Amnesty International, an organization lauded for promoting human rights worldwide, has a strong and consistent track record of calling for UN arms embargoes on governments that violate human rights abuse.
As protector of human rights, Amnesty understand the merits of arms embargoes, a type of smart sanctions that avoid causing humanitarian harm often associated with comprehensive actions.
But for some reason, for years Amnesty International has been singling Iran out and avoided calling for arms embargo as a response to Iran’s extensive human rights violations. Why is Amensty going soft on Iran, one of the worst human rights violators today?
This is how Amnesty reacted in other cases – when Libya, Burma, Uzbekistan, Israel, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups were in breach of U.N. Security Council resolutions by facilitating the supply of arms to embargoed destinations, Amnesty International did not hesitate to call for the implementation of arms embargoes against them.
In the case of the genocide in Darfur, Amensty exposed Russia and China as violators of the UN’s arms embargo against Sudan. Yet they protected Iran and left it’s name out despite naming Iran as a major arms supplier to Sudan on its own web site.
The Iranian regime, whose hands are drenched in blood, is characterized by some of the most egregious human rights violations. Iran is one of the states with the “highest rates of executions” and is recognized as a certified serial breaker of not one but six principle human rights treaties, at least three U.N. Arms Embargo’s (Security Council Resolutions 1737, 1747, and 1803) and the U.N. Charter, Article 2.4 prohibiting threats of war.
The U.S. declared Iran as being one of the world’s most active state sponsors of terrorism, an “identified part of an axis of evil” and added the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to its list of foreign terrorist organizations.
Iran continuously violates UN’s resolutions with regard to arms embargoes. In 2010, the IRGC was charged with operating a secret weapons factory in Sudan to funnel weapons to Iranian sponsored terrorist organizations in Africa and the Middle East. Even Amensty International itself published a report almost 5 years ago referring to weapons smuggling between Sudan and Iran. Despite the report, Amnesty didn’t condemn the regime in Iran for those violations.
Once again, Iran was found in violation of U.N. arms embargoes, when 13 shipping containers of illegal arms originating from Iran were discovered and again when customs “…seized a container on board a ship which originated from Iran and was destined for Syria that contained “a high-potential explosive known as ‘T4’ or ‘RDX’.”. No response was heard from Amnesty International.
Following in suite, Iran was once more accused of committing a heinous crime against humanity when Senegal recently announced that they are severing its ties with Iran for supplying weapons to rebels in the Southern region of Casamance and”…bringing about the death to Senegalese soldiers.”
As we witness protestors taking to the streets in the Middle East joining what was set out to be peaceful anti-government demonstrations; several demonstrators were met with excessive force and violence. Middle East dictators reacted harshly to protests. In Sudan, security forces met protesters with pipes, sticks and tear gas, in Yemen at least seven people were killed and in Lybia and Egypt thousands more were massacred. Which makes us wonder; how many of these dictators weapons were funneled in from Iran?
Amnesty International’s inability to implicate Iran of terrorism or weapons trade, along with its’ focus on very narrow aspects of international laws are immoral and altogether undermining their credibility as human rights advocates.
No one should be above the law and the government of Iran needs to be held accountable for its human rights crimes on every aspect. By refraining from speaking out against every violation Iran commits; Amnesty International’s silence is enabling Iran to make a mockery of the organization, what it stands for and for the fight for freedom of human rights worldwide.
If you’re upset by Amensty’s soft treatment of Iran please click here to email key personnel at Amnesty about it. Ask them to hold Iran accountable to arms embargoes and human rights violations.
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