Innovative Petition Launched to Protect International Figures
An innovative human rights petition was launched on May ,2016 which demands that the United Nations and human rights organizations make necessary changes in their policies and codes of conduct in the protection of innocent international figures and prisoners by passing a bill to not base legal citations on unreliable sources such as corrupt court systems, as well as pressured families and government-appointed lawyers.
The petition, titled “Change laws! Protect international figures; don’t trust under pressure families & lawyers” has unique characteristics and aims to terminate the loophole that dictator regimes and governments take advantage of to create legal citations on unreliable sources such as corrupt court systems, as well as pressured families and government-appointed lawyers, to cover up the torture and death of individuals.
The petition was launched following the death of Dr. Taheri, the founder of the Interuniversalism ideology, to prevent similar tragic outcomes from happening in the future. Taheri was tortured to death in January 2015 in Iran simply because the Islamic Republic believes his peaceful teachings of love and unity are against Islamic sanctities. Even today, the Iranian government covers up his death by using his under-pressure family and government-appointed lawyers. Taheri’s family in Iran is under severe pressure to cooperate with the Iranian regime agents, ad are forced to give fabricated information to the media and human rights organizations by wrongfully claiming that their relative is still alive.
It is worth mentioning that in the letter that Taheri sent to the United Nations, he explicitly informed human rights organizations that his family is under pressure. However, many human rights organizations have based their investigations on the fake information his family provides, and such testimonials of his family are illegitimate and morally unacceptable, as Taheri himself mentioned the pressure on his family by the Iranian government.
“Threatening to harm my wife and consequently orphaning my children; following the unsuccessful attempts of interrogators in acquiring confessions in apostasy and the proposal. And in order to save my family and refusing to false submission it lead me to commit suicide for 4 times to neutralize these satanic tricks.”
In his letter, Taheri also mentioned human rights violations against other cellmates, and his willingness to testify in person about such violations.
“Efforts to create family problems by giving false personal information to their spouses and family in order to keep the accused in isolation and preventing their families to follow up about their condition.”
For the past eighteen months, human rights organizations have disregarded the statements of the International Taheri Campaign about his death under torture and hunger strike in an undisclosed location, and discarded the documents and proof that was provided to them by his official campaign, instead basing their investigation on his family and government-appointed lawyers. The Iranian regime took advantage of such neglect by human rights organizations about Taheri’s case, and was able to conceal his death to the majority of public up to today, which leads his supporters and followers to launch a petition to demand the United Nations and other human organizations to make fundamental changes to prevent similar tragic outcomes in the future.
Petitioners also ask the United Nations and human rights organizations to demand the Iranian government show Taheri to the public.
“First of all, we ask of you to demand of the Iranian government to show Master Taheri to the public—not footage of him filmed long before his death or recorded interviews but the man himself. Since this is not possible, it will finally push the government to admit to Taheri’s death and revealing the truth. This way, his rights, teachings, name and reputation is protected. It will also help his unlawful death and bloodshed get the attention it deserves and bring those responsible to justice.”