Middle East
Publisher: Iran Human Rights
31 Dec 2014
Secret Mass-Executions of Drug-Convicts in Kerman Prison
Tens of prisoners have been executed in the past few months in the prison of Kerman (Southeastern Iran) and their executions have not been announced by the official media. Most of the prisoners have been convicted of drug-related charges. It is not known how long these executions have been going on but it is certain that the executions are not limited only to the past few months.
Publisher: Iran Human Rights
23 Dec 2014
Baha’is Have No Citizenship Rights, Says Grand Ayatollah
A high-ranking cleric and Khomeini-era member of the Supreme Judicial Council has told Fars News Agency that Baha is are not entitled to citizenship rights. The statement was made only weeks after Mohammad Javad Larijani, Head of the Iranian Judiciary s Human Rights Council, denied the systematic denial of Baha is right to higher education.
Publisher: Iran Human Rights
23 Dec 2014
Prison Sentence for Young Facebook User Increased from 15 to 20 Years
A Tehran Revolutionary Court has increased the sentence of a 21-year-old Facebook user from 15 to 20 years in prison for his postings on Facebook. The case was originally appealed in the hope that the severe 15-year sentence would be reduced. However, the appeals court remanded the case to the lower court because one of the charges, insulting the sacred, was not addressed in the original ruling.
Publisher: Iran Human Rights
4 Dec 2014
18 Executions for Drug-Related Charges in One Day in Iran
Publisher: Iran Human Rights
14 Nov 2014
Is UN Engagement Having an Impact on Iran’s Human Rights? Absolutely.
In an interview broadcast last Friday, a Euronews reporter asked Mohammad Javad Larijani, the head of the Iranian judiciary s Human Rights Council, if he was proud that Iran leads the world in executions per capita. In response, Larijani said: Not at all, we are very much unhappy and uneasy about that and we are trying hard to change the laws which are bringing that situation about. As you know and I [have] said several times [...] more than almost 80% of these executions [are] stemming from narcotic drug related crimes. I think if we change the law [on narcotics], 80% of our executions will be dropped.
Publisher: Iran Human Rights
21 Oct 2014
Sotoudeh Stages Sit-in to Protest Ban on Her Legal Practice
Human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh began a sit-in on October 21, 2014, at the Iranian Bar Association in Tehran to protest a ruling that puts a three-year ban on her legal practice, and in protest against the general state of legal representation in Iran. One day before starting the sit-in, in an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, she said that the protest will be of unlimited duration, until the Iranian Bar Association takes action on her demands.
Publisher: Iran Human Rights
14 Oct 2014
New Videos Confront Iran’s Rights Violations through Personal Stories of Persecution
Impact Iran, a coalition of human rights organizations, in partnership with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, today launched a new video, "Promises Made, Promises Broken." The video is part of a series aimed at drawing attention to Iran's second Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the UN Human Rights Council on October 31, 2014. A new video will be released each week leading up to the review.
Publisher: Iran Human Rights
29 Sep 2014
Eighteen Nobel Laureates Call for Immediate Release of Iranian Physicist
Omid Kokabee s Health in Great Danger, Requires Immediate Medical Treatment. Kokabee, an Iranian physicist completing his PhD at the University of Texas, Austin, is serving a ten-year sentence since his arrest in Tehran in January 2011. During his prosecution, the prosecutors charged him with "communicating with a hostile government," and receiving "illegitimate funds" without any substantiating evidence.
Publisher: Iran Human Rights
17 Sep 2014
As Rouhani Comes to NY, Domestic Repression in Iran Remains Unabated
Ahead of President Rouhani s visit to New York next week, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran released a video today, bringing into sharp focus the disconnect between Rouhani s rhetoric on domestic affairs and the reality on the ground. The record of the past year speaks for itself. The number of executions continues to distinguish Iran as the highest state executioner in the world on a per capita basis. Freedom of expression, assembly, and association remain highly restricted. Iran remains the second largest prison for journalists in the world. Gender policies aiming to exclude women from public life, particularly in higher education and employment, have increased. Hundreds of political prisoners remain behind bars, many imprisoned following the disputed 2009 election. The Campaign urges diplomats, the international media, and experts who will meet Rouhani during his visit to express their serious concerns regarding Iran s continued abysmal human rights record.
Publisher: Iran Human Rights
11 Sep 2014
More Than Two Months in Solitary Confinement for Protesting Exclusion of Women in Stadium
A young woman s detention in solitary confinement continues after her June 30, 2014 arrest, following her earlier arrest and release outside a Tehran sports stadium when she tried to attend a volleyball game. Ghoncheh Ghavami s lawyer, Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabaee, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that he is unaware of his client s charges despite the fact that Ghavami has been in solitary confinement at Evin Prison for more than two months and her temporary detention orders have been extended twice.
Publisher: Iran Human Rights
4 Sep 2014
Gender Segregation Gains Momentum in Iran: Women Prohibited from More Jobs
The accelerated efforts to restrict women s access to jobs, professions, and public venues continue in Iran. In the latest announcement, Colonel Khalil Helali, Head of the Public Buildings Office of the Iranian Police, said on August 30, 2014, that henceforth women are not allowed employment in coffee shops, coffee houses, and traditional Iranian restaurants. No laws or reasons were cited as the basis for the decision to bar women from having such jobs.
Publisher: Iran Human Rights
20 Aug 2014
Political Prisoners at Evin Transferred into Quarantine without Explanation
Twenty-seven political prisoners have been transferred from Evin Prison s Ward 350 to quarantine, where they are now being held in conditions tantamount to clear and serious ill treatment. In an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Atieh Taheri, the wife of Saeed Matinpour, who is an Azeri journalist and civil activist and one of the prisoners transferred into quarantine, reported that Matinpour believes the transfer will last for some time. In a brief phone conversation with his wife, Matinpour said no reason had been given for the sudden transfer of prisoners from this ward.
Publisher: Iran Human Rights
28 Jun 2014
Mass execution of 11 prisoners in Ghezelhesar Prison of Iran
Publisher: Iran Human Rights
29 Mar 2014
Hundreds of Lawyers Advocate on Behlaf of Imprisoned Dervish Lawyers
In two separate letters addressed to Head of the Iranian Judiciary Sadegh Larijani, hundreds of Iranian lawyers have asked him for his immediate review of the judicial violations in the cases of four imprisoned Dervish lawyers. According to Majzooban-e Noor website, in one of the letters, 177 lawyers asked Larijani to review Judge Salavati s conduct in the cases. "Issues such as the defendants' lack of access to a lawyer of their choosing, failure to make the cases available to all the lawyers involved to prepare their defense, failure to invite all lawyers representing the defendants to the trial sessions, and convening the court in the absence of all lawyers and a representative from the Prosecutor s Office, all of which, if confirmed, are clear violations of the Constitution and relevant laws."
Publisher: Iran Human Rights
15 Mar 2014
Joint letter on Iran to the Human Rights Council
This year, renewal of the Iran mandate will have added significance. Seven months into the term of President Hassan Rouhani, who won the election after promising to improve the human rights situation in Iran, those living in Iran continue to suffer violations of their civil and political rights, as well as economic, social, and cultural rights.
Publisher: Iran Human Rights
20 Feb 2014
12 prisoner executed in Iran today- Two hanged in public
Publisher: Iran Human Rights
5 Feb 2014
IHR Carl Bildt, Put Iran’s Deteriorating Human Rights on Top of the Agenda
Iran Human Rights (IHR) calls on governments and the international community to use dialogue with the Iranian authorities to improve the deteriorating human rights situation in Iran. IHR spokesman Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: "We ask Swedish Foreign minister Carl Bildt in particular to raise the recent executions of two Ahwazi Arab activists and question why were they executed. Why were they not given a fair trial? Why have their families been threatened and still have not received the bodies of their loved ones?"