1997, the Berlin High Court convicted Iranian agents and implicated the highest levels of the Iranian State in the 1992 murder of four Kurdish dissidents at the Mykonos restaurant in Berlin. It is noteworthy that there were no more assassinations in Europe after the Mykonos judgment. In this instance, foreign judicial intervention sent the message to the Islamic Republic that crime does not pay, at least on European soil.
This precedent suggests a broader international criminal justice process can have substantial impact.
Accountability for past abuses is vital for building a better future in Iran. Meaningful regime change is not about replacing anti-Western tyrants with pro-Western tyrants, or vice versa; it is about transforming oppressive political habits and changing the rules of legitimacy by eradicating the culture of impunity within which state-sponsored violence is rooted. This is perhaps the most important lesson for Iranians lamenting the failed promises of the 1979 revolution that overthrew the Shah. Whether pursuing the compelling ideal of justice for victims, or the realpolitik calculus of security against nuclear proliferation, Canada and the world community should not underestimate the power of holding individuals accountable for human rights abuses.
Irwin Cotler is a former justice minister and attorney-general of Canada. Payam Akhavan is president and co-founder of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre.