Statement by
His Excellency Mr. Kazem Gharib Abadi Deputy Secretary General of High
Council for Human Rights and Judicial Cooperation, Islamic Republic of Iran
To the
Conference on Rule of Law in the Shanghai Cooperation States
Fourth ST.
Petersburg International Legal Forum
St. Petersburg, 26 May 2015
In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Mr. Chairperson
Ladies and Gentlemen;
It is a great honor for me to attend this important Conference in the beautiful
city of St. Petersburg, to express my country's viewpoints on the issue of the rule
of law.
Human beings have witnessed many changes in their process of orientation
towards the law during their long lifetimes. The rule of law has been one of the
important legal and political principles, which human being always is seeking to
materialize it. Based on this principle, arbitrary and autocratic use of power in both
national and international decision- makings is entirely refuted and rejected.
Accordingly, rulers and statesmen, politicians as well as international
organizations are considered as protectors and servants of the law and they,
themselves are also under the umbrella of the laws. Their legitimacy to the most
extend is dependent on their obedience to the legal, ultra-personal as well as
rational yardsticks and standards.
Establishing appropriate social relationships, order, justice, freedom,
sustainable development, sustainable security, public welfare, and safeguarding
public rights and interests, require complete rule of law. The substance and essence
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of the law must be fair and based on wisdom and sagacity. The law has to be
inclusive, take into account public legal interests and have the capacity to deter any
possible oppression from the lawbreakers. The laws involving discrimination
among people cannot attain legitimacy and acceptability. Law must be enforced
equally and with no exception, and each and every individual should be given
equal rights.
Justice has always been one of the main ideals and goals of humanity, and
human beings' tendency and interest towards justice is inherent within them. The
basis of world-view in the Islamic thought is upon justice. Considering this
approach, Islamic Republic of Iran is a country based on religious democracy and
governed by divine laws and commands. According to our Constitution, the
Judiciary is independent from the other two power branches, namely Executive and
Legislative, entrusted with the duty of protecting individual, civil and social rights
and is responsible to implement and materialize the justice in the society. Relying
on independence rule, the Judiciary and judges can bring any person to trial due to
their attributed accusation, apart from their occupational features as well as
personality traits, in order for the justice to be exercised .The pivotal basis in the
Islamic judicial system is the "right" and the judge is obliged to find out and
explore the "truth".
Islamic Republic of Iran has always supported rule of law as well as
administration and expansion of justice in international arena. In this context, use
of force and threat to use of force, interference in the internal affairs of others as
well as taking coercive economic and trade measures and also other illegal actions
have been rejected and instead, peaceful settlement of international disputes has
been emphasized.
Rule of law at international level is prerequisite for maintenance and
promotion of the global peace and should be regarded as a guideline for collective
response to the prevailing challenges. In line with this approach, the fundamental
principles of the U.N Charter should be respected as a roadmap by the international
community in consolidating a fair and lasting peace across the globe. Iran has
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always stressed on the necessity of refraining from any use of force or threat to
force in international relations the most important principle, which the U.N
members committed themselves to ensure. Hence imposing unilateral economic
sanctions are contrary to the rule of law and Iran has always invited all other
countries to avoid of adopting any kind of unilateral economic, financial or traderelated measures contrary to the U.N Charter, preventing economic and social
development of the countries and endanger the life of the peoples.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Respecting to the obligations arising from international conventions,
constitutes an important element in realizing the concept of the rule of law.
Deviation from this direction by preferring national interest to the international
obligations by certain powers and consequently undermining international
regulations will lead to legal uncertainty in international relations with dire
repercussions for global peace and security. Placing a certain country in a higher
position than the other countries would be a green light to the dictatorship and
chaos and would result in sacrification of security and justice.
Non- interference, non- resorting to the force as well as the principle of the
sovereign equality, could be recognized as the other major bases for governing the
international relations.
Non- interference in the internal affairs of states as a fundamental rule in
international law is based on sovereignty, equality and political independence of
the states. This rule imposes a legal obligation on the governments to refrain from
interfering in internal affairs of others. The sovereign equality is the basis for intergovernmental relations, in which all governments are equal in their relevant
sovereign rights. They could choose freely their own political, social and cultural
system. If a certain government is to impose its will on the other, this will be
construed as recalcitrance of international rules and regulations. It should be noted
that ensuring the sovereign equality in not a simple job. Unfortunately, some great
powers of the world are utilizing their own economic, military and political
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superiority towards exerting their strong influence over other countries.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
The rule of law in international arena has been facing with diverse
challenges such as abuse of right to Self-Determination as a political tool, false
prescription for executive measures under Chapter VII of the U.N Charter,
breaching peremptory norms of international law, conspiracy and plot for
interference in internal affairs with the aim of regime change, recourse to the
preventive and pre-emptive military actions.
In this context, I would also like to refer to the Human Rights issue. The
codification and respect of regulations on human rights must be a priority for all
countries. The advancement of implementation and monitoring methods is not
matching with standardizing process. Monitoring processes are proceeding in a not
so exact direction. The primary means for the protection of human rights are
domestic law systems. Foreign interference aimed at promotion of human rights
standards often entails the escalation of the factional conflicts as well as
augmentation of dissentions. Efforts towards sustaining hegemony over the others
are being made in the name of respecting human rights and democracy. As this
kind of behaviors are done in a manipulative manner and based on double standard
policy, the peoples are getting skeptical to the values such as human rights and
democracy.
Respecting human rights and pledging to establish democracy cannot be
justified through human rights violation, waging war against others, massacre and
destruction of countries (which per se is a crime against peace). These actions are
entirely contrary to the universally-accepted standards of international law.
Regrettably, certain countries are, with no regard to cultural diversity among
nations, pursuing the policy of imposing their own values and life styles as their
single and unique human rights standards, having recourse to human rights issue as
a political and propaganda instrument against independent countries. Claiming to
be protectors of human rights, some countries are, however, suffering from
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extensive violation of human rights in their own territories. Meanwhile they have
turned a blind eye to the human rights violations of their friends and allies. So long
as there is such an approach toward human rights issue, the mere victim will be of
course the human rights!
Another crucial issue in this regard is imposing sanctions. Though, based on
Chapter VII of the U.N Charter, the authority to apply sanctions to maintain
international peace and security rests with the Security Council, this authority is
not, however, open-ended but bound to the conditions such as observing and
implementing the U.N purposes and principles. Studies on repercussions left due to
the sanctions on targeted countries show that sanctions cause damaging
consequences to human rights as well as inflicting the most suffering on ordinary
people as the prime targets.
Taking into account some legal restrictions, which have been stipulated to
the Security Council in the UN Charter, and particularly respect to the international
law by the SC, the imposition of sanctions, which goes beyond these limits and
violate Internationa I law, lacks the legal validity. So, the U.N members have no
obligation in observing such sanctions. Unilateral sanctions are also against and
contrary to the U.N charter as well as international law. They are, in fact, a type of
intentional interference in the affairs of other countries. Moreover, all independent
law societies unanimously believe that these sanctions are against human rights
and put in jeopardy the developments of societies.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
As there is no universal law maker, judge or police, and taking into account
cultural, social, economic and political differences among countries, the
fundamental conception of international law as well as structure of international
organizations should be reviewed in order to overcome the challenges and
establish the effective global legal order. In this context, decision making in the
UN shall be reformed to come up with more democratic and legitimate process. If
the rule of law and democracy are among the fundamental principles of
international law, then these principles should be also applied with respect to the
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functions and responsibilities of international organizations as well.
In conclusion, Mr. Chairperson, I would like to emphasize that prohibition
of threatening or resorting to force in the relations among states, peaceful
settlement of disputes, respect for sovereignty, honoring and fulfillment of
international obligations by all states and respecting the legitimate rights of all
countries should be the basis of rule of law an international legal order.
Thank You for Your Attention.