The European Parliament adopted a resolution on Iran recent cases of human rights violations.
The resolution had been tabled by the EFD, GUE/NGL, S&D, ECR, EPP, ALDE, and Greens/EFA groups.
Parliament expresses grave concern over the steadily deteriorating human rights situation in Iran, the growing number of political prisoners, the continuously high number of executions, including of juveniles, the widespread torture, unfair trials and exorbitant sums demanded for bail, and the heavy restrictions on freedom of information, expression, assembly, belief, education and movement. It notes that the UN Special Rapporteurs interim report expresses alarm at the growing use of the death penalty for minor crimes, and without due process, and indicates that so far in 2011 there have been at least 200 official executions and 146 secret executions in the eastern Iranian city of Mashad, and that in 2010 more than 300 people were executed in secret in Iran. Members strongly condemn the use of the death penalty and call on the Iranian authorities, in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolutions 62/149 and 63/138, to institute a moratorium on executions, pending the abolition of the death penalty. They call also for the amendment the Iranian Criminal Code so as to prohibit the imposition of corporal punishment by judicial and administrative authorities.
Parliament states that it stands ready to support additional sanctions for individuals responsible for human rights abuses. It calls on EU Member States that are permanent members of the UN Security Council to raise the issue of opening an investigation into whether the crimes committed by the Iranian authorities amount to crimes against humanity. At the same time, the EU representatives and the Vice-President of the Commission/High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy are asked to encourage the Iranian authorities to re-engage in human rights dialogue. Members call on the European External Action Service (EEAS) to focus on EU citizens in Iranian prisons and to do everything possible to ensure their well-being and release.
Parliament stresses that free access to information and means of communication and uncensored access to the internet are universal rights and expresses its concern at the use of (European) censorship, filtering and surveillance technologies to control and censor information and communication flows and to track down citizens, notably human rights defenders, as in the recent case of Creativity Software. It calls on European companies to live up to their corporate social responsibilities by not providing goods, technologies and services to Iran which could endanger the civil and political rights of Iranian citizens. It condemns Iran for illegally jamming BBC Persian Service and Deutsche Welle TV signals from the Hotbird and the Eutelsat W3A satellites, and calls on Eutelsat to stop providing services to Iranian state TV stations as long as Iran continues to use Eutelsat services to block independent TV programmes.
Parliament calls on the Iranian authorities:
Lastly, it calls on Member States to provide safe haven for Iranian citizens who have fled their country, such as through the Shelter City initiative.