Thank you AJC

The American Jewish Committee is urging the international community to focus attention on the deplorable human rights situation in Iran.

The widespread persecution of Iranians for their ethnicity, religion,
political beliefs, and gender and sexual orientation is documented in a new
AJC study, Human Rights in Iran, 2007.
The study is available at http://www.ajc.org.

"We hope that this human rights report will help galvanize the international attention necessary to urge Iran to change its behavior, and to let the victims know that they do not stand alone and have not been forgotten," says AJC Executive Director David A. Harris.

"Iran should be judged by the standards of the international human rights covenants to which it is signatory and the rights it purports to protect in his own national legislation," concludes the AJC report. "When it is found wanting, it must be held accountable of its actions. Only in
this way can Iran's leaders understand that they cannot act with impunity, for human rights protections are indivisible."

The publication of Human Rights in Iran coincides with the release of the U.S. State Department's annual report on human rights abuses around the world. Iran is listed among nations considered the world's "most systematic human rights violators."

Today, in Iran, for example, a penal law permits capital punishment-by stoning-for the crime of adultery, and girls as young as nine can be executed for so-called "morality crimes."
Human Rights in Iran asserts that the Iranian government-controlled judiciary, as well as extra-constitutional courts, such as the Revolutionary Courts and the Special Courts for the Clergy, target specific groups rejected by Tehran's ruling elite. These legal bodies flout both
international and Iranian law, often issuing summary decisions at closed trials that lack due process.

Targeted groups include, but are not limited to, political reformists, journalists, women, religious and ethnic minorities, homosexuals and children. Human Rights in Iran chronicles the abuse, imprisonment, torture and execution that individuals face on a daily basis.

Exposure of human rights abuses, the study argues, is the most effective response. "The history of nations that systematically violate human rights suggests that constant scrutiny of their actions does make a difference," Human Rights in Iran concludes. "Silence has never been an
antidote."

AJC has a longstanding commitment to universal human rights, from its trailblazing work in ensuring that human rights would be enshrined in the charter of the United Nations to recent efforts regarding Darfur.

SOURCE American Jewish Committee