Use smart sanctions, not diplomatic isolation, to promote human rights in Iran
The EU must find ways to ensure that sanctions designed to press Iran to improve its human rights record do not punish ordinary Iranian citizens, said Human Rights Subcommittee MEPs at Wednesday evening's hearing. "One sanction should be to prevent the Iranian government from using EU satellites to spread hatred", suggested lawyer and Nobel Peace Laureate Dr Shirin Ebadi.
"Should we boycott and isolate Iran or try to engage it in dialogue to raise human right issues?", asked Tarja Cronberg, (Greens/EFA, FI) who chairs Parliament's delegation for relations with Iran.
Dr Ebadi said she favoured dialogue but noted that "all discussions at the moment seem to focus only on nuclear issues, not on human rights. Europeans should not think only of their own security." She called on the EU to impose "smart sanctions" that do not hit Iranian citizens, such as preventing Iran from using EU satellites to spread hatred and expanding the EU blacklist of Iranian human rights violators.
"Sanctions should be balanced, so that citizens have access to information on the internet", said Faraz Sanei of Human Rights Watch, noting that the Iranian government was seeking to block its citizens' access to various web pages.
The "EU's role should be independent and different from US", said Marietje Schaake (ALDE, NL), pointing out that citizens hit by sanctions often will not know or care who imposed them.
UN special rapporteur on Iran Dr Ahmed Shaheed, stressed the need to cooperate with countries that have good relations with Iran, which he said "does not want bad publicity".
In the chair: Barbara Lochbihler (Greens/EFA, DE)
You can watch the recording of the debate via EP TV (link to the right)