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NEW SPECIAL REPORT “NO DEFENCE” EXPOSES SYSTEMATIC ASSAULT ON LAWYERS AND BAR INDEPENDENCE IN IRAN

CSHR and IBAHRI warn of deepening rule-of-law crisis and urge urgent international action

London, November 2025 — The Centre for Supporters of Human Rights (CSHR), together with the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), today released “No Defence: A Report on the Status of Lawyers and the Bar Associations in Iran – Challenges and Recommendations,” a major new special report documenting the escalating, state-driven erosion of the legal profession in Iran. 

The report presents a comprehensive, evidence-based account of how restrictive laws, political prosecutions, security-agency interference, and gender-based discrimination have converged to strip lawyers of independence, endanger their lives, and weaken fair trial rights for all Iranians.

Opening the report, Margaret Satterthwaite, UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, underscores both the gravity of the crisis and the courage of those resisting it.

“Lawyers in Iran continue to practice law, seeking to represent their clients fairly and independently,” she writes, even as they face “threats, harassment, criminal sanctions and even imprisonment.” Her preface frames the findings as a clear call for principled, sustained international solidarity.

Drawing on legal analysis and documented patterns over recent years, No Defence finds that Iran’s legal community is increasingly forced to operate under conditions incompatible with basic international standards. The report details how restrictive laws, political prosecutions, security- agency interference, and institutional capture of bar associations are systematically dismantling the right to defence and hollowing out fair-trial guarantees for all Iranians.

“The persecution of lawyers in Iran is not a side-effect of repression. It is one of its central tools,” said Dr. Shabnam Moinipour, a human rights expert and Programme Director at CSHR. “When independent lawyers are threatened, disbarred, or imprisoned for doing their jobs, the public is left without protection and the courts become instruments of coercion rather than justice. This report shows, in clear and documented terms, that the state is dismantling the last safeguards of accountability by attacking those who stand between citizens and arbitrary power.”

Reflecting on the particular cost borne by women in the profession, Dr. Leila Alikarami, a prominent lawyer and human rights advocate, said: “Female lawyers carry a double burden: defending human rights while daring to confront discriminatory laws and practices. Over the years, restrictions and threats against lawyers in Iran have pushed many to avoid representing the people who need defence most. Yet this repression has not stopped dissent. Instead, it has only deepened a culture of lawlessness and contempt for the rule of law, fuelling greater tension and confrontation between the state and society.”

Responding to these findings, Ms. Francesca Restifo, senior human rights lawyer and UN Representative for IBAHRI, added: “No Defence is more than a report. It is an alarm. It demonstrates that Iran’s authorities are deliberately stripping people of the right to an independent lawyer precisely where it matters most: in political and national-security cases.

Attacking the legal profession is a direct attack on fair-trial rights, on civic space, and on the possibility of lawful dissent. The international community must treat the protection of Iran’s lawyers as an urgent rule-of-law imperative.”

Formal International Endorsement

No Defence is formally endorsed by leading legal and human rights bodies, reflecting broad global concern about the collapse of professional independence and fair-trial guarantees in Iran.

The report urges coordinated action by international legal institutions, UN mechanisms, and governments to end reprisals against lawyers, repeal laws that undermine independent defence, and restore bar self-governance in line with international standards, including the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers. It sets out practical short-term protection measures for at-risk lawyers and long-term recommendations to rebuild professional independence.

Availability

“No Defence: A Report on the Status of Lawyers and the Bar Associations in Iran – Challenges and Recommendations” is available HERE.

Media Contacts

The Centre for Supporters of Human Rights (CSHR)

Press Office: [email protected]

Website: en.cshr.org.uk

International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI)

Press Office: [email protected]

Website: ibanet.org

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No Defence, a Report on the Status of Lawyers and the Bar Associations in Iran: Challenges and Recommendations

by editorfz
written by editorfz

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the legal, institutional, and systemic barriers that restrict lawyers in Iran from freely practicing their profession. It examines how a combination of restrictive laws, politically motivated prosecutions, security interference, and gender-based discrimination have increasingly undermined the ability of lawyers to carry out their duties without fear of retaliation. These pressures have not only compromised the independence of the legal profession but have also contributed to the broader erosion of the rule of law. By documenting specific cases and patterns, the report highlights the growing risks faced by Iranian lawyers and the shrinking space for legal advocacy and human rights defence in the country.

The first objective of this report is to investigate and analyse, and to compile a single, authoritative narrative of how successive state policies have eroded the role of the Iranian bar. The second objective is to advocate based on the findings, by providing UN special procedures, treaty bodies, and relevant international actors, including bar associations, with verified and reliable material for use in calls, appeals, country reviews, and thematic reports. The third objective is to raise public awareness, both inside and outside Iran, by equipping civil society actors, journalists, and academics with accessible analysis, galvanizing support for lawyers under attack, and underscoring what is at stake for the people of Iran.

A central theme is the gap between Iran’s ordinary courts, which are bound by the Iranian Code of Criminal Procedure, including certain fair trial safeguards, and the Revolutionary Courts, which since 1979 have tried political and national security cases, in closed hearings, with curtailed evidence rules, and under the restrictive Note to Article 48 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. This provision requires defendants in national security and political cases to choose their lawyers from a list pre-approved by the judiciary, effectively denying them the right to independent counsel. The report dedicates separate sections to Revolutionary Court practices, including the arrest of defence counsel and the rapid confirmation of death sentences, as well as to subtler forms of interference in the ordinary judiciary, such as licensing restrictions and disciplinary measures imposed by the Supreme Disciplinary Court.

By clarifying key terms, “legal profession” (lawyers, judges, prosecutors), “lawyer” (individual counsel), and “Bar Association” (provincial bars), the report illustrates institutional capture can coexist with individual resilience. In doing so, it provides a precise and actionable portrait of a profession besieged by arbi-
trary power.

The report concludes that the legal profession in Iran faces profound challenges, including state interference, security-related repression, and gender-based barriers. These pressures undermine fair trial guarantees, the independence of bar associations, and the rule of law. Despite this, Iranian lawyers continue to demonstrate resilience and a commitment to justice. Addressing the systematic suppression of the profession requires co-ordinated action by Iranian lawyers, civil society, and sustained international engagement to restore independence and safeguard fundamental rights.

Based on these findings, the report puts forward practical recommendations. Strengthening the legal profession in Iran requires both short- and long-term measures. In the short term, lawyers and bar associations should prioritize solidarity, make effective use of existing legal tools, and raise public awareness through media outreach. In the longer term, efforts must focus on structural reforms, including building international support networks, drafting laws to safeguard bar independence and lawyers’ rights, and reinforcing the role and credibility of lawyers within society.

To read the full report in PDF format click here

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Iran: Upholding Human Rights & Dignity of the Kurdish Kulbar Community

by editorfz
written by editorfz

The Kurdish community engaged in kulbari confronts significant obstacles in accessing human rights protections and living with dignity. This report scrutinizes the predicament of those within the Kurdish kulbar community, emphasizing the critical need for elevated living standards, human rights protections and measures that preserve and enhance dignity. Kulbars, meaning ‘back-carriers’ in Persian and Kurdish, serve as cross-border couriers.

They play a pivotal yet often overlooked role in regional economies, facilitating the movement of goods across the challenging terrains that lie between western Iran and its neighbouring countries. Their contributions support the living standards of marginalized border communities within Iran. Despite their importance, the kulbars’ informal work is plagued by numerous hurdles and precipitated by the scarcity of gainful employment in their regions. This scarcity is compounded by perilous landscapes, inadequate employment protections typically afforded to formal economy workers, state-led human rights abuses, including excessive and lethal force, and legal ambiguities, notably a lack of accountability. 

This report highlights the complex interplay of socio-economic, legal and human rights factors that shape the lives of kulbars, shedding light on the adverse conditions and risks they encounter. It explores the implications for individuals, their communities and the broader regional context. Byexamining the challenges faced by kulbars, the report advocates for a new, decisive and comprehensive understanding of the kulbari phenomenon by both regional and national state representatives in Iran, alongside regional and international stakeholders. It asserts that informal workers, too, are entitled to the same rights as those in the formal sector. The report calls for targeted, practical and legal interventions to tackle the systemic issues affecting kulbars, aiming to enhance their well-being and safeguard their rights in the western border regions of Iran.

FULL REPORTDownload

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HRW: Iran: Security Forces Kill, Torture, Abuse Children

by editorfz
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(Beirut) – Iran’s security forces repressing widespread protests have unlawfully killed, tortured, sexually assaulted, and disappeared children as part of a pattern of serious violations, Human Rights Watch said today.

Iranian authorities have also arrested, interrogated, and prosecuted children in violation of legal safeguards, and judges have barred children’s families from hiring lawyers of their choice to defend them, convicted children on vague charges, and tried them outside of the youth courts that have sole jurisdiction over children’s cases. Security forces have arrested and detained children without notifying their families, sometimes for weeks. Students released from detention have been barred from returning to school, or authorities have cut off their families’ social welfare, resulting in the children having to go to work.

“Iranian leaders have unleashed their brutal security forces to sexually assault and torture children, and have not spared children from ludicrously unfair trials,” said Tara Sepehri Far, senior Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Over the past seven months, the authorities have not hesitated to extend the coercive power of the state to silence even children.”

Read the report here

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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 2020/21: THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S HUMAN RIGHTS

by editorfz
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Amnesty International, 7 April 2021

The Amnesty International Report 2020/21 documents the human rights situation in 149 countries in 2020, as well as providing global and regional analysis. It presents Amnesty lnternational’s concerns and calls for action to governments and others. During 2020, the world was rocked by COVID-19. The pandemic and measures taken to tackle it impacted everyone, but also threw into stark relief, and sometimes aggravated, existing inequalities and patterns of abuse.

Iran

The authorities heavily suppressed the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly. Security forces used unlawful force to crush protests. The authorities continued to arbitrarily detain hundreds of protesters, dissidents and human rights defenders, and sentenced many to imprisonment and flogging. Women, as well as ethnic and religious minorities, faced entrenched discrimination as well as violence. Enforced disappearances, torture and other ill-treatment were committed with impunity on a widespread and systematic basis.

Judicial corporal punishments amounting to torture, including floggings and amputations, were imposed. Fair trial rights were systematically violated. The death penalty was used as a weapon of political repression. Executions were carried out, one in public and some others in secret. Those executed included people aged under 18 at the time of the crime. The authorities continued to commit crimes against humanity by systematically concealing the fate and whereabouts of several thousand political dissidents forcibly disappeared and extrajudicially executed in secret in 1988. Mass graves believed to contain their remains were subject to ongoing destruction.

Read the full report here 

 

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URGENT INTERNATIONAL ACTION NEEDED TO SECURE RELEASE OF KURDISH ACITVISTS AND OTHERS ARTBITRARILY DETAINED IN IRAN

by editorfz
written by editorfz

February 3, 2021

We, the undersigned 36 civil society and human rights organizations, call for the urgent attention of the international community to an ongoing wave of arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detention, and enforced disappearances by the Iranian authorities, targeting scores of people from Iran’s disadvantaged Kurdish minority in the provinces of Alborz, Kermanshah, Kurdistan, Tehran, and West Azerbaijan.

To date, the Iranian authorities have failed to provide any information about the reasons for the arrests, but according to credible information gathered from informed sources, there are serious concerns that the arrests are due to the individuals’ peaceful exercise of their rights to freedom of opinion, expression and association, including through involvement in peaceful civil society activism and/or perceived support for the political visions espoused by Kurdish opposition parties seeking respect for the human rights of Iran’s Kurdish minority.

Based on past patterns of documented human rights violations by the Iranian authorities, the undersigned organizations are seriously concerned that those detained are at risk of torture and other ill-treatment aimed at extracting forced “confessions”, and that these may be later used in grossly unfair trials for spurious national security related offences.

According to information gathered from informed sources, since 6 January 2021, at least 96 individuals (88 men and 8 women) from Iran’s Kurdish minority, including civil society activists, labour rights activists, environmentalists, writers, university students and formerly imprisoned political activists as well as individuals with no known history of activism, have been arrested by the intelligence unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards or ministry of intelligence agents, at times in a violent manner.

The arrests have taken place in at least 19 cities in five provinces including: Karaj (2) in Alborz province; Javanrud (1), Kermanshah (2), and Paveh (4) in Kermanshah province;

Baneh (1), Divandarreh (1), Kalatarzan (3), Marivan (9), Sanandaj (4), Saqqez (3), and Saravabad (4) in Kurdistan province; Tehran (3) in Tehran province; Baneh (1); Bukan (23), Mahabad (10), Naqadeh (4), Oshnavieh (11), Piranshahr (7), Rabat (3), and Urumieh (1) in West Azerbaijan province.

According to informed sources, most of the arrests have been carried out without the authorities presenting an arrest warrant to those detained. In fact, the prosecution authorities of Mahabad and Urumieh, which is the centre of West Azerbaijan province and most of those arrested have been brought to the detention centres therein, have told detainees’ families that their offices have not issued arrest warrants for those detained by the intelligence unit of the Revolutionary Guards, and they are not aware of their fate or whereabouts.

As of 2 February 2021, seven of those arrested had been released (in three cases on bail and in four cases unconditionally), but the rest remain in detention without access to their families and lawyers, and there are widespread fears that the wave of arbitrary arrests is continuing.

Incommunicado detention and enforced disappearances

According to information obtained from informed sources, of the 89 individuals who remain detained, at least 40 have are being subjected to enforced disappearance, and the authorities are refusing to reveal any information about their fate and whereabouts to their families.

The remaining 49 are held in the following locations: 25 in the detention centre of the ministry of intelligence in Urumieh, 13 in the detention centre of the intelligence unit of the Revolutionary Guards in Urumieh, three in the detention centre of the ministry of intelligence in Mariwan, five in the detention centre of the intelligence unit of the Revolutionary Guards in Sanandaj, two in the detention centre of the ministry of intelligence in Kermanshah, and one in the central prison in Mahabad.

The information concerning the whereabouts of these detainees emerged after some of them were allowed to make a brief phone calls to their families several hours or days after their arrests, informing them of their whereabouts. However, the authorities have refused to inform the detainees’ families of the reasons for their detention and have prohibited further communication between the detainees and their loved ones, including phone calls or family visitation. The detainees have been denied their rights to access legal counsel and to challenge the lawfulness of their detention, and the authorities have told their families that this situation will continue until the investigation process is completed.

These abusive detention conditions, which are in violation of both Iranian law and international human rights law, are placing the detainees at a serious risk of torture and other ill-treatment, which is practiced on a widespread and systematic basis in detention centers run by Iran’s security and intelligence bodies.

Revolutionary Guards and ministry of intelligence agents have subjected the families of detainees to threats and insults when they have sought information about their loved ones and warned them against speaking to the media or communicating with UN human rights bodies.

These abuses of due process render the latest arrests and detention, virtually in all cases, arbitrary and therefore unlawful.

Arbitrary arrests stemming from the peaceful exercise of human rights

According to information gathered, while a few of those arrested in the recent upsurge of repression are activists with a public profile and a prior record of involvement with environmental associations and cultural initiatives, the majority appear to be young men and women in their 20s who have pursued their nascent activism through informal circles focused on the civic and political empowerment of Iran’s Kurdish minority.

We are concerned that this crackdown on human rights and the intimidation, harassment and attacks against young Kurdish activists by the Iranian authorities is aimed at deterring them from engaging in community organizing and shaping a vision for their society.

We are further concerned by reports indicating that many individuals may have been targeted based on their perceived support for the political visions espoused by Kurdish opposition parties that are banned by the authorities in Iran.

Iranian authorities severely restrict or, in many cases, ban political opposition parties, especially those that represent ethnic minority communities such as Iranian Kurds. Some Kurdish opposition parties have separate armed wings based outside Iran, which engage in armed confrontation against government state authorities inside the country. The Iranian authorities routinely target individuals from Iran’s Kurdish minority for arbitrary arrest and detention simply based on their real or perceived support for or association with Kurdish opposition parties, and rarely provide sufficient evidence pointing to the direct or indirect involvement of the defendants in internationally recognizable offences.

We recall that the right to freedom of opinion and expression includes the right to be critical of the political social system espoused by the authorities and the right to peacefully advocate for any political ideas or visions so long as the idea spoused do not advocate hatred constituting incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence. Penalizing individuals because of the opinions they may hold is a serious violation of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, protected under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Iran is a state party.

Appalling track record

For decades, ethnic minorities in Iran, including Kurds, Ahwazi Arabs, Azerbaijani Turks, Baluchis and Turkmen, have faced entrenched discrimination, curtailing their access to education, employment, adequate housing and political office. Continued under-investment in minority-populated regions exacerbated poverty and marginalization. Despite repeated calls for linguistic diversity, Persian remains the sole language of instruction in primary and secondary education.

According to Kurdish human rights groups, in 2020, over 500 people from Iran’s Kurdish minority, including human rights defenders, were arrested for politically motivated reasons and charged with broad and vaguely worded national security-related offences. At least 159 of them were subsequently sentenced to prison terms ranging from one month to 17 years and four received the death penalty. 1

1 The names of those sentenced to death in 2020 are Mohayyedin Tazehvared, Heidar Ghorbani, Saman Karimi and Shaker Behrouzi.

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According to the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, “Kurdish political prisoners charged with national security offences … constitute a disproportionately high number of those who

2

We are gravely concerned that the failure to investigate, prosecute, and remove from positions of power those responsible for ordering, implementing and acquiescing to arbitrary arrests and detention, enforced disappearances, incommunicado detentions, torture and other ill-treatment in Iran has resulted in widespread and systematic patterns of human rights violations and crimes under international law, committed with absolute impunity.

We, the undersigned civil society and human rights organizations call on the international community to urgently raise the concerns documented above with the Iranian authorities and urge them to:

  • Immediately and unconditionally release all those arbitrarily detained and end the campaign of arbitrary arrests of Kurdish people;
  • Pending their release, protect all detainees from torture and other ill-treatment;
  • Immediately inform families of the fate, whereabouts and legal status of their detained relatives in state custody and put an end to the practice of enforced disappearance;
  • Ensure that individuals deprived of their liberty are granted their rights to notify a third person, access legal counsel, challenge the lawfulness of detention, and remain silent, and ensure that statements obtained in violation of the right to notification of rights are not admissible at trial;
  • Carry out independent, impartial and transparent investigations into allegations of torture and other ill-treatment, and bring those responsible to justice in fair trials;
  • End discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities, in law and practice, and respect, protect, promote and fulfil the human rights of everyone in the country; and
  • Establish an official moratorium on all executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty .

    2 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, 18 July 2019, para. 87, available at: https://undocs.org/A/74/188
    3 The victims included Mustafa Salimi (April), Hedayat Abdullahpour (May), Diaku Rasoulzadeh (Juy) and Saber Sheikh Abdollah (July).

received the death penalty and are executed”. In 2020, at least four individuals from Iran’s Kurdish minority were executed following grossly unfair trials related to their alleged involvement in armed opposition.3

Signatories:
Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran
Ahwaz Human Rights Organization
All Human Rights for All in Iran
Amnesty International
Arseh Sevom
ARTICLE 19
Association for the Human Rights of the Azerbaijani people in Iran (AHRAZ) Association of Humanitarian Lawyers
Balochistan Human Rights Group
Baluch Activists Campaign Organization
Ceasefire Centre for Civilian Rights
Centre for Human Rights in Iran
Centre for Supporters of Human Rights
Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort (ECPM)
European Ahwazi Human Rights Organisation (EAHRO)
Gesellschft für bedrohte Völker
6Rang (Iranian Lesbian and Transgender network)
Hengaw Organization for Human Rights
Human Rights Watch
Impact Iran
Iran Human Rights
Iran Human Rights Documentation Center
International Educational Development, Inc.
Iranian Kurdistan Women’s Centre
Justice for Iran

Kurdistan Human Rights-Geneva (KMMK-G) Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) Miaan Group
Minority Rights Group International OutRight Action International

Siamak Pourzand Foundation
Société pour les peuples menacés, Suisse
Turkmen Human Rights Activists
United for Iran
Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) World Coalition Against the Death Penalty

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UN expert calls for “clear, unambiguous standards” to protect aircraft over conflict zones

by editorfz
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Iran missile strike against Ukraine airliner

8 January 2020

GENEVA (7 January 2021) – On the occasion of the first-year anniversary of the strike against Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) Flight PS752, which killed all 176 persons on board, a UN human rights expert has called for urgent measures to protect civilian aircraft flying in conflict zones or areas of high military tensions.

“The downing of Flight PS752 sadly highlights the insufficiencies of the international conventions related to air safety, both in preventing military actions against civilian planes, and in ensuring proper investigations should they occur,” said Agnès Callamard, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.

On 8 January 2020, 176 individuals lost their lives when their Ukraine International Airlines flight from Tehran to Kiev was struck by two Iranian missiles. The targeting of the Flight PS752 occurred in the context of heightened tensions between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States.

“This preventable tragedy requires urgent action from all stakeholders including States and airlines,” she said in a statement presenting a range of recommendations to strengthen the protection of the right to life of passengers on board civilian airlines.

Callamard said that in situations of military tensions, whether or not they are recognised as armed conflicts, the most effective means to prevent attacks on civil aviation is closing the airspace. All other options are secondary and may subject civil aircraft to risk. Yet, too often, States fail to do so for commercial or political reasons, she said.

“The international community must establish clear, explicit and unambiguous standards on when States should close airspace under their jurisdiction,” Callamard said. “If States are not acting responsibly to close the airspace under their jurisdiction, or restrict flights, then it is incumbent upon other States and airlines to take immediate action to restrict carriers from flying over or near a conflict zone.”

The expert also called on airlines to make their flight paths available to the public and to strengthen their capacity for risk assessment, including by following the highest standards and checking all information sources when planning flights routes.

“The many failings of the existing international system and institutions demonstrates the urgent need for a completely independent body (from both States and airlines) to monitor air safety in relation to conflicts, and to compile and disseminate information about risks to civil aviation related to flying over conflict zones,” Callamard said. “Such information should be made available to the public at large.

“Passengers and flight crew cannot be left at the mercy of States and airlines who put revenue and other motives ahead of safety. In a world of heightened military and political tensions, with a resurgence of conflicts and access to a multiplication of military grade weapons, the current international system responsible for civilian air safety is not fit for purpose. We must act now to prevent future incidents and save lives.”

The Special Rapporteur has written to the Iranian Government regarding the shooting down of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752.

Read the full statement here 

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Iran: Internet deliberately shut down during November 2019 killings – new investigation

by editorfz
written by editorfz

Amnesty International

16 November 2020, 00:01 UTC

The Iranian authorities deliberately shut down the internet during nationwide protests in November 2019, hiding the true scale of unlawful killings by security forces, Amnesty International said today.

On the anniversary of the deadliest day of the protests, Amnesty International is launching a new microsite, A web of impunity: The killings Iran’s internet shutdown hid, documenting how the lethal crackdown that left at least 304 people dead was hidden from the world.

“When news of the deadly crackdown began to emerge from Iran last November, the world was shocked by the brutal violence of the security forces. The authorities deliberately blocked internet access inside Iran, hiding the true extent of the horrendous human rights violations that they were carrying out across the country,” said Diana Eltahawy, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

“The government thought they could silence the population by taking the country offline, but the Iranian people were determined to tell the world the truth. Our new website is a tribute to the courage of everyone who captured on camera the scenes of violence that the authorities wanted to keep hidden.”

 

The microsite – a joint investigation between Amnesty International and The Hertie School, in partnership with the Internet Outage Detection and Analysis (IODA) project – features more than 100 verified videos from 31 cities, and reveals the repeated use of firearms, water cannons and tear gas by Iran’s security forces against unarmed protesters and bystanders.

To date, no one has been criminally investigated or held accountable for the killings. Amnesty International is again calling on member states of the United Nations Human Rights Council to mandate an inquiry into the unlawful killings to ensure those responsible for ordering, planning and carrying out the crimes are brought to justice in fair trials.

 

read the full report here 

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UN human rights experts call release of Iranian human rights defender a hopeful sign

by editorfz
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GENEVA (14 October 2020) – Independent human rights experts* today welcomed the release of long-imprisoned Iranian woman human rights defender Narges Mohammadi, after an Iranian court made use of a new law to reduce her sentence.

“We are encouraged that the decision of the Iranian judiciary has led to Ms. Mohammadi’s release after so many years in prison,” they said. “We hope that others who are currently detained arbitrarily – human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, conservationists, prisoners of conscience and dual and foreign nationals – will also be freed.”

Mohammadi, released on 8 October, has been imprisoned for her human rights work many times. Her latest imprisonment dates back to 2015. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found in 2017 that her detention was arbitrary and called for her immediate release. Other experts also raised concerns with the Iranian authorities about her detention, including her access to medical treatment. Most recently, in July 2020, the experts demanded medical treatment for Ms. Mohammadi after she showed symptoms of COVID-19.

Calling her release “a step in the right direction,” the experts today said they remain concerned that a previous conviction related to Ms. Mohammadi’s human rights work may still be active, and also expressed concern at the new charges that were laid against her in February 2020 connected to her peaceful activism inside prison.

“All the charges against Ms. Mohammadi reportedly relate to her exercise of freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly,” the experts said. “We urge the Iranian judiciary to ensure the right to be tried before an independent and impartial tribunal, to expeditiously review any additional cases against Ms. Mohammadi, and to quash and annul existing convictions so as to allow her to freely continue her important work defending human rights without the fear of State harassment or arbitrary detention.”

They said there are many other individuals who remain behind bars in the Islamic Republic of Iran simply for exercising their human rights.

Read the full statement here 

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Iran: Human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh must be freed for treatment, say UN experts

by editorfz
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GENEVA (25 September 2020) – UN independent experts expressed alarm at human rights lawyer and woman human rights defender Nasrin Sotoudeh’s return to Evin Prison in Iran this week despite her deteriorating health condition, and called for her immediate release.

“It is unfathomable that the Iranian authorities would return Ms. Sotoudeh to prison where she is at heightened risk to COVID-19, as well as with her serious heart condition,” the experts said.

“We urge the authorities to immediately reverse this decision, accept her requests to recuperate at home before undergoing a heart procedure, and allow her to freely choose her own medical treatment,” they added.

As well as raising their deep concerns for her health, the experts stressed that Ms. Sotoudeh’s current detention is again allegedly arbitrary. In 2011, after previously being imprisoned, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found she had been arbitrarily deprived of her liberty and called for her immediate release. Ms. Sotoudeh’s current imprisonment comes after she was sentenced in March 2019 to a combined prison sentence of over 30 years and 148 lashes on seven charges. Iranian law requires that she serve 12 years, the harshest of her seven sentences.

“Ms. Sotoudeh is a recognised human rights lawyer who fearlessly defends the rights of Iranians despite constant State harassment for over a decade,” the experts said. “She continues to raise her voice to defend human rights despite being imprisoned and in poor health.”

“The evidence suggests Ms. Sotoudeh’s imprisonment, both now and in the past, is State retaliation for her tireless work defending human rights. She is one of many Iranian human rights lawyers who are currently imprisoned for defending fundamental freedoms. Her convictions and sentences, as well as those of all other lawyers arbitrarily detained in Iran, should immediately be quashed and her case reviewed consistent with fair trial standards,” the experts added.

On 23 September 2020, the Iranian authorities returned Ms. Sotoudeh to Evin Prison from Taleghani Hospital, where she was admitted on 19 September for a serious heart condition. While in hospital, she was under the surveillance of State security officials, who reportedly obstructed her treatment, blocked family contact and mistreated her. She is also in a weakened condition after refusing food for over 40 days in protest  against poor hygiene measures in Iran’s prisons during COVID-19 and the authorities’ refusal to temporarily release detained human rights defenders, lawyers, political prisoners and prisoners of conscience under official COVID-19 directives.

The experts echoed Ms. Sotoudeh’s call for the Iranian authorities to grant temporary release to human rights defenders, lawyers, dual and foreign nationals, prisoners of conscience, political prisoners and all other individuals detained without sufficient legal basis during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ENDS

* The UN experts: Javaid Rehman, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran; Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; Ms. Leigh Toomey (Chair-Rapporteur),  Ms. Elina Steinerte (Vice-Chair), Mr. José Guevara Bermúdez, Mr. Seong-Phil Hong,  Mr. Sètondji Adjovi, Working Group on Arbitrary Detention;  Elizabeth Broderick (Chair),  Melissa Upreti (Vice Chair), Alda Facio, Meskerem Geset Techane, Ivana Radačić,Working Group on discrimination against women and girls; Nils Melzer, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; Diego García-Sayán, Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers; Dubravka Šimonovic, Special Rapporteur on violence against women; Mr. Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, Special Rapporteur on the rights to peaceful assembly and of association

The Special Rapporteurs and Working Groups are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.

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