NELSON CALLS FOR FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS IN IRAN

February 29, 2012 – Today, Nebraska’s Senator Ben Nelson and 53 of his colleagues stood up for human rights in Iran and made clear that the United States will condemn Iran’s upcoming parliamentary elections if they are not free, fair and up to international standards.
“The people of Iran should know that the American people stand with them in their struggle for freedom and honest representation in their government. Today’s action shows the Iranian people that we are on their side,” Senator Nelson said. “Iranian authorities have a long history of restricting free speech and using politically-motivated violence to influence elections in that country – despite agreeing to United Nations standards for civil and political rights. We hope that pattern of corruption and injustice does not continue in the Iranian elections later this week.”
Nelson and his colleagues introduced a Senate resolution today calling for the Iranian government to allow international monitors to be present for their March 2, 2012 elections and to lift restrictions on assembly, political expression and access to information.
Recent reports have detailed that, leading up to this week’s elections, the Iranian government has been harassing and detaining journalists and dissidents, and limiting public access to the Internet.
As they did in their 2009 national election, the Iranian Council of Guardians, a group appointed in part by the country’s lead cleric, has already disqualified more than 2,000 candidates. Distrust of the system has prompted nearly 40 prominent Iranian political prisoners and several domestic Iranian reform groups to call for a boycott of the upcoming election.
Iran’s 2009 election was widely condemned both inside Iran and throughout the world as neither free nor fair. In fact, several candidates from the 2009 election remain in indefinite detention.
Large-scale peaceful protests of the 2009 election by Iranian citizens were met by a campaign of intimidation and violence from their government, including acts of rape, torture and public executions.
Today’s Senate resolution notes that Iran’s government has signed the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which states that every citizen has the right to vote in “genuine periodic elections” that reflect the “free expression of the will of the electors.”
The resolution reminds the Iranian government of its obligations under the U.N. Covenant and “condemns the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s widespread human rights violations.”
The bipartisan effort in support of the resolution is led by Senators John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).