Shirin Ebadi: Justice as the precondition for freedom
Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and human-rights lawyer, told a conference in Oslo that Iran’s future depends on transitional justice. “There can be no development without justice, without laws and without independent courts,” she said. “I hope we, Iranians, will one day have the chance to sit at the table of transitional justice and speak for ourselves. That day will come.”
Speaking at “Justice in Transition: Challenges and Solutions”, hosted by Iran Human Rights at the University of Oslo on 2nd–3rd September 2023, Ebadi opened by honouring those killed over the past four decades in the struggle for democracy. She went on to describe transitional justice as a relatively new legal concept, comprising judicial and non-judicial mechanisms designed to move beyond dictatorship or deadlock towards a peaceful and democratic order.
The first step, she argued, must be the release of political prisoners and the closing of their cases. “This is the initial condition in almost every country,” she said. Transitional justice, she added, is not limited to regime collapse but can also emerge from political stalemate, citing Colombia’s six-decade civil war, which ended through negotiation and brought a former guerrilla to the presidency.
For Iran, the aim must be to move beyond religious despotism, not to replicate it. A second pillar is criminal accountability. “A society denied justice will always be ready to revolt,” she warned, pointing to Argentina’s endless cycle of pardons and unrest.
Compensation schemes, too, are vital. These may include financial reparations or priority in employment, but not academic quotas that undermine merit. Memorialising victims by renaming streets or institutions, she suggested, could also help calm a traumatised society. Refugees and the displaced, she insisted, cannot be abandoned indefinitely, as in Syria. Truth commissions are essential both to satisfy victims’ families and to prevent the repetition of atrocities.
Institutional reform, she argued, is equally crucial. “The dissolution of the Revolutionary Guards is a necessity,” she declared, though those not implicated in crimes could be reintegrated. Above all, laws that violate human rights must be swiftly repealed. “Do we still want stoning, flogging or executions?” she asked, insisting that fair trials, access to lawyers and a ban on torture are non-negotiable.
The summary justice of the early revolution, she said, must never recur. Prosecutions should be conducted in fair national or international courts. Ultimately, transitional justice must be completed by political choice: free elections in which Iranians can decide the system under which they wish to live.
Translated from Farsi via machine translation and lightly edited for clarity.