Iran, Italy to expand ties on human rights

TEHRAN, Dec. 02 (MNA) – Iranian and Italian officials agreed to broaden their mutual cooperation and bilateral ties in judicial and human rights issues. Iran and Italy underlined the need for expanding mutual cooperation in judicial and human rights areas in the conference on the Protection of Human Rights in the Penal-Judicial System of Iran and Italy held in Rome on Sunday. On the first day of the conference, Secretary of Iran’s Human Rights Council Mohammad Javad Larijani described Iran's position toward human rights issues to Italian judges and thinkers. "Since the victory of the Islamic Revolution, there have been many discussions over different topics between Iran and the West and unfortunately some of these topics have been misinterpreted due to a lack of information about the rational nature of the Islamic Republic system's pillars and its mechanisms," Larijani said, addressing the conference today. "A more realistic stream, gradually created in the world and Europe, tries to find out about Iran's qualities and experiences that have made our nation the most powerful and advanced democracy in the region and the conference is an instance of this stream," he added. Also addressing the same conference, Mahmoud Sharif Bassiouni, Head of the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences (ISISC) located in Siracusa, Italy, said that "the importance of the joint Iran-Italy conference lies in the fact that for the first time the most eminent lawyers and university professors of the two countries have convened to exchange their views about the penal systems in their country." The three-day conference on Protection of Human Rights in the Penal-Judicial System of Iran and Italy kicked off in Rome earlier today. A high-ranking Iranian human rights delegation, headed by Larijani, left Tehran for Rome on Saturday morning to take part in the conference. Larijani is also due to meet several senior judicial, human rights and political officials of Italy during his visit to the European country. On Thursday, Italian Parliament Speaker Laura Boldrini undescored Iran's important role in resolving regional crises, and called for the further expansion of ties between the two countries. "Iran plays a very key role in restoring regional stability and campaign against extremist groups such as the ISIL," Boldrini said in a meeting with Iranian Vice President and Head of Department of Environment Massoumeh Ebtekar in Rome. She voiced her country's readiness to broaden bilateral relations and mutual cooperation in parliamentary, economic, cultural and scientific fields. Ebtekar, for her part, briefed the Italian parliament speaker on the results of her two-day visit to Rome, and expressed her views on major challenges to the environment in the world and the potential ways to deal with them.