The European Union handed to Iran a list of individual...

The European Union handed to Iran a list of individual human rights cases during two days of talks on the thorny issue in Tehran, a statement from the 15-member bloc said.
The statement said the list contained names of individuals to which EU members "attach particular importance", but did not say which cases were mentioned.
The talks, described as "open and constructive", were part of an EU bid to engage Iran, which includes boosting mutually beneficial trade while also scoring progress on sensitive political concerns.
Also discussed was the prevention of torture, as well as "women's rights and rights of minorities, racial discrimination and xenophobia".
The dialogue is scheduled to continue in early 2003, after the rotating EU presidency switches from Denmark to Greece, and the statement said the EU "will assess progress under the dialogue on the basis of concrete benchmarks."
The statement said the EU delegation also "took note of the agreement made by the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to receive a number of UN thematic rapporteurs", including the UN rapporteur on violence against women who will arrive in Iran in early 2003.
According to the Iranian foreign ministry, quoted by the official news agency IRNA, the meetings "aimed for a better understanding of human rights issues while striving to forge better recognition of the two parties' views."
Delegations from the two sides included legal specialists and judicial officials, NGO representatives, academics and deputies.