Human rights are known to be the basic rights and freedoms to which all people as humans are considered entitled: the right to life, liberty, freedom of thought and expression, and equal treatment before the law, among others. Such rights are said to be natural rights which means that they are not earned and cannot be denied on the basis of race, creed, ethnicity or gender and are often advanced as legal rights and protected by the rule of law. These basic, natural rights cannot be violated under any circumstances and they have been interpreted and set forth in international human rights documents such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
To protect human rights is to ensure that people receive some degree of decent, humane treatment. Despite what resembles a widespread consensus on the importance of human rights and the expansion of international treaties on such matters, the protection of human rights still fails to be fully accomplished. Many conflicts are sparked by a failure to protect human rights, and the trauma that results from severe human rights violations often leads to new human rights violations. However, it is evident that human rights abuses and violations continue to occur in different parts of the world, but the worst occurs when the natural rights of people are violated under the claims of being defenders and condemning others for violating human rights.
Reportedly, Maryam Rajavi, the leader of the cult of Mojahedin, held a recent first-time lobbying meeting with a few members of Estonia Parliament’s human rights support group to discuss human rights violations in Iran and to elicit their support for its struggle. It seems that the Estonian MPs are actually unaware of the members of her group’s harsh conditions and their deprivation of the very basic and natural rights in Iraq. Long enslaved in Camp Ashraf and now located in a temporary transit location near Baghdad, the members of MKO are denied of the right to life and liberty and are kept against their will. They are not allowed to have any form of contact to the world outside and even with their family members many of whom have long requested and are waiting at the gates of the camp to see their children and relatives.
Against speculations that the Iraqi government may have created bureaucratic obstructions and hindrances for the Iranian family members that have deprived them of visiting the camp and its members, it is the group’s insular cultic views and regulations that prevents and prohibits contact with outsiders unless for organizational causes and interests and only arranged for certain trusted ranking members. Noteworthy, in some cases a session of meeting with families is arranged but it is supervised by the ranks and commanders from the group and the families are not left alone with the members to have a free conversation.
Have the Estonian MPs ever asked Rajavi how she can talk of struggling for the freedom of a nation when her group fails to recognize and respect the very natural rights of the members as the humans? Now the sole victims of the cult in need of help are its members and their families play a key role in setting them free. But the cult leaders at the order of Rajavi are insisting on keeping the members in isolation from the outside world and particularly from their families; the cultic relations and internal mind manipulation is still severely practiced within the cult. To prove their good will, the least Estonia MPs may ask from Rajavi is to first recognize and respect the natural rights of her group’s members before condemning others and demonizing them for violation of rights. Otherwise, it is considered another meeting to sacrifice human rights for inhuman political causes.