by Adam Greenwood

Created on: August 04, 2007   Last Updated: May 12, 2011

Unlike other nations accused of human rights abuses, Iran does not even put up a pretense of attempting to abide by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), dismissing it as irrelevant to the Muslim world. To list all the rights that Iran violates would be the subject of a small book, not an article. The following is a brief summary of the most egregious violations of human rights still taking place in Iran:

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT (Article 3)

Iran executes an average of nearly 200 people a year. In 2006, 177 people were executed. Unlike the United States, where executions are intended to be painless and quick - Iran executes its prisoners by hanging and stoning. Many of those executed were not murderers or rapists, but rather political prisoners who had taken issue with the ruling party.

EQUALITY (Article 1 & 7)

Women in Iran are currently being arrested for fighting for equal rights with men. While it is encouraging that women are now confident enough to speak out, the fact remains that women have far less rights than men and are not represented equally under Iranian law.

Homosexuality remains illegal in Iran, and it is not unprecendented for gays to be imprisoned, beaten or even executed for their sexual orientation.

There is no pretense of equality of religion. Islam is the only accepted religion, and all laws are based around it. The concept of separation of church and state is unkown in Iran. While other religions are tolerated to an extent (there is a Jewish member of parliament), any Muslims changing their religion are serverely punished.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH (Article 18)

Reporters critical of Ahmadinejad or the regime are imprisoned. Anyone critical of Islam is imprisoned. Free speech is not a value that is taught in Iranian schools. It is well understood in Iran that freedom of speech does not exist - thus every written word is closely scrutinized to be sure it is acceptable to the omnipresent government eye.

Human rights take time to establish. In the United States, it took hundreds of years to recognize the injustice of slavery, and the existence of women as persons. Other nations may take longer, but they must come to their own conclusions - we can not force our human rights on them at the end of a gun.

While the rest of the world marches forward with semi-regular progress, Iran seems to be standing still or perhaps even moving backwards when it comes to human rights. Fortunately, Iran is close to being a democracy, so even though they are not where they should be, democracy will put them on the path to providing a fair, just and decent life for all its citizens.

Learn more about this author, Adam Greenwood.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.