FN:s mänskliga rättigheter och Iran

In order for a state to be considered ‘civilized’ the UN Declaration of human rights must be conceptualized in the national legislation. Iran are among states which are isolated from the international community partly on the basis of human rights violations. The human rights violations symbolize a political barrier between West and Iran, confirmed by economic sanctions from UN, EU and the United States. In this study the assumption is that whether basic constitutional conditions exist or do not exist could/could not lead to changing domestic practices, and possibly towards political integration for Iran. Thus the purpose of the study is to investigate the Islamic republic of Iran’s basic constitutional conditions for implementing human rights. The method used is a qualitative document study with content analysis on Iran’s constitution. The theoretical approach is founded on the UN Declaration of human rights which is a historic document. Furthermore, previous research on the subject is also presented as part of the theoretical background. The findings of the study suggest crucial shortcomings in Iran’s constitution according to UN standards, although the majority of the UN criteria for human rights are respected. However, the key conclusion of the study is that human rights are not neglected by Iran, rather the historical, cultural and religious traditions of Iran differentiates the country from the so called universal values currently dominated in the international community.