Nobel Lecture
By Shirin Ebadi
www.nobel.se
12 December,
2003
I feel
extremely honoured that today my voice is reaching the people of the
world from this distinguished venue. This great honour has been bestowed
upon me by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. I salute the spirit of Alfred
Nobel and hail all true followers of his path.
This year, the Nobel
Peace Prize has been awarded to a woman from Iran, a Muslim country
in the Middle East.
Undoubtedly, my
selection will be an inspiration to the masses of women who are striving
to realize their rights, not only in Iran but throughout the region
- rights taken away from them through the passage of history. This selection
will make women in Iran, and much further afield, believe in themselves.
Women constitute half of the population of every country. To disregard
women and bar them from active participation in political, social, economic
and cultural life would in fact be tantamount to depriving the entire
population of every society of half its capability. The patriarchal
culture and the discrimination against women, particularly in the Islamic
countries, cannot continue for ever.
Honourable members
of the Norwegian Nobel Committee!
As you are aware,
the honour and blessing of this prize will have a positive and far-reaching
impact on the humanitarian and genuine endeavours of the people of Iran
and the region. The magnitude of this blessing will embrace every freedom-loving
and peace-seeking individual, whether they are women or men.
I thank the Norwegian
Nobel Committee for this honour that has been bestowed upon me and for
the blessing of this honour for the peace-loving people of my country.
Today coincides
with the 55th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights; a declaration which begins with the recognition of
the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all members
of the human family, as the guarantor of freedom, justice and peace.
And it promises a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of
expression and opinion, and be safeguarded and protected against fear
and poverty.
Unfortunately, however,
this year's report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),
as in the previous years, spells out the rise of a disaster which distances
mankind from the idealistic world of the authors of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights. In 2002, almost 1.2 billion human beings lived in glaring
poverty, earning less than one dollar a day. Over 50 countries were
caught up in war or natural disasters. AIDS has so far claimed the lives
of 22 million individuals, and turned 13 million children into orphans.
At the same time,
in the past two years, some states have violated the universal principles
and laws of human rights by using the events of 11 September and the
war on international terrorism as a pretext. The United Nations General
Assembly Resolution 57/219, of 18 December 2002, the United Nations
Security Council Resolution 1456, of 20 January 2003, and the United
Nations Commission on Human Rights Resolution 2003/68, of 25 April 2003,
set out and underline that all states must ensure that any measures
taken to combat terrorism must comply with all their obligations under
international law, in particular international human rights and humanitarian
law. However, regulations restricting human rights and basic freedoms,
special bodies and extraordinary courts, which make fair adjudication
difficult and at times impossible, have been justified and given legitimacy
under the cloak of the war on terrorism.
The concerns of
human rights' advocates increase when they observe that international
human rights laws are breached not only by their recognized opponents
under the pretext of cultural relativity, but that these principles
are also violated in Western democracies, in other words countries which
were themselves among the initial codifiers of the United Nations Charter
and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is in this framework
that, for months, hundreds of individuals who were arrested in the course
of military conflicts have been imprisoned in Guantanamo, without the
benefit of the rights stipulated under the international Geneva conventions,
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the [United Nations] International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Moreover, a question
which millions of citizens in the international civil society have been
asking themselves for the past few years, particularly in recent months,
and continue to ask, is this: why is it that some decisions and resolutions
of the UN Security Council are binding, while some other resolutions
of the council have no binding force? Why is it that in the past 35
years, dozens of UN resolutions concerning the occupation of the Palestinian
territories by the state of Israel have not been implemented promptly,
yet, in the past 12 years, the state and people of Iraq, once on the
recommendation of the Security Council, and the second time, in spite
of UN Security Council opposition, were subjected to attack, military
assault, economic sanctions, and, ultimately, military occupation?
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Allow me to say
a little about my country, region, culture and faith.
I am an Iranian.
A descendent of Cyrus The Great. The very emperor who proclaimed at
the pinnacle of power 2500 years ago that "... he would not reign
over the people if they did not wish it." And [he] promised not
to force any person to change his religion and faith and guaranteed
freedom for all. The Charter of Cyrus The Great is one of the most important
documents that should be studied in the history of human rights.
I am a Muslim. In
the Koran the Prophet of Islam has been cited as saying: "Thou
shalt believe in thine faith and I in my religion". That same divine
book sees the mission of all prophets as that of inviting all human
beings to uphold justice. Since the advent of Islam, too, Iran's civilization
and culture has become imbued and infused with humanitarianism, respect
for the life, belief and faith of others, propagation of tolerance and
compromise and avoidance of violence, bloodshed and war. The luminaries
of Iranian literature, in particular our Gnostic literature, from Hafiz,
Mowlavi [better known in the West as Rumi] and Attar to Saadi, Sanaei,
Naser Khosrow and Nezami, are emissaries of this humanitarian culture.
Their message manifests itself in this poem by Saadi:
"The sons of
Adam are limbs of one another
Having been created of one essence".
"When the calamity
of time afflicts one limb
The other limbs cannot remain at rest".
The people of Iran
have been battling against consecutive conflicts between tradition and
modernity for over 100 years. By resorting to ancient traditions, some
have tried and are trying to see the world through the eyes of their
predecessors and to deal with the problems and difficulties of the existing
world by virtue of the values of the ancients. But, many others, while
respecting their historical and cultural past and their religion and
faith, seek to go forth in step with world developments and not lag
behind the caravan of civilization, development and progress. The people
of Iran, particularly in the recent years, have shown that they deem
participation in public affairs to be their right, and that they want
to be masters of their own destiny.
This conflict is
observed not merely in Iran, but also in many Muslim states. Some Muslims,
under the pretext that democracy and human rights are not compatible
with Islamic teachings and the traditional structure of Islamic societies,
have justified despotic governments, and continue to do so. In fact,
it is not so easy to rule over a people who are aware of their rights,
using traditional, patriarchal and paternalistic methods.
Islam is a religion
whose first sermon to the Prophet begins with the word "Recite!"
The Koran swears by the pen and what it writes. Such a sermon and message
cannot be in conflict with awareness, knowledge, wisdom, freedom of
opinion and expression and cultural pluralism.
The discriminatory
plight of women in Islamic states, too, whether in the sphere of civil
law or in the realm of social, political and cultural justice, has its
roots in the patriarchal and male-dominated culture prevailing in these
societies, not in Islam. This culture does not tolerate freedom and
democracy, just as it does not believe in the equal rights of men and
women, and the liberation of women from male domination (fathers, husbands,
brothers ...), because it would threaten the historical and traditional
position of the rulers and guardians of that culture.
One has to say to
those who have mooted the idea of a clash of civilizations, or prescribed
war and military intervention for this region, and resorted to social,
cultural, economic and political sluggishness of the South in a bid
to justify their actions and opinions, that if you consider international
human rights laws, including the nations' right to determine their own
destinies, to be universal, and if you believe in the priority and superiority
of parliamentary democracy over other political systems, then you cannot
think only of your own security and comfort, selfishly and contemptuously.
A quest for new means and ideas to enable the countries of the South,
too, to enjoy human rights and democracy, while maintaining their political
independence and territorial integrity of their respective countries,
must be given top priority by the United Nations in respect of future
developments and international relations.
The decision by
the Nobel Peace Committee to award the 2003 prize to me, as the first
Iranian and the first woman from a Muslim country, inspires me and millions
of Iranians and nationals of Islamic states with the hope that our efforts,
endeavours and struggles toward the realization of human rights and
the establishment of democracy in our respective countries enjoy the
support, backing and solidarity of international civil society. This
prize belongs to the people of Iran. It belongs to the people of the
Islamic states, and the people of the South for establishing human rights
and democracy.
Ladies and Gentlemen
In the introduction
to my speech, I spoke of human rights as a guarantor of freedom, justice
and peace. If human rights fail to be manifested in codified laws or
put into effect by states, then, as rendered in the preamble of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, human beings will be left with
no choice other than staging a "rebellion against tyranny and oppression".
A human being divested of all dignity, a human being deprived of human
rights, a human being gripped by starvation, a human being beaten by
famine, war and illness, a humiliated human being and a plundered human
being is not in any position or state to recover the rights he or she
has lost.
If the 21st century
wishes to free itself from the cycle of violence, acts of terror and
war, and avoid repetition of the experience of the 20th century - that
most disaster-ridden century of humankind, there is no other way except
by understanding and putting into practice every human right for all
mankind, irrespective of race, gender, faith, nationality or social
status.
In anticipation
of that day.
With much gratitude
Shirin Ebadi