URGENT ACTION: WHEREABOUTS OF DISAPPEARED MAN UNKNOWN

URGENT ACTION: WHEREABOUTS OF DISAPPEARED MAN UNKNOWN
The Iranian authorities have yet to establish the fate and whereabouts of Yousef Silavi,
from Iran’s Ahwazi Arab minority, who has been missing since November 2009. He may
be subjected to enforced disappearance and is at risk of torture and other ill-treatment,
as well as extrajudicial execution.
Amnesty International has recently learned that Yousef Silavi, a 57-year-old retired technician from Iran’s Ahwazi
Arab minority, has been missing since late 2009. He was last seen by a family friend in his home in the city of
Ahvaz, Khuzestan province, around 6 November 2009. His wife, who was out of the country visiting their two
daughters who had been studying at Damascus University in Syria, reported him as missing to the police when she
returned on 8 November 2009. The police closed the missing person’s report within six months without adequate
investigation. The authorities have continued to deny that they have officially arrested Yousef Silavi, though his
family believes he is in their custody because of the restrictions and threats they have come under since he went
missing - as well as off-the-record statements made by officials. A few days after he went missing, a friend who had
notified the family of Yousef Silavi’s disappearance was detained for one night by Ministry of Intelligence officials
and questioned about him. The offices apparently beat and threatened him, saying that if he talked about the
incident his life would be in danger. Another close contact of the family was threatened and told by an official from
the Revolutionary Guards that if she did not stop seeking information about Yousef Silavi, she would be detained
alongside him. Yousef Silavi’s wife has been subjected to strict travel restrictions and was told by a Revolutionary
Guard official that the only way she will be able to see her husband would be to bring their daughters back to Iran.
The official alleged that their daughters had been in contact with Iranian opposition groups in Damascus.
Yousef Silavi was not politically active. However, his wife comes from a politically active Arab family. In addition
Yousef Silavi’s cousin and brother-in-law, Mansour Silavi (who died in 2008) had been a prominent figure in the
community, advocating for greater recognition of Ahwazi Arab rights. Mansour Silavi founded a political party called
the Democratic Solidarity Party of Ahwaz prior to leaving Iran and had been under surveillance by the authorities
because of his political activism.
Please write immediately in English, Persian, Arabic, French, Spanish or your own language:
 Calling on the Iranian authorities to take steps to establish Yousef Silavi’s whereabouts and fate;
 Urging them, if he is in custody, to released him unless he is promptly charged with a recognizable criminal
offence, given immediate access to his family, lawyer and doctor, and tried in proceedings that adhere to
international standards for fair trial;
 Urging them to ratify promptly and without reservation the Convention for the Protection of All Persons from
Enforced Disappearances and its Optional Protocols.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 7 JUNE 2016 TO:
Office of the Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei
Salutation: Your Excellency
Head of the Judiciary
Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani
Salutation: Your Excellency
And copies to:
President
Hassan Rouhani
Please send your appeals to the care of diplomatic representatives accredited to your country, listed below. If there is no Iranian
embassy in your country, please mail the letter to the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations, 622
Third Avenue, 34th Floor, New York, NY 10017, United States. Please insert local diplomatic addresses below:
Name Address 1 Address 2 Address 3 Fax Fax number Email Email address Salutation Salutation
Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.
URGENT ACTION
WHEREABOUTS OF DISAPPEARED MAN UNKNOWN
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Yousef Silavi’s eldest daughter, Mona Silavi, had helped the Ahwazi Arab refugee community when she lived in Syria. She was
summoned for questioning a number of times by officials from the Iranian embassy in Damascus. In October 2009 when Yousef
Silavi was visiting his daughters in Damascus, he and Mona Silavi were both called for questioning by embassy officials before
his return to Iran later that month. Yousef Silavi’s wife was out of the country at the time of his disappearance. She was visiting
their two daughters who had been studying at Damascus University in Syria, when the family was alerted that he had not been
seen or heard from for several days. Since he has being missing, Yousef Silavi’s wife has visited hospitals and morgues in
Ahvaz in search of her husband. She has written letters to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei and a
member of parliament from Ahvaz, and has sought help from various judicial and security authorities. The efforts of Yousef
Silavi’s family to obtain information about him from the authorities have however been ignored. Officials have given them
various mixed messages, including telling them “maybe your father is married and is not coming back”, “maybe your father has
lost his memory”, and “maybe he has disappeared due to a tribal matter”. The movements of Yousef Silavi’s wife are now
restricted: the authorities have told her that she is only allowed to leave Iran once a year and, even then, the list of countries to
which she is allowed to travel is severely restricted.
The Iranian Ahwazi Arab community in the country’s Khuzestan province have long argued that the government systematically
discriminates against them, particularly in employment, housing, access to political office, and the exercise of cultural, civil and
political rights. The inability to use their mother language as a medium of instruction for primary education is also a source of
deep resentment and frustration. Amnesty International has documented numerous cases where security authorities have
arrested and detained politically active Ahwazi Arabs, or their family members. In many cases they have held them
incommunicado and in solitary confinement in undisclosed detention centres, subjecting them to enforced disappearance and
thus placing them at increased risk of torture and other ill-treatment. The UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation
in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, has also expressed concern via his reports documenting cases of arrest, detention and prosecutions
of Ahwazi Arabs for protected activities that promote social, economic, cultural, linguistic and environmental rights. In his
October 2013 report, the Special Rapporteur reported of Ahwazi Arabs having been psychologically and physically tortured
during interrogation, including by flogging or beatings. They have being made to witness executions, received threats against
family members and the actual detention of family members for the purpose of implicating others, or to compel others to report
to the authorities. One interviewee reported that a cousin, nephew and brother had been arrested in June 2012 for the purpose
of coercing their children, currently living abroad, to return to the country.
International law absolutely prohibits enforced disappearances and specifies that no exceptional circumstances whatsoever may
be invoked as justification. Although the word “disappearance” might imply an innocuous or non-violent act, in reality enforced
disappearances are particularly cruel and violent human rights violations. Individuals are cut off from the outside world, left
knowing that their loved ones have no idea where they are or whether they are dead or alive. They are placed outside of the
protection of the law and denied their right to legal representation or a fair trial. Treaty bodies, human rights courts and other
human rights bodies have repeatedly found that enforced disappearances also violate the right to liberty and security of the
person, the right not to be subjected to torture or other ill-treatment, the right to remedy, and the right to life. An enforced
disappearance is also a “continuing crime”, which takes place so long as the disappeared person remains missing and
information about his or her fate or whereabouts has not been provided by the state. Enforced disappearances also have a
profound effect on the family members and friends of the disappeared individuals who are sometimes forced to anxiously wait
years before they find out if their loved one is alive or dead.
Name: Yousef Silavi
Gender m/f: m
UA: 97/16 Index: MDE 13/3909/2016 Issue Date: 26 April 2016

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Last Updated: 27 April 2016

IRT, Interview with Dr. Karim abdian

IRT, Interview with Dr. Karim abdian
Dr. Karim Abdian, executive director of Ahwaz Human Rights Organization – AHRO
IRT – Among some 6000 UN registered disappearances, nearly 500 are in Iran. Among those there are at least about 28 Ahwazi cases, according to field investigation. Drowning in Karoon River and in the marshlands of Fallahieh and Abadan have been widely rep

Some of Dr. Shaheed’s reports don’t detail all violations targeting ethnic minorities in Iran, but he successfully provided overview situation in Iran: Dr. Abdian comments on Dr. Shaheed

According to former deputy minister of education, only 30% of Iranian pupils entering first grade speak Farsi as their mother tongue

In further comments on human rights situation in Iran, executive director of Ahwaz Human Rights Organization – AHRO, reveals that according to Mr. Hajbabaei, the former deputy minister of education, only 30% of Iranian pupils entering first grade speak Farsi as their mother tongue. Yet Farsi/Persian speakers and the followers of Shia Jafari, have been positioned in a great advantage and dominance visa-a-vis non-Persian nationalities – in multinational, multilingual and multicultural Iran.

Dr. Abdian remarks, there cannot be equal citizenship without equality in the use of, and practice of linguistics, cultural and equal human rights of all citizens, and protection of individual and collective rights. Future course of Iran will hinge upon realization of these rights. Abdian believes policies imposed by state, inevitably alienate constituencies from Iran.


Last Part

IRT: Language is one of the main issues for all freedom fighting democratic groups in Iran, the government and state have not delivered anything in this area, what kind of coordination do you have with Kurds, Baloch and others for this very important issue?

Dr. Abdian: Yes, it is true – Iran the most diverse country in the Middle East – It is home to Arabs, Baloch, Kurds, Persians, Turks, Turkmen, Sunnis, Christians, Jews, Baha’is, Zoroastrians, Mandeni’s and others. These ethnic and religious groups comprise at least 50 to and by some estimates 2/3 of the society. Yet these groups have not been accorded equal citizenship – their language, ethnicity and/or their religion are not being officially acknowledged. Constitutionally, Persian language is the sole official language, and –Jafari Shia is the officially sanctioned religion - all others are ignored, oppressed, negated or at best marginalized.

According to Mr. Hajbabaei, the former deputy minister of education, only 30% of Iranian pupils entering first grade speak Farsi as their mother tongue. Yet Farsi/Persian speakers and the followers of Shia Jafari, have been positioned in a great advantage and dominance visa-a-vis non-Persian nationalities – in multinational, multilingual and multicultural Iran.

There cannot be equal citizenship without equality in the use of, and practice of linguistics, cultural and equal human rights of all citizens, and protection of individual and collective rights. Future course of Iran will hinge upon realization of these rights.

Banning of non-Persian languages corresponds to banning their literatures and cultures- inducing and creating unequal, degreed citizenship. Misrepresentation, devolution and denial of heritage of the Iranian Kurds, Arabs, Baloch, Turkmen and Azeris, at least half of the society, as a policy by the state, inevitably alienate these constituencies from the state.

I and other AHRO members have met several times with UNESCO in Paris and brought these cases to the UN attention. Also, members of Congress of Nationalities for a Federal Iran (CNFI), which represent all Iranian national groups, have met and submitted these linguistic discrimination cases to UNESCO. But, yes, you’re right, some argue that UN bureaucracy, which Iran is a part of, will not address these issues, unless there are other initiatives by non-Persian ethnic groups.

IRT: Disappearances in Baluchistan, Kurdistan and Ahwaz, you please tell us about this in Ahwaz?

DR. Abdian: Sure- abduction and forced disappearances, has been a tool of the Islamic Republic against its opposition. There have been many Ahwazis who were tortured during interrogation; killed, and their bodies hidden or dumped in the river or buried anonymously in ‘Lanat Abad”

I, on behalf of Ahwazi disappeared families, participated in the last UN session on this subject in March of 2015 in Bones Aires in Argentina.

The security forces in Ahwaz seldom notify families about the whereabouts of their disappeared loved ones, its refusal to allow families to bury their loved ones, and its refusal to provide the remains to family members, violate Iran’s obligation under international law, to protect people from forced disappearances.

Outside Ahwaz city, there is a large, government-owned burial yard called “Lanat Abad” or “the cursed land” that people are buried without names. It is widely believed, and it has been admitted by some members of the security forces – as victim families were told that the bodies of their loved ones were buried there.

Among some 6000 UN registered disappearances, nearly 500 are in Iran. Among those there are at least about 28 Ahwazi cases, according to field investigation. Drowning in Karoon River and in the marshlands of Fallahieh, Mashour and Abadan have been widely reported.

The latest case belongs to Mr. Youssef Silawi, 58 years old, disappeared on 8 November 2009, in a very mysterious circumstance. He was abducted near his home in -Ahwaz. He is the father of Mona and Sheyma Silawi, two AHRO human rights activists in Europe.

The family of Mr. Silawi has searched in vain all hospitals, police stations, prisons, intelligence services headquarters, and Iranian authorities in Al-Ahwaz province and in Tehran have declined to reveal his whereabouts or open an investigation to his “disappearance”.

Also, field reports indicate that six Ahwazi Arab political and human rights activists, who have been murdered this year, while being held in prisons run by the intelligence services in Shoush, Khalaffiya (Khalfabad), Ahwaz and Dezful.

IRT: How is cooperation among denied nationalities in Iran, to achieve their rights?

Dr. Abdian: In Iran, as in any multinational country, it should be the responsibility of all Iran’s constituent nationalities to decide with equal voice, the future of Iran and solve the chronic internal crisis, brought about by successive monarchist and clerical dictatorships. The future of Iran, could be guaranteed only through a voluntary association of all national groups constituting Iran; where they will have the opportunity to develop their respective cultures, languages, histories, economies and homelands, under an appropriate de-centralized and a federated system of governance that guarantees and respects the rights of peoples to self-determination.

It is along these lines that the Congress of Nationalities for a Federal Iran (CNFI) was formed in 2005. It is actually a watershed in the solidarity and cooperation between non-dominant and oppressed nationalities in Iran. CNFI is a coalition, composed of 17 regional political organizations, representing Turks, Kurds, Arabs, Baloch and Turkmen in Iran.

Use of the Internet and social media, resulted in further solidarity among non-Persian non-dominant ethnic and religious groups, for their common struggle against oppression around gender, ethnic, and religious and linguistic pluralism and diversity. This solidarity among oppressed Arabs, Baloch, Kurds, Turks and Turkmen, and building the social and political resistance movement, is actually the “Achilles-Hill” of the regime.

IRT: How do you see the role of UN rights bodies regarding the promotion and protection of human rights in Iran?

Dr. Abdian: Well, I think we should take the UN for what it is without hanging all the hopes on it. The UN is a gathering place for countries not nations or nationalities. Some of these countries are democratic and some are oppressive. They all have their own parochial interests accordingly, nations and peoples who live under the oppressive regimes are not allowed the rights of self-determination unless it serves the interests of this so called International community, which UN is a major part of it.

Having said that, I believe UN human Rights bodies, whether charter-based or treaty-based bodies - should be utilized to the maximum, to expose the oppressive nature of states such as Iran.

We in AHRO, with the help of other international NGOs and progressive member states, and other member-based NGOs such as Unrepresented Peoples and Nations Organization (UNPO), have successfully utilized Human Rights Council, Universal Periodic Reviews, and Special Procedure of the HRC under charter-based bodies. We also used the help of Committees Against Torture, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Committee on Enforced Disappearances under the treaty-based bodies, in both New York and in Geneva for the past 10-15 years, and will continue to do so, to expose Iranian regime atrocities against minorities in Iran.

We achieved good results, working with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and with other different human rights monitoring mechanisms in the United Nations system: UN Charter-based bodies, including the Human Rights Council, and bodies created under the international human rights treaties, made up of independent experts, mandated to monitor Iran’s compliance with its treaty obligations.

IRT: I like to repeat this question with your esteem, how do you see the role of SR Ahmed Shaheed?

Dr. Abdian: AHRO has supported the appointment of Dr. Shaheed since his appointment in 2011 as the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran. And every year since then we have participated in Geneva for the extension of his mandate.

He is faced with a very difficult situation with Iran and its allies like Russia and China, and a range of smaller dictator supporters in the UN. They have tried to sabotage his work. But under the circumstances, I believe he has done a great job.

We met with him several times, and he seemed receptive to all the testimonies from Ahwazi witnesses that were the subject of human rights violations. Obviously it would have been much better, if he was allowed to visit Iran to see the situations first hand, but Iran does not allow that.

Some of his reports do not detail all violations of human rights among the ethnic minorities in the country. However, he has successfully provided an overview of the prevailing systematic human rights violations and the situation in Iran.

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Last Updated: 23 March 2016

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