§ Lord Aveburyasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is their response to the allegation made by Ms Elahe Hicks of Human Rights Watch/Middle East, in an interview with Mahmoud Tehrani of the BBC Persian service broadcast on 22nd June 1996, that Mr. Rajae Khorasani, a former member of the Iranian Majlis and founder/chairman of the Parliamentary Human Rights Commission of Iran, said that torture is practised in Iran, and is legitimate when it is applied to "political groups such as the hypocrites", and whether they will ensure that a recording of this broadcast is made available to the United Nations Human Rights Centre in advance of the forthcoming meeting of the Subcommission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.
§ Baroness Chalker of WallaseyWe take a very serious view of all human rights violations in Iran. The most recent EU sponsored human rights resolution on Iran, adopted in April by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, reaffirmed our specific concern about cases of torture in Iran. We deplore unequivocally the use of torture in all its forms. Torture is never legitimate. We are making enquiries to establish whether Human Rights Watch have passed on a recording of their 22nd June interview with the BBC Persian Service to the UN Human Rights Centre.