Reports

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 

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 

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.

Amnesty International, 2 September 2020, 00:00 UTC

Iran’s police, intelligence and security forces, and prison officials have committed, with the complicity of judges and prosecutors,  a catalogue of shocking human rights violations, including arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment, against those detained in connection with the nationwide protests of November 2019, said Amnesty International in a damning new report published today.

The report, Trampling humanity: Mass arrests, disappearances and torture since Iran’s 2019 November protests, documents the harrowing accounts of dozens of protesters, bystanders and others who were violently arrested, forcibly disappeared or held incommunicado, systemically denied access to their lawyers during interrogations, and repeatedly tortured to “confess”. They are among the 7,000 men, women and children arrested by the Iranian authorities within a matter of days during their brutal repression of the protests.

Read the full report here

20 May 2020, 07:07 UTC

Amnesty International has released details of the deaths of 304 men, women and children killed by Iran’s security forces during last November’s ruthless crackdown, six months after the protests.

The organization found that more than 220 of the recorded deaths took place over just two days on 16 and 17 November. New and extensive research has again concluded that the security forces’ use of lethal force against the vast majority of those killed was unlawful.

In almost all protests that took place between 15 and 19 November, there is no evidence that people were in possession of firearms or that they posed an imminent threat to life that would have warranted the use of lethal force, according to research, including video analysis, conducted by Amnesty International. The organization is aware of two exceptions in one city on 18 November where gunfire was exchanged between protesters and security forces.

“The fact that so many people were shot while posing no threat whatsoever shows the sheer ruthlessness of the security forces’ unlawful killing spree,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“Six months later, the devastated families of victims continue their struggle for truth and justice while facing intense harassment and intimidation from the authorities.

“The prevailing impunity afforded to the security forces allows the recurrence of lethal force to crush dissent. In the absence of any meaningful prospect for accountability at the national level, we reiterate our call to members of the UN Human Rights Council to mandate an inquiry into the killings, and identify pathways for truth, justice and reparations.”

Read the full report here