HCHR_Kazem Gharibabadi, the Vice-President of the Judiciary for International Affairs and the Secretary-General of the High Council for Human Rights, during the meeting of the secretaries of the specialized working groups of the Supreme Council for the Affairs of Iranians Abroad and the relevant managers in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with Hojjat-al-Islam wal Muslimin Mohseni Azhei, the Head of the Judiciary, said: “I intend to set up two judicial service offices in two countries to pilot in order to facilitate the legal and judicial affairs of Iranians.”
Before the speech of the Head of the Judiciary in this meeting, Gharibabadi considered facilitating the provision of services and solving the legal and judicial problems of Iranians abroad as one of the strategies of the judicial system in the period of transformation and promotion and added: “After the establishment of the Sana system for Iranians abroad and handling electronically their requests and cases that took place during the past weeks, now we are trying to set up two judicial service offices in two countries as a pilot in order to facilitate the legal and judicial affairs of Iranians.”
Referring to the prioritized issues, Gharibabadi stated: “One of them is the Sana system, which used to have problems. The most important problem was the issue of Iranian mobile phones, because if there is no Iranian mobile phone, it is not possible for Iranians abroad to register in this system. After various investigations with the Statistics and Technologies Center of the Judiciary and the Ministry of Communications, this problem was solved and two social messengers were replaced. We hope that from now on, better facilities will be provided for Iranians abroad to register in the Sana system.”
The Vice-President of the Judiciary for International Affairs noted: “We also included the issue of electronic proceedings in the framework of regulations and laws, in our agenda. For some proceedings, there is no need for Iranians abroad to pay money and come to Iran to attend the meetings. Within the framework of the laws and regulations, we are preparing a plan with the Statistics and Information Technology Center to provide a new service to Iranians in the relevant field. Last year, we asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to introduce two countries where more Iranians live, so that, similar to what we provide in the embassy in framework of the consular services for the Iranians abroad, we will provide services for them through judicial offices similar to what is provided inside the country. Whenever the Ministry of Foreign Affairs introduces these two countries to us, with the help of the Statistics and Information Technology Center, we will create a similar office in two countries as a pilot. This is very innovative, that is, we will provide services that other operating systems do not provide. We are ready to provide these services in other countries as well.”
Referring to other measures taken, Gharibabadi pointed to the issue of the presence of judicial officials inside the country in crowded places and public places and stated: “These officials visit different places, give advice and consider people's problems. In this regard, we are also ready to send legal delegations to countries where Iranians are present in large numbers to provide legal advice to Iranians abroad. We did a sample of it in Istanbul, Turkey, and it was very well received. We can continue this with other countries.”
He also said: “Iranian prisoners abroad are another issue in the discussion of Iranians abroad. In this regard, regardless of the issue of the transfer of convicts, which is pursued separately, we are focusing on the issue of providing services to the families of Iranian prisoners abroad; individuals who were the head of their family and their imprisonment caused problems for the family. In this regard, we proposed a four-way memorandum between the International Deputy of the Judiciary, the Prisons Organization, the Cooperative Foundation, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We hope that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will announce the time to sign this memorandum so that we can organize our assistance to this category of prisoners and provide them with greater services and better capacity.”
Referring to the issue of violation of the rights of Iranians abroad, the Vice President of the Judiciary reiterated: “We will intervene in such cases if there are legal, judicial and human rights issues and we suggested that this matter be taken seriously. In this context, we can mention the grievances of Iranian families abroad who have faced the separation of their children. This is one of the issues that we focus on in the framework of judicial legal discussions.”
In the end, Gharibabadi noted: “These are from the aspect of judicial legal issues, but the actions taken are not limited to these issues. We have formed a working group with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and we hope that by the end of the year, the results will be determined, so that we will consider the system of judicial legal issues of Iranians abroad and have a plan to solve it. In this way, our focus on judicial legal issues will increase to facilitate the provision of services to Iranians abroad and to focus more on solving their problems.