Students’ Virtual Pages Are Not “a Basis for Disciplinary Board Decisions”

The Deputy Minister of Health says that according to the amended regulations of university disciplinary boards, respecting students’ privacy is “mandatory.” The drafting of this regulation dates back to over two decades ago, and its amendment was recently circulated.

The new executive procedure for the student disciplinary board was drawn up based on regulations from this board that were first approved on September 5, 1995 (14 Shahrivar 1374) by the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution.

This regulation was amended once in 2009, and the discussion to draft a new executive procedure for it was raised by the Ministry of Health at the beginning of this year and was signed in August of this year by the Ministers of Health and Science, Massoud Nemmaki and Mansour Ghlamali.

The state news agency IRNA reported on Tuesday, September 3 that the revised procedure of the disciplinary board regulation was circulated by the cultural and student affairs deputies of the two aforementioned ministries to all universities and higher education institutions.

According to this report, based on the new executive procedure: “Respecting students’ privacy is mandatory, and boards are not permitted under any circumstances to pry into a student’s privacy or to gather evidence and information or ask questions unrelated to the alleged violation for the purposes of obtaining evidence, and investigation is only permitted regarding the alleged violation attributed to the student.”

One of the issues that has repeatedly faced significant protests in university environments and beyond has been the attribution of accusations to students because of their activities in virtual space.

IRNA, citing the student affairs deputy of the Ministry of Health, says that according to the amendments made to the executive procedure of the disciplinary board, students’ “personal virtual pages” cannot serve as “a basis for the decisions of university disciplinary boards.”

The website “Mofda” (the news portal of the student affairs deputy of the Ministry of Health) published the PDF version of the complete text of the “Executive Procedure Regulation of Disciplinary Boards” on Monday, September 2.

Prohibition of Prying into Students’ Privacy

This document is composed of 39 pages, contains 123 articles and 113 notes, and was signed on August 27 by the Ministers of Health and Science and handed over to the student affairs deputies of these two ministries for circulation.

Article 15 of this procedure is titled “Principle of Non-Prying,” which emphasizes the obligation to respect students’ privacy. Based on this article, evidence and reasons obtained through violation of students’ privacy or “other illegal means” cannot serve as a basis for disciplinary decisions against them.

In this article, “secretly preparing any kind of film, picture, or image such as prying into the tools and personal virtual pages belonging to a student” is defined as one of the instances of violating individuals’ privacy.

Apparently, given the actions taken against students because of their activities in virtual space, this section of the regulation has received greater attention in social networks.

The Principle of Student Innocence

Article 4 of the new executive procedure is also titled “The Principle of Innocence,” which emphasizes that the presumption is in favor of the student’s innocence, and any doubt regarding the determination of “the act being a violation” and “attribution of the committed violation” should be interpreted in favor of the student.

The third clause of this article states: “In the absence of any evidence establishing and attributing a violation, the student need not provide evidence to prove his or her innocence.”

The principle of innocence also exists in the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran; nevertheless, over the past four decades, countless examples of baseless arrest of innocent people have been observed, and in cases that are not few, individuals were forced under torture to “confess” to crimes they did not commit.

One of the most recent examples is Maziar Ebrahimi, who was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the “assassination of nuclear scientists” and his “confessions” were broadcast on state television, but after his release and residence in Germany, he revealed that these confessions were extracted from him under torture and were a repetition of a scenario by security agents that he agreed to under pressure.

Since the beginning of this year, news has been published about the revision of the executive regulation of university disciplinary boards. The Information Center of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution also reported in April that the cultural and student affairs deputy of the Ministry of Health had submitted proposals for this, the review of which was on the agenda.

Mohammad Reza Aref, head of the Education and Research Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, on April 1 emphasized the necessity of students’ presence and active participation in virtual space and told the ISNA news agency: “The approach of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution and parliament is that students should be free within the framework of regulations. Creating restrictions for students is detrimental to higher education in the country.”

At the beginning of this year, following the publication of news about the actions of university disciplinary committees regarding “student violations in virtual space,” the Ministry of Science announced on March 27 the Ministry of Health’s proposal for implementing “some minimal amendments” to the disciplinary regulation of universities, which has now been circulated for implementation.

Source: DW