Iran Reduces Nuclear Stockpile

By Darrin Simmons
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East 

TEHRAN, Iran-In accordance with an agreement created last fall, Iran has diluted half of its stockpile of twenty percent enriched uranium.  A UN report is set to be released this week, confirming the dilution.

Uranium-processing site in Isfahan (photo courtesy of Reuters)

The dilution presents a significant step forward in complying with Western efforts to reduce Iran’s nuclear program as peacefully as possible.  As such, world powers are upholding their side of the bargain by releasing the fifth of eighth tranches of finances, a huge relief for the Islamic Republic.

The short-term deal between Iran and the P5+1 world powers was reached last November, at a time when the Islamic Republic was producing 181 kg of 20 percent enriched uranium.  This amount was nearly enough to create one nuclear warhead that would have only taking Iran only two months to create.

Not surprisingly, Iran’s twenty percent enriched uranium stores has been a huge concern for Western and Arab governments.  The interim Geneva solution will expire on July 20, unless all parties agree to a longstanding comprehensive nuclear stalemate.

If no agreement is met or negotiations don’t continue, Iran would enter August with the ability to manufacture high-grade stockpile in less than a year.  Further, Iran has also been producing “highly advantaged centrifuges” which have the ability to bypass the key thresholds and create weapons-grade material from uranium with lower than ten percent enrichment.

Iran further denies any interest in atomic arms.  However, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has reported a delay in Iran’s construction of plants designed to turn low-enriched uranium gas into useless oxide powder.  Tehran told the IAEA last month that the site would be commissioned on April 9th but has failed to give  a legitimate reason for why it has yet to be constructed.

Iran Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, however, is optimistic that a deal will be reached in three months or less.  “There is a political will to get an answer.  The domestic audience will be satisfied if we have a good deal.  Of course some people will never be satisfied but that is fine because we have a pluralistic society,” stated Zarif.

However, there are numerous criticisms of the interim agreement.  Those opposing have said that Iran has had difficulty receiving billions of dollars from oil revenue unfrozen the agreement.  Meanwhile, Iran’s Gulf neighbors expressed alarm this week over growing signs of support from Iran for Assad’s military.

For more information, please see the following: 

Al Jazeera-Iran cuts sensitive nuclear stockpile-17 April 2014

Jerusalem Post-Iran on target with interim nuclear deal: Cuts high-grade uranium stockpile in half-16 April 2014

Reuters-Iran cuts sensitive nuclear stockpile, key plant delayed: IAEA-16 April 2014

Tehran Times-Iran has significantly reduced stockpile of higher-grade enriched uranium-16 April 2014

United Nations Security Council Views Horrific Photographs of Syrians Killed By the Assad Regime

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 

United Nations Headquarters, United Nations – Horrific images of deceased Syrian detainees killed by the Assad regime as a result of torture and severe malnutrition during the county’s civil war were presented at the United Nations Tuesday. The images were among some 55,000 photographs taken by a Syrian police photographer known as Caesar and smuggled out of Syria, the images document some of the most horrific crimes committed by the Assad regime including torture. The United Nations Security Council spent more than two hours viewing the photographs on Tuesday Morning. The photographs were shown to the Council in an effort by France to refer the Syrian Case to the International Criminal Court.

 

From left, David Crane, Chief Prosecutor for the Special Court for Sierra Leone; Gérard Araud, the French envoy; and Dr. Stuart J. Hamilton, a forensic pathologist presented photographs selected photographs documenting evidence of abuse by the Assad regime in detention facilities. (Photo Courtesy of The New York Times)

The United States Ambassador tot eh United Nations, Samantha Power, responded to the images after she saw them at a closed meeting of the U.N. Security Council, “The gruesome images of corpses bearing marks of starvation, strangulation and beatings and today’s chilling briefing indicate that the Assad regime has carried out systematic, widespread and industrial killing.” She also said that; “nobody who sees these images will ever be the same. The perpetrators of these monstrous crimes must be held accountable, and the international community must unite in the face of such horrors.”

While working at a military hospital from September 2011 to August 2013, Caesar photographed the bodies of detainees from three regime detention centers in the Damascus area. His smuggled photographs were passed over to the Syrian National Movement, which is backed by Qatar. Ten of the 55,000 photographs of roughly 11,000 Syrians tortured by the Assad regime were released to the public in a study called the Caesar report. The study was funded by the Gulf state of Qatar, a major supporter of the Syrian opposition.

Two of the report’s authors, David Crane, chief prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone and founder of Impunity Watch, and Doctor Stuart Hamilton, a British forensic pathologist briefed the Council on Tuesday. Crane stated that the photographs document evidence of killing on an industrial scale by the Assad regime. He stressed that rebel forces are also “committing international crimes” in Syria. “We’re well beyond a good-guy, bad-guy scenario here,” he said, pointing out that human beings are killing one another “at a scale that has not been seen since Rwand

The photographs presented to the Security Council were among 55,000 digital images provided by a former Syrian police photographer (Photo Courtesy of the BBC)

Tuesday’s briefing came a day after The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay condemned the treatment of detained persons saying that “in armed conflict, torture constitutes a war crime. When it is used in a systematic or widespread manner, which is almost certainly the case in Syria, it also amounts to a crime against humanity.” She continued “I urge the Government and armed opposition groups in Syria to immediately halt the use of torture and ill-treatment, and to release all those who have been arbitrarily detained in conditions that clearly breach international human rights standards. Those detained must be treated humanely.”

The comments come as her office issued a paper containing detailed testimony from victims and witnesses, describing systematic patterns of torture and ill-treatment against individuals in Government facilities, as well as documenting reports of torture by other armed groups.

For the Caesar Report please see:

A Report into the Credibility of Certain Evidence With Regard to Torture and Execution Of Persons Incarcerated By the Current Syrian Regime

For further information please see:

BBC World News – Syria Crisis: ‘Torture’ Photos Shown To UN Security Council – 15 April 2014

Fox News – Horror of Syria’s War Displayed At Un – 15 April 2014

The Guardian – Syrian Torture Images to Be Examined By UN Security Council – 15 April 2014

The New York Times – At U.N., A Grim Viewing of Alleged Syrian Torture – 15 April 2014

United Nations News Centre – UN Rights Chief Condemns Rampant Use of Torture By Syrian Forces, Opposition Groups – 14 April 2014

India’s High Court Recognizes Transgender as a ‘Third Gender Category’

By Brian Lanciault
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

NEW DELHI, India– India’s top court announced Tuesday in a landmark verdict that transgender rights are human rights.  The decision stated that people can identify themselves as a third gender on any official documents.

Transgender Indians rejoiced the Supreme Court decision to recognize Transgender individuals as a distinct, “third gender” for purposes of official government documents. (Photo Courtesy of AP)

The Supreme Court directed the federal and state governments to include transgendered people in all welfare programs for the poor, including education, health care and jobs to help them overcome social and economic challenges. Before the decision, transgendered Indians could only identify themselves as male or female in all official documents.

The decision was praised for giving relief to the approximately 3 million Indians who identify as transgender.

The Court proclaimed that it was the right of every human being to choose their gender, and acknowledged a grant of rights to those who identify themselves as neither male nor female.

“All documents will now have a third category marked ‘transgender.’ This verdict has come as a great relief for all of us. Today I am proud to be an Indian,” said Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, a transgender activist who, along with a legal agency, had petitioned the Court.

The Court’s decision will apply to individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex, and to those who merely present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.

“The spirit of the (Indian) Constitution is to provide equal opportunity to every citizen to grow and attain their potential, irrespective of caste, religion or gender,” the Court said in its order.

The Supreme Court specified its ruling would only apply to transgender people but not to gays, lesbians or bisexuals. India’s LGBT communities have been protesting the Court’s recent decision to reinstate a colonial-era law banning homosexual intercourse, which they say will make them vulnerable to police harassment.

The Court also ordered the government to put in place public awareness campaigns to reduce the social stigma that has developed around transgender people.

Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan told the Court that the “recognition of transgender (people) as a third gender is not a social or medical issue but a human rights issue.”

“Transgenders are citizens of this country and are entitled to education and all other rights,” he said.

The Court ruled that transgender people have the same right to adopt children as other Indians.

The Court said any person who underwent surgery to change his or her sex would be entitled to be legally recognized as belonging to the gender of their choice.

The Supreme Court also ordered state governments to construct separate public toilets for transgender people and create health departments to take care of transgender medical services.

Recently, India’s Election Commission for the first time allowed a third gender choice — “other” — on voter registration forms. The change was made in time for the national elections being held in phases through May 12.

Nearly 28,000 voters have registered themselves in that category.

For more information, please see:

Hindustan Times– Supreme Court recognises transgender as third gender— 15 April 2014

ABC News–India’s Top Court Recognizes Third Gender Category— 15 April 2014

BBC News–India court recognises transgender people as third gender— 15 April 2014

Time–Men, Women and ‘Hijras’: India Recognizes Third Gender— 15 April 2014