The human rights organizations, committees and groups that began their work one after the other were the result of the era of political and social reforms in Iran (during the time of Mohammad Khatami’s presidency). Perhaps their lives should have come to an end with the end of this reformist era—a period when discussion of civil society, human and civil rights took the place of direct discussions and political protests.
Naturally, the media play a positive role in making the Farsi-speaking audiences familiar with the international human rights reports and documents. HRANA showed great interest in and attention to the rights of the minority prisoners and, in this regard, started its activities at the time when the violations of human rights of these prisoners were not reflected in mainstream media. This was the point that set HRANA apart from other Farsi-media outlets that cover Iran, although others voluntarily covered the news on weblogs and websites that they were creating independently or in conjunction with HRANA.
Over the recent years, human rights projects in Iran, whether intentionally or unintentionally, were more concerned about the form of human rights rather than its content; they have tried to depoliticize human rights, and to always exist as a separate entity or even at odds with politics. Human rights, as connected to the system of government, are entirely political, and any kind of attempt to separate them from the power structures is doomed to fail. Because as soon as demands are made from the political system, those who are demanding rights have clearly stepped into politics, even if they deny it or do not realize it.
Over the past years, HRA activities have been limited to reporting human rights violations of prisoners or, in other words, the victims. The subject of politics is, in fact, the subject of human rights. Therefore, it should not be considered the same as the rights of victims, prisoners and those who are deprived of their rights.
A good path at this point for HRANA and such human rights projects would be addressing the confusion and contradictions of human rights or the rights of citizens. Thus, in addition to promoting the idea of human rights, HRANA challenges the fact that these rights are conditioned to be a part of nation-societies and nation-states.
Human rights, the way they have been introduced in Iran by the organizations defending them, refer to human rights based on the existence of a nation-state and being recognized within it. In this regard, we see HRANA, and similar organizations, avoid addressing the rights of those who question or oppose the nation-state of Iran. These human rights projects ignore the rights of those minorities who believe in the freedom of self-determination.
In such circumstances, we should see that human rights organizations linked to Iran can continue to challenge the common definition of human rights. How great is the impact of concepts such as national identity and territorial integrity on these rights and their Iranian supporters? Would these projects, for example, be able to pay as much attention fairly and equally to the right of self-determination to the extent of political and geographical separation as they do to human rights regarding the environment? What kind of place would the elimination of basic and ethnic discriminations such as the natural right to choose to learn and use one’s mother tongue in work and in everyday life or the right to political self-management have within these projects?
Answering these questions could enlighten the path for the continuation and advancement of activities of human right groups such as HRANA.
