Interview:Shirin Ebadi,

Iranian human rights activist

Shirin Ebadi (left) speaks about her activities that take her throughout the world. (Photo by Masataka Tanaka, 16)

What kind of human rights violations do children experience in Iran?

After the Revolution, a series of laws were passed that violated the rights of the child. Including the age designated for criminal liability, which was reduced to 9 years for girls and 15 years for boys. This means that if a 9 year old girl or a 15 year old boy commits a crime, he or she is treated the same way before the law as a 40 year old person would be if committing the same crime. For this reason, we have the largest number of capital punishments for juveniles. In fact, last year, according to figures, Iran was the highest ranking country in terms of the number of juvenile capital punishments in the world.

The law unfortunately also gives fewer rights to girls than it does to boys. I will give you one example. If a boy and girl go down the street together and they get into an accident or a fight, the damage paid in compensation to the boy will be twice that paid to the girl for the harm that is inflicted on them.

And there are so many other examples in our legal system. I've been active for about 30 year trying to change these laws.

What is an important right for children in your opinion?

I think that the key point is to hear the voices of children and respect it. And issues pertaining to children and adolescents should be prioritized in every government plan.

What is important in children's rights from the perspective of Iran?

The key thing we need to do is to change the laws that violate the rights of the child.

How can children's rights be protected?

The most important issue is to train children and adolescents about their rights. And also, civic institutions should be formed to be able to give support to the people in emergencies. For example, if a child is suffering from child abuse at home, there has to be centers in the community to render quick support to the child.

Why did you decide to protect the rights of women and children?

There is a proverb that basically says that the strength of a chain lies in its weakest part. Since children are young and weaker, they cannot protect their own rights, so it is the responsibility of society to protect their rights for them. This was my main motivation in deciding to work on protecting the rights of the child. And the book that I have written in this field has been translated by UNICEF in Iran and used as a model for research and training on the subject. Women's rights is also human rights. Therefore, protecting women is the equivalent of protecting human rights.

What can we, as junior and senior high school students in Japan, do in children's rights?

I think you can hold committees to discuss the areas in which rights are given to children and to adolescents and also what protections are available to enforce those rights. And I would suggest that you start by studying the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, to study it together and discuss it together.

Where do you find the strength to continue your activities regardless of pressures from Iran?

When you are confident in the path that you have chosen, you gain the confidence to continue your work, and not only do I have that but I also believe in God, and believing in God also gives me an extra support and protection.

In Japan, nowadays, we have a problem with bullying. It may be a luxurious problem, but do you have any advice on how to solve it?

I think you have to distinguish between values. Unfortunately, there are things that are now becoming values for young people, which really have no value. For example, the label on clothes is becoming more important for kids, whereas in fact it is not a value at all. If someone comes with a shoe that is very fancy and thinks that it's going to him or her look better, they are absolutely wrong, and it is essential for them to understand there is no value attached to it. And so it's important, this is a simple example, but to really build values in schools.

We have to part ways from materialistic goals and place value on spiritual goals and on education and knowledge.

This is kind of personal, but do you ever think that you want to go back home to Iran?

I live in airports. Because I am always traveling. In the past year and a half, I have probably all together not traveled for a month. I'll give you my recent travel schedule. I arrived here from New York. I go to Italy from here. From Italy, I to Sweden, then I go to France, then I go to Egypt.

Don't you ever get tired?

I do. But when my colleagues are in prison, it's my duty to work for all of them.

(Seira Furukawa, 17, Yuumi Kimura, 14)