Dear Friend and Supporter, While families around the world come together to celebrate the holiday season, we ask that you remember the people of Iran, who are facing great hardships under a repressive and corrupt government, and support our work to defend their basic human rights. YOUR ...
Teachers and supporters protested in the streets of more than 119 Iranian cities across Iran ...
Abbas and Mohsen Deris, both members of Iran’s ethnic Arab minority in Khuzestan Province, were arrested during the country’s violently repressed November 2019 protests, which broke out across the country that month and which saw an estimated 100 protesters killed in Khuzestan alone ...
The Iranian security and military forces’ violent crackdown on large protests in the city of Isfahan that broke out over severe state mismanagement of water resources is more evidence of the Ebrahim Raisi government’s policy of zero tolerance of public criticism and dissent ...
The right to mourn is a human right, yet totalitarian regimes have long tried to deny this right to families who’ve lost loved ones from state oppression. Public mourning can expose and embarrass regimes that seek to silence dissent, and the Islamic Republic of Iran is no ...
Mother of Two Facing Flogging, Prison—Two Years After Completing 5.5-Year Sentence November 17, 2021 – The prominent rights advocate Narges Mohammadi was detained on the anniversary of the country’s violently repressed November 2019 protests and could be flogged and serve a 30-month prison term if the ...
International Community Must Finally Act with One Voice to Address these Crimes Evidence of the Islamic Republic’s Top Officials Directly Involved in the Atrocities November 15, 2021 -- The Iran Atrocities Tribunal (or “Aban Tribunal”), an independent People’s Tribunal held in London to investigate the killing and wounding of thousands ...
Two years after Iran’s massive November 2019 protests, the government has yet to respond to questions about its deadly use of force to suppress the demonstrations, which occurred in more than 200 cities, leaving hundreds dead and thousands injured ...
One of the few remaining defense lawyers in Iran willing to take on human rights cases, Nasser Zarafshan is an expert at navigating the Islamic Republic’s judicial system, which criminalizes dissent and imprisons lawyers like Zarafshan for doing their job. Usually tried under trumped-up “national security” ...
No Accountability for Hundreds Killed, Thousands Injured and Arrested International Community Must Demand Independent Investigation and Justice for Victims November 10, 2021 -- Two years after Iran’s security forces violently crushed mass protests that erupted across the country, leaving hundreds of civilians killed, two officials who oversaw that ...
Two months after the inauguration of ultra-conservative President Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s state-run Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice organization has announced plans to launch religious college-level courses dedicated to the “promotion of virtue and prevention of vice”, according to Iran’s ...
Court Rulings Reveal Systematic Religious Discrimination The Baha’i faith community is one of the most severely persecuted religious minorities in Iran. Iran’s government is unabashed in its propagating of false narratives about the community and has for decades blocked Baha’is from obtaining prominent positions in Iranian society as well ...
The Iranian government’s intolerance of dissent has resulted in systemic suppression of freedom of expression. To prevent the free flow of information and views, Iranian courts work with the intelligence-security establishment to identify civil rights activists, writers, journalists, artists, and intellectuals and accuse them of trying to undermine ...
September 28, 2021 – The Iranian security establishment’s attempt to imprison four prominent human rights defenders, only a few months after the inauguration of the country’s new presidential administration, signals the beginning of a new and intensified era of repression. “This is a clear attempt to enchain the ...
With Iran’s new academic year, beginning on September 23, 2021, just around the corner, teachers have been protesting in front of Parliament and the Plan and Budget Organization in Tehran to voice anger and frustration over low pay and serious challenges including state repression ...
Investigation Marked by Torture, Witness Tampering and Contradictions August 26, 2021—The refusal by Iran’s Supreme Court to allow a judicial review of the 25-year prison sentence for Vahid Afkari, the brother of wrestling champion Navid Afkari who was unlawfully executed last year, despite evidence of torture, ...
Persecution and Discrimination by State and Society Pervades Daily Life August 26, 2021—In a new LGBTQ Fact Sheet published today by the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), the extreme rights violations and deadly violence perpetrated by both the state and society against the LGBTQ community ...
Six Arbitrarily Detained as State Tries to Block Attempt to Seek Justice August 17, 2021—The unlawful arrests of six prominent lawyers and civil rights activists in Tehran as they were preparing to file a lawsuit against state officials for their gross mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic is ...
The historic trial against Nouri, which will hear testimonies from dozens of witnesses in 72 sessions, will be the first time that one of the worst crimes committed in the Islamic Republic of Iran will be thoroughly examined and exposed in a court of law ...
“My Song is About Stars That Go Missing Every Night” August 5, 2021 – Iranian American musician and songwriter Marjan Farsad released a new song today about political prisoners in Iran, a country where people are jailed for peacefully exercising basic human rights such as ...
Prisons Pose High Risks to Inmates Amid the Country’s Surging Covid-19 Pandemic August 4, 2021 – Elderly dual national prisoners Mehran Raoof, 66, and Nahid Taghavi, 64, were among five prisoners held on trumped-up charges who were sentenced to jail in Iran today, August 4, 2021. The ...
Three more human rights attorneys in Iran were handed unjust prison sentences in July 2021 amid an ongoing campaign to eliminate due process for activists and dissidents by intimidating the lawyers who defend them, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned. *At least ...
Parliament Maneuvers to Pass Bill Without Full Vote to Avoid Public Scrutiny Move Comes on Heels of State’s Internet Shutdowns During Crackdown on Protesters July 30, 2021 – In a bid to sidestep public scrutiny of a contentious new bill that would give Iran’s security agencies near-total control over ...
At Least Three Shot Dead Less Than a Week into Demonstrations Against Water, Power Shortages July 19, 2021—The unlawful killings of protesters by state security forces in Iran’s drought-ridden Khuzestan Province should be condemned by the UN and international community to prevent further loss of life from ...
July 19, 2021—In a joint statement released today, 10 human rights groups, including the Center for Human Rights in Iran, urged the international community to hold Iranian authorities accountable for their ongoing campaigns of persecution against Iranian dissidents based inside and outside the country, and called on ...