Iran urged to halt "crackdown" on women activists

U.N. human rights investigators called on Iran on Thursday to end what they called a "crackdown" on women's rights activists who have been harassed and detained for seeking equal status in the Islamic Republic.

Women and men involved in a grassroots movement to collect 1 million signatures to demand full equality between women and men in Iran have been "particularly targeted," they said.

"Over the past two years, women's rights defenders have faced an increasingly difficult situation and harassment in the course of their non-violent activities," the two independent experts said in a statement.

Some have been prevented from traveling in the ongoing "serious repression," according to Margaret Sekaggya, U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, and Yakin Erturk, special rapporteur on violence against women.

"Peaceful demonstrators have been arrested, detained and persecuted with prison sentences having been imposed on many of them," they said.

Dozens of activists were detained since the launch of a campaign in 2006 to demand changes to laws denying women equal rights in matters such as divorce and child custody. Most were freed after a few days or weeks.

Iran says it follows sharia, Islamic law, and denies accusations that it discriminates against women.

An Iranian-American student, Esha Momeni, was detained on security-related charges in mid-October during a visit to Iran from the United States to see family and carry out research on the women's movement in Iran. She was freed on bail last week.

The independent investigators, who are both women, report to the U.N. Human Rights Council.

They urged Iran to comply with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which guarantees fundamental freedoms including the right to opinion and peaceful association.

Iran is among 163 countries to have ratified that treaty.

"Women's participation in public life to promote an equal treatment of women and men in the Islamic Republic of Iran should be encouraged as a means to build a stronger and healthier society," the investigators said.

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Venezuela's Chavez oil price band

President Hugo Chavez said he is proposing that OPEC countries consider setting a price range for oil of $80 to $100 a barrel to stabilize the global market.

Chavez raised his proposal for an oil price band Monday night, along with other proposals Venezuela is promoting among fellow oil exporters.

"Let's look for a band between $80 and $100; we're thinking about that," Chavez said. "We think that price would be a fair price for oil."

He called it a "stabilization band to avoid those jumps to $160, suddenly to $50 - a terrible uncertainty."

Chavez suggested in September that oil producers should look to keep prices between $90 and $l00 a barrel.

Venezuela has said it will urge the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut production by 1 million barrels per day at its informal meeting in Cairo Saturday, and carry out those cuts before the end of the year.

Last month, the oil cartel cut output by 1.5 million barrels a day to boost prices.

Venezuela depends on oil for 94 percent of exports and roughly half the government's budget.

The socialist leader said Venezuela is evaluating the effects of falling oil prices, but has plenty of international reserves and other funds to weather the financial storm. Venezuela will not cut high levels of social spending, he said.

But Chavez said Venezuela could make some unspecified changes if prices stay at their current levels or lower throughout next year.

By mid-afternoon in Europe on Tuesday, light, sweet crude for January delivery was down $1.70 to $52.80 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices were trading in a range between $50.79 and $54.66.

By R. JONES