© AP Photo/ Iranian Presidency Office
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani unveiled on Monday the Charter on Citizens' Rights, guaranteeing right to a fair trial, nationality, freedom of speech and movement among other basic human rights, local media reported.
"All the nation, each and every citizen should be regarded as equal before the law; no one would seek the status the oligarchic nepotism bestows upon its 'insiders' in flagrant violation of others' rights... this Charter was a promise which should have been fulfilled to address only a small part of the demands by the public," Rouhani said at the unveiling ceremony in Tehran as quoted by Iran's Tasnim news agency.
A special official for supervising the implementation of the Charter provisions will be appointed, and the bill will promote the human rights provisions of the Iranian constitution, according to media.
"[The Charter] encompasses a set of citizens' rights that are either already recognized in the Iranian legal system or that the Government will exert stringent and pervasive efforts for their recognition, creation, realization and enforcement by amending and developing the legal system," the Charter's preamble reads.
Iran has been repeatedly accused by Western nations of its ongoing human rights violations, including brutal practices such as public execution, torture, violence against women and discrimination against minorities.
Comment: Hopefully this will result in one less thing the West can complain about Iran.