Guardian Council شورای نگهبان
Type
Type	Election management body
Leadership
Chairman	Ahmad Jannati since August 29, 1988
Members	12
Meeting place
Tehran, Iran
Website
[1]

Iran

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The Guardian Council of the Constitution^[1] (Persian: شورای نگهبان قانون اساسی‎, Shora-ye Negahban-e Qanun-e Assassi), also known as the Guardian Council or Council of Guardians, is an appointed and constitutionally-mandated 12-member council that wields considerable power and influence in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The Iranian constitution calls for the council to be composed of six Islamic faqihs (expert in Islamic Law), "conscious of the present needs and the issues of the day" to be selected by the Supreme Leader of Iran, and six jurists, "specializing in different areas of law, to be elected by the Majlis (the Iranian Parliament) from among the Muslim jurists nominated by the Head of the Judicial Power,"^[2] (who, in turn, is also appointed by the supreme leader).^[3]

It is charged with interpreting the Constitution of Iran,^[4] supervising elections of, and approving of candidates to, the Assembly of Experts, the President and the Majlis,^[5] and "ensuring ... the compatibility of the legislation passed by the Islamic Consultative Assembly [i.e. Majlis] ... with the criteria of Islam and the Constitution", i.e., as the watchdog of the constitution it can veto any law passed by the Majlis.^[6]

The Council has played a central role in allowing only one interpretation of Islamic values to inform Iranian law, as it consistently disqualifies reform-minded candidates—including the most well-known candidates—from running for office, and vetoes laws passed by the popularly elected Majlis.^[7][8] When the 2009 Presidential election was announced, the popular former president, Mohammad Khatami, would not discuss his plans to run against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the Council may disqualify the Muslim cleric as it has other reformist candidates on the grounds that they were not dedicated enough to Islamic values.^[9][10] It has also increased the influence the Islamic Revolutionary Guard (an ideological fighting force separate from the Iranian army) has on the economic and cultural life of the country.^[11]

Legislative functions[link]

The Guardian Council does not introduce bills. Bills are introduced in the Majlis; but any bill passed by the Majlis must be reviewed and approved by the Guardian Council,^[12][13] The Majlis has no legal status without the Guardian Council.^[14]

According to Article 96 of the constitution, the Guardian Council holds veto power over all legislation approved by the Majlis. It can nullify a law based on two accounts: being against Islamic laws,^[15] or being against the constitution. While all the members vote on the laws being compatible with the constitution, only the six clerics vote on them being compatible with Islam.

If any law is rejected, it will be passed back to the Majlis for correction. If the Majlis and the Council of Guardians cannot decide on a case, it is passed up to the Expediency Council for a decision.^[16]

The Guardian Council is uniquely involved in the legislative process, with equal oversight with regards to economic law and social policy, including such controversial topics as abortion. Chapter 6 of the Constitution explains its interworkings with the Islamic Consultative Assembly. Articles 91-97 all fall in the legislative Chapter 6.

Judicial authority[link]

The Council of Guardians also functions similar to a constitutional court. The authority to interpret the constitution is vested in the Council;^[17] interpretative decisions require a three-quarters majority of the Council. However, it does not conduct a court hearing where opposing sides are argued.

Electoral authority[link]

Since 1991, all candidates of parliamentary or presidential^[18] elections, as well as candidates for the Assembly of Experts, have to be qualified by the Guardian Council in order to run in the election. The Council is accorded "supervision of elections".^[19][20]

The Guardian Council interprets the term supervision in Article 99 as "approbation supervision" (Persian: نظارت استصوابی‎)^[21] which implies the right for acceptance or rejection of elections legality and candidates competency. This interpretation is in contrast with the idea of "notification supervision" (Persian: نظارت استطلاعی‎) which does not imply the mentioned approval right.^[22] The "evidentiary supervision" (Persian: نظارت استنادی‎), which requires evidences for acceptance or rejection of elections legality and candidates competency, is another interpretation of mentioned article.^[23][24]

Role in the 2009 elections[link]

On Monday, June 29, 2009, the Guardian Council certified the results of the controversial election in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected.^[25] The Council had completed a recount of 10% percent of the overall votes in order to appease the citizens of Iran.^[26] As the "final authority on the election", the Council has declared the election closed.^[27] The certification of the results set off a wave of protests, disregarding the Iranian government's ban on street marches.^[25] The Iranian intelligence chief alleged that western and "Zionist" forces were responsible for inciting the protests.

Criticism[link]

Increases the role of the army in everyday life[link]

The Council favors military candidates at the expense of reform candidates. This ensures that the ideological Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution (separate from the Iranian army) holds a commanding influence over the political, economic, and cultural life of Iran.^[11]

Arbitrarily disqualifies candidates from elections[link]

Hadi Khamenei, the brother of Supreme Leader Ali Khameni and an adviser in the administration of reformist former President Mohammad Khatami, said the Guardian Council's vetting of candidates threatens Iranian democracy. He believes some reformist candidates are wrongly kept from running.^[28] In 1998, the Guardian Council rejected Hadi Khamenei's candidacy for a seat in the Assembly of Experts for "insufficient theological qualifications."^[29][30]

After conservative candidates fared poorly in the 2000 parliamentary elections, the Council disqualified more than 3,600 reformist and independent candidates for the 2004 elections.^[31]

In the run-up to the Iranian Assembly of Experts election, 2006, all women candidates were disqualified.^[32]

The Council disqualified many candidates in the 2008 parliamentary elections. One third of them were members of the outgoing parliament it had previously approved.^[11] The Iranian Ministry of the Interior gave nebulous, arbitrary reasons for disqualifying the majority of the candidates, including narcotics addiction or involvement in drug-smuggling, connections to the Shah's pre-revolutionary government, lack of belief in or insufficient practice of Islam, being "against" the Islamic Republic, or having connections to foreign intelligence services.^[11]

Rule by unelected leaders[link]

This unelected Council frequently vetoes bills passed by the popularly-elected legislature.^[32] It repeatedly vetoes bills in favor of women’s rights, electoral reform, the prohibition of torture and ratification of international human rights treaties.^[31]

Composition[link]

The Council is composed of Islamic clerics and lawyers.^[33] Membership is for phased six-year terms: half the membership changes every three years.

The Supreme Leader (Iran's Head of State) nominates six clerics,^[34] and may constitutionally dismiss them at will.^[35] The head of the judicial system of Iran, himself selected by the Supreme Leader, nominates six lawyers for confirmation by the Majlis.^[34]

Membership[link]

Council Chairman:

• Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati (a cleric)

Deputy Chairman:

• Abbasali Kadkhodai (a lawyer)

Other cleric members:

• Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
• Mohammad Reza Modarresi-Yazdi
• Mohammad Momen
• Gholamreza Rezvani
• Mohammad Yazdi

Other lawyer members:

• Mohammad Reza Alizadeh
• Ebrahim Azizi
• Gholamhossein Elham (spokesman)
• Mohsen Esmaili
• Abbas Ka'bi

See also[link]

	Iran portal
	Islam portal
	Politics portal

• History of political Islam in Iran

References[link]

External links[link]

• Detailed article on the Guardian Council from Encyclopaedia Iranica
• The official website of the Guardian Council (in Persian)
• Photos of members from official website (in Persian)
• Iran's Silent Coup 12 January 2004

Massoud Rajavi (Persian: مسعود رجوی‎, born 18 August 1948), is the president of the National Council of Resistance of Iran and the leader of People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI, also known as the MEK), an opposition organization active inside and outside of Iran. After leaving Iran in 1981, he resided in France and Iraq. Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, he has not made any public appearances, although it is believed he has sent several audio messages to his followers. The last of these messages was sent on 22 August 2011 congratulating the overthrow of Gaddafi in Libya and the great victory of the people.

Biography[link]

Massoud Rajavi is a graduate of political law from Tehran University. He joined the PMOI when he was 20 and a law student at Tehran University. Later on he was arrested by SAVAK (the Shah's secret police) and was sentenced to death. Due to efforts by his brother Prof. Kazem Rajavi, Amnesty International, the International Committee of the Red Cross, as well as distinguished European personalities such as François Mitterrand, he was not executed and remained in prison until released by the people during the revolution in 1979. His death sentence was commuted as a result of international pressure.^[1] Prof. Kazem Rajavi was assassinated in April 1990 in Geneva by agents of the Iranian Islamic regime.^[2] Massoud Rajavi was released from prison three weeks before the revolution in February 1979. Upon his release, Rajavi assumed leadership of the Islamic MEK, reclaiming the name from the Marxists.^[3] This was the beginning of the MEK as it exists today. Rajavi and the MEK actively opposed the Shah of Iran and participated in the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

Following the Islamic revolution in 1979 and the removal of the Shah, MEK vigorously pursued its objective of establishing democracy in Iran.^[4] Although MEK had begun as a very small organization – given that the majority of its members just emerged from prison in 1979 – its membership grew quickly.^[5] However, the group's ideology, which was quite different from the Ayatollahs’ interpretation of Islam, clashed with Ayatollah Khomeini's government. By the time Iran’s first presidential election took place in January 1980, MEK had gathered significant support in Iran, including support from Jews and Kurds.^[6] Rajavi was one of the candidates for Iran's presidential elections; however before the final result of the election was announced, Ayatollah Khomeini ordered to omit Rajavi's name from the list of candidates.^[7] When Rajavi was barred from running for office, many Kurds, who widely supported Rajavi, also boycotted the election.^[8] In a speech in June 1980 at Tehran’s Amjadieh Stadium, Rajavi criticized the regime’s leaders, especially Ayattollah Khoimeini, about the suppression of liberties.

In 1981, when Ayatollah Khomeini dismissed President Bani Sadr and a new wave of arrests and executions started in the country, Rajavi and Bani Sadr flew to Paris from Tehran's airbase. In 1986 Rajavi moved to Iraq and set up a base on the Iranian border.^[9][10] Rajavi was welcomed in Baghdad by then-Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.^[11] According to some claims,MEK forces assisted Saddam in his 1991 campaign against the Kurds.^[12] The claim proved to be false when Mr. Hoshyar Zebari, a former leader in the Kurdish Democratic Party and now the foreign minister of Iraq, signed a document taken from a lawsuit in the Netherlands which specifically states that MEK never showed hostilities toward the Kurds, “we have not come across any evidence to suggest that the Mojahedin have exercised any hostility towards the people of Iraqi Kurdistan.”^[13] On Nov 30, 2007 a British Court, The Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission (POAC), ruled to the annulment of the terrorist designation and ordered the British government to remove PMOI from the terrorist list.^[14][15] On 23 January 2008, the European Council's Parliamentary Assembly, meeting in Strasbourg, backed a report attacking the methods used by the UN Security Council and the EU to blacklist individuals and groups suspected of having terrorist connections abuse basic rights and are "completely arbitrary". This issue covers the case of the PMOI.^[16] The US State Department, however, still classifies the MEK as a terrorist organization.^[17][11]

Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein welcomes Massoud Rajavi in Baghdad

Following the American invasion of Iraq, Massoud Rajavi disappeared, presumably fearing retaliation by Iranian agents following the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime and subsequent loss of protection for him and his followers. No evidence has emerged as to his involvement in the radio messages he frequently sends to his followers. In his absence, Maryam Rajavi has assumed his responsibilities as leader of the MEK. As of 2005, over 300 members of the group had returned to Iran voluntarily and claimed asylum,^[18] however, 3,400 others still live in Camp Ashraf.

References[link]

1. ^ SeeAbrahamian, supranote 291
2. ^ See Hossein Abedini, Rafsanjani and His Hit Man, WASHINGTON TIMES, June 16, 2005.
3. ^ SeeAbrahamian, supranote 363 at 146¬147, 183.
4. ^ SeeAbrahamian, supranote 363 at 184.
5. ^ Seegenerally, Abrahamian, supranote 363
6. ^ SeeAbrahamian, supranote 363 at 198.
7. ^ http://www.iacnorcal.com/Iranhistory.html
8. ^ SeeAbstract, NEW YORK TIMES, Jan. 26, 1980 (1980 WLNR 272101).
9. ^ Council on Foreign Relations, "Backgrounder: Mujahadeen-e-Khalq (Iranian Rebels)."
10. ^ Smith, Craig S. (September 24, 2005). "An implacable opponent to the mullahs of Iran". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/23/world/africa/23iht-profile.html?_r=1. 
11. ^ ^{a b} http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2010/08/26/117689.html
12. ^ Rubin, Elizabeth. "The Cult of Rajavi." The New York Times, July 13, 2003.
13. ^ SeeWright, supranote 455
14. ^ "Christopher Booker: Iranians freed from ban". The Daily Telegraph (London). December 2, 2007. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/02/nbook102.xml. Retrieved May 12, 2010. 
15. ^ http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=paIran_fr12_Iran_opposition_blacklist&show_article=1&state=-1%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C1%7C0%7C0
16. ^ http://euobserver.com/22/25123
17. ^ "Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs)". US Department of State. 2005. Archived from the original on 2006-09-19. http://web.archive.org/web/20060919212637/http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/fs/37191.htm. Retrieved 2006-09-22. 
18. ^ Angela Woodall (2005). "Group on U.S. terror list lobbies hard". United Press International. http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2005/050531-terror-list.htm. Retrieved 2007-07-19. 

External links[link]

	Iran portal
	Biography portal

• Official Website of the PMOI
• Website of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
• Official Website of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in Persian
• National Council of Resistance of Iran - Foreign Affairs Committee