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MORNING


HR/CERD/99/38
5 August 1999



The Committee on the Elimination on Racial Discrimination concluded consideration this morning of a report submitted by the Government of Iran on efforts to comply with the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

A ten-member Iranian delegation was on hand to explain the report and to respond to a questions raised by Committee Experts.

Experts asked, among other things, about reports of discrimination against religious minorities, and about whether allegations of disappearances, torture, and suspicious deaths in the country had an ethnic dimension.

Participating in the discussion were Committee Experts Eduardo Ferrero Costa, Mahmoud Aboul-Nasr, Mario Jorge Yutsis, Michael E. Sherifis and Agha Shahi.

The Committee will issue its formal observations and recommendations on the Iranian report towards the end of its four-week session, which concludes 27 August.

Iran is one of 155 States parties to the Convention, and must submit periodic reports to the Committee on efforts to implement the treaty.

When the Committee reconvenes at 3 p.m., it will take up a report of Mauritania (document CERD/C/330/Add.1).


Discussion

At the beginning of the meeting additional questions and comments were voiced by Committee Experts. One said that in accordance with the Iranian Constitution, Zoroastrian, Jewish and Christian Iranians were the only recognized religious minorities who, within the limits of law, were free to perform their religious rites and ceremonies. The expert wanted to know what was meant by "within the limits of law". If conditions were laid down a priori, it might indicate the existence of certain restrictions, he said. The Constitution had ignored the rights of other religious minorities, this expert contended. In addition, in matters of crime, he said, if the victim was a Muslim, the criminal was punished, but if the victim was non-Muslim, the law was silent. The expert said that such a situation tended to suggest that there was discrimination under the domestic criminal code against religious minorities.

Another Expert said that any reference to the teachings of the Koran or the Islamic religion was not allowed under the Convention. This expert said the Committee should not be involved in issues pertaining to creeds or beliefs.

Another Expert said the Iranian report showed progress compared to previous reports submitted by Iran, but legislation enacted by the State still should be brought into line with the provisions of the Convention. The Expert wanted to know whether allegations of torture, disappearances and suspicious deaths had an ethnic dimension.

Responding to a number of questions raised by Committee Experts yesterday and this morning, members of the Iranian delegation said, among other things, that they appreciated the concern of the Committee for the situation in Iran and assured the panel of their cooperation in providing further information relating to racial issues. With regard to the demographic distribution of the Iranian population, the delegation said, the northwestern part of the country was more populated then the southeastern provinces. The provinces were named by the ethnic groups themselves, such as Lorestan or Kurdistan, where Luris or Kurds lived, respectively. There was no restriction on the movement and choice of residence of Iranians.

The delegation said that the uneven economic development of Iran was due to a policy followed by the revolution to give priority to regions and people more disadvantaged in the past. The Government had endeavoured to bring the level of less-favoured regions up to that of regions which already had had the opportunity to develop. However, the measures taken by the State to this end did not impede other regions from continuing their development.

The delegation said the Iranian people considered themselves as one, whatever their racial or ethnic origin. The composition of the Iranian delegation was, unintentionally, composed of people coming from different ethic groups. Iran's former spiritual leader had been Azeri, and many members of the current regime also had different ethnic origins.


With regard to the status of the Convention in Iranian domestic law, the delegation said the treaty, once ratified, was part of national law and its provisions could be invoked in courts or used by plaintiffs charging racial discrimination. However, there had been no cases in which the Convention had been invoked in the courts. Iran understood that the Government had the obligation to monitor the full implementation of the Convention and to ensure that domestic laws were not in contradiction with it.

The delegation said that propaganda based on hatred or racial bias was strictly forbidden under the law. In application of article 4 of the Convention, Iran had taken effective measures to revise its laws and policies and to rescind laws and regulations which had the effect of creating or perpetuating racial discrimination wherever it still existed.