Guardian Council شورای نگهبان Shourā-ye Negahbān | |
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| Type | |
| Type | |
| Leadership | |
Secretary | Ahmad Jannati since 17 July 1992 |
| Structure | |
| Seats | 12 |
 By faction By party | |
Political groups | By faction
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| Meeting place | |
| Tehran,Iran | |
| Website | |
www | |
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| Government of Iran |
Supreme councils |
Local government |
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Related topics |
TheGuardian Council (also calledCouncil of Guardians orConstitutional Council,Persian:شورای نگهبان,romanized: Shourā-ye Negahbān)[1][2] is an appointed and constitutionally mandated 12-member council that wields considerable power and influence in theIslamic Republic of Iran.
The constitution of the Islamic Republic gives the council three mandates:
The Iranian constitution calls for the council to be composed of six Islamicfaqihs (experts in Islamic Law), "conscious of the present needs and the issues of the day" to be selected by theSupreme Leader of Iran, and six jurists, "specializing in different areas of law, to be elected by theMajlis (the Iranian Parliament) from among the Muslim jurists nominated by theChief Justice"[8] (who, in turn, is also appointed by the Supreme Leader).[9]
The Council has played a central role in controlling the interpretation of Islamic values in Iranian law in the following ways:
When the 2009 presidential election was announced, popular former presidentMohammad Khatami would not discuss his plans to run againstMahmoud Ahmadinejad, for the Council might have disqualified Khatami as it had other reformists' candidatures, on the grounds that they were not dedicated enough to Islamic values.[15][16]
There have also been instances where the Constitutional Council reversed its ban on particular people after being ordered to do so by Khamenei.[17]
The lack oftransparency in the rendering of decisions by the Guardian Council has eroded itslegitimacy in the eyes of Iranians and the world.[18]
The Majlis has no legal status without the Constitutional Council.[9] Any bill passed by theMajlis must be reviewed and approved by the Constitutional Council[9][19] to become law.
According to Article 96 of the constitution, the Constitutional Council holds absolute veto power over all legislation approved by the Majlis. It can nullify a law based on two accounts: being against Islamic laws,[20] or being against theconstitution. 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 agree on a case, it is passed up to theExpediency Council for a decision.[21]
The Constitutional Council is uniquely involved in the legislative process, with equal oversight with regards to economic law and social policy, including such controversial topics asabortion. Chapter 6 of the Constitution explains its interworkings with the Islamic Consultative Assembly. Articles 91-97 all fall into the legislative Chapter 6.
The Council of Guardians also functions similar to aconstitutional court. The authority to interpret the constitution is vested in the Council.[22] Interpretative decisions require a three-quarters majority. The Council does not conduct a court hearing where opposing sides are argued.
Since 1991, all candidates of parliamentary or presidential[23] elections, as well as candidates for the Assembly of Experts, have to be qualified by the Constitutional Council in order to run in the election. For major elections, it typically disqualifies most candidates, as seen in the 2009 election, where out of the 476 men and women applied to the Constitutional Council to seek the presidency, only four were approved.[24]
The Council is accorded "supervision of elections".[25][26] The Constitutional Council interprets the termsupervision in Article 99 of theIranian Constitution as "approbation supervision" (Persian:نظارت استصوابی,nezārat-e estesvābī)[27] which implies the right to accept or reject the legality of elections and the competency of candidates. This interpretation is in contrast with the idea of "notification supervision" (Persian:نظارت استطلاعی,nezārat-e estetlā‘ī) which does not imply the mentioned approval right.[28] The "evidentiary supervision" (Persian:نظارت استنادی,nezārat-e estenādī), which requires evidences for acceptance or rejection of elections legality and candidates competency, is another interpretation of mentioned article.[29][30]
On 29 June 2009, the Constitutional Council certified the results of thecontroversial election in which PresidentMahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected.[31] The Council had completed a recount of 10 per cent of the overall votes in order to appease the citizens of Iran.[32] As the "final authority on the election", the Council has declared the election closed.[33] The certification of the results set off a wave of protests, disregarding the Iranian government's ban on street marches.[31]
The Council favors military candidates at the expense of reform candidates. This ensures that the ideologicalIslamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (separate from the Iranian army) holds acommanding influence over the political, economic, and cultural life of Iran.[34]
Hadi Khamenei, the brother of Supreme LeaderAli Khamenei and an adviser in the administration of reformist former President Mohammad Khatami, has said the Constitutional Council's vetting of candidates threatens Iranian democracy. He believes some reformist candidates are wrongly kept from running.[35] In 1998, the Constitutional Council rejected his candidacy for a seat in theAssembly of Experts for "insufficient theological qualifications".[36][37]
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.[38]
In the run-up to the2006 Iranian Assembly of Experts election, all female candidates were disqualified.[39]
The Council disqualified many candidates in the 2008 parliamentary elections. One third of them were members of the outgoing parliament it had previously approved.[34] The Iranian Ministry of the Interior reasons for disqualification included 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.[34][40][41]
This unelected Council frequently vetoes bills passed by the popularly elected legislature.[39] It repeatedly vetoes bills that are in favour of women’s rights, electoral reform, the prohibition of torture and ratification of international human rights treaties.[38]
The Guardian Council has been criticized for oustingpro-Reform candidates who had won their elections, without providing legal justification or factual evidence. Examples of such interventions by the Guardian Council are:
The Council is composed ofIslamic clerics and lawyers.[47] Membership is for phased six-year terms: half the membership changes every three years.
The Supreme Leader (Iran'sHead of State) directly appoints the six clerics,[48] and may dismiss them at will.[49] The head of thejudicial system of Iran nominates six lawyers for confirmation by theMajlis.[48][50]
On 13 March 2021, the Iranian Constitutional Council officially launched its English service. The English website was inaugurated during the regular monthly press briefing of the spokesman of the Constitutional Council, Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei, in Tehran. The website,https://www.shora-gc.ir/en, has five main sections: News, Multimedia, Members, Legislation and the Constitution.
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| Name | Period | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980–86 | 1986–92 | 1992–98 | 1998–04 | 2004–10 | 2010–16 | 2016–22 | 2022– | ||
| Clerics | Ahmad Jannati | Yes | |||||||
| Mohammad Momen | — | Yes | — | ||||||
| Mohammad Emami Kashani | — | Yes | — | ||||||
| Gholamreza Rezvani | — | Yes | — | ||||||
| Abolghasem Khazali | — | Yes | — | ||||||
| Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi | — | Yes | — | ||||||
| Abdolrahim Rabbani Shirazi | Yes | — | |||||||
| Lotfollah Safi Golpaygani | Yes | — | |||||||
| Yousef Sanei | Yes | — | |||||||
| Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani | Yes | — | |||||||
| Mohammad Mohammadi Gilani | — | Yes | — | ||||||
| Reza Ostadi | — | Yes | — | ||||||
| Mohammad-Hassan Ghadiri | — | Yes | — | ||||||
| Hassan Taheri Khorramabadi | — | Yes | — | ||||||
| Mohammad Yazdi | — | Yes | — | ||||||
| Mohammad Reza Modarresi-Yazdi | — | Yes | |||||||
| Mohammad Mehdi Rabbani-Amlashi | Yes | — | |||||||
| Sadegh Larijani | — | Yes | — | Yes (until 2021) | — | ||||
| Mehdi Shabzendedar Jahromi | — | Yes | |||||||
| Alireza Arafi | — | Yes | |||||||
| Ahmad Khatami | — | Yes | |||||||
| Ahmad Hosseini Khorasani | — | Yes | |||||||
| Jurists | Mohsen Hadavi | Yes | — | ||||||
| Mehdi Hadavi | Yes | — | |||||||
| Mohammad Salehi | Yes | — | |||||||
| Ali Arad | Yes | — | Yes | — | |||||
| Hossein Mehrpour | Yes | — | |||||||
| Goudarz Eftekhar Jahromi | Yes | — | |||||||
| Jalal Madani | — | Yes | — | ||||||
| Khosro Bijani | Yes | — | |||||||
| Hassan Fakheri | — | Yes | — | ||||||
| Mohammad Reza Alizadeh | — | Yes | — | ||||||
| Hassan Habibi | — | Yes | — | ||||||
| Ahmad Alizadeh | — | Yes | — | ||||||
| Mohammad Reza Abbasifard | — | Yes | — | ||||||
| Reza Zavare'i | — | Yes | — | ||||||
| Ebrahim Azizi | — | Yes | — | ||||||
| Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei | — | Yes | — | Yes | |||||
| Gholamhossein Elham | — | Yes | — | ||||||
| Abbas Ka'bi | — | Yes | — | ||||||
| Mohsen Esmaeili | — | Yes | — | ||||||
| Mohammad Salimi | — | Yes | — | ||||||
| Siamak Rahpeyk | — | Yes | |||||||
| Hossein-Ali Amiri | — | Yes | — | ||||||
| Sam Savadkouhi | — | Yes | — | ||||||
| Nejatollah Ebrahimian | — | Yes | — | ||||||
| Fazlollah Mousavi | — | Yes | — | ||||||
| Mohammad Dehghan | — | Yes (until 2021) | — | ||||||
| Mohammad-Hassan Sadeghi Moghaddam | — | Yes (until 2025) | |||||||
| Hadi Tahan Nazif | — | Yes | |||||||
| Gholamreza Molabeygi | — | Yes (from 2021) | Yes | ||||||
| Kheyrollah Parvin | — | Yes | |||||||
| Behzad Pourseyyed | — | Yes (from 2025) | |||||||
| Note: Each period represents a six-year term from July to June and the number of members in a given period may exceed the maximum twelve-members quota because of the random rotations prescribed in the law.[52] | |||||||||
35°41′16.36″N51°24′4.35″E / 35.6878778°N 51.4012083°E /35.6878778; 51.4012083
