Iranian Activists Abroad at Risk if Europe, U.S. Don’t Address Iran’s Unlawful Activities July 14, 2021 – The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) today condemned in the strongest terms a foiled attempt by Iranian state agents to kidnap Iranian-American activist Masih Alinejad from U.S. ...
State Now Issues and Revokes Law Licenses, Crushing Independence of Legal Profession Due Process and Fair Trial Rights Dealt Further Blow by New Legislation July 12, 2021—In a sweeping grab of new powers over the Iranian Bar Association (IBA) that grants the Iranian judiciary the right to issue ...
Judicial System To Be Used To Further Suppress Dissent July 6, 2021—The appointment of Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, a major human rights violator, as the Islamic Republic’s new judiciary chief is another indication of the commitment by the country’s ruling establishment to use the judicial system as a ...
Draft Bill Criminalizes Filming of “Crime Scenes” to Prevent Spread of Images of State Violence On June 8, 2021, Iran’s Parliament passed the first draft of a bill that, if it becomes law, would impose the death penalty for those convicted of “spying or collaborating with ...
Incoming President Raisi’s Record of Violence against Protesters Increases Concerns June 29, 2021—The continuation of strikes in Iran’s critical oil and petrochemical facilities—not seen on this scale for more than four decades—and the massive show of support from workers in other sectors, may well be a turning ...
Narges Mohammadi Attacked and Threatened Twice in Past Week by State Agents Iran Should Stop Assaulting, Threatening Peaceful Activists June 17, 2021 – Iranian authorities should stop physically assaulting, harassing and threatening peaceful activists in Iran, including the prominent rights defender Narges Mohammadi, who told the Center ...
In 2017, when Iranian Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi launched his first presidential campaign, Effat Mahbaz–the widow of a political prisoner killed during mass executions in the 1980s–published an open letter to Raisi’s wife highlighting Raisi’s role in what the UN says should be investigated as “crimes against humanity” ...
At Least Two Political Prisoners Have Died in Past Four Months Niknafs Was Jailed Despite Health Conditions That Made Him Unfit for Prison June 7, 2021 – Another political prisoner has died in state custody two weeks before Iran’s Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi, who is ultimately responsible for ...
Internationally renowned human rights attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh is among at least five defense attorneys currently imprisoned in Iran for doing their jobs. This op-ed was published in World Politics Review Jasmin Ramsey Tuesday, May 18, ...
Teachers’ Union: “What right do the police have to treat the children of our country with such brutal violence?” As high school final exams approach in Iran, students nationwide have been protesting the Education Ministry’s decision to test students at physical locations for ninth and twelfth graders, despite ...
The Center for Human Rights in Iran, along with eight other organizations, today sent a letter to the Biden-Harris administration calling for human rights to be advanced parallel to other matters with Iran May 10, 2021 -- Today PEN America and the Center for Human Rights in ...
May 10, 2021 The Honorable Joseph R. Biden The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, D.C. 20500 Dear President Biden, We, the undersigned organizations, write to urge you to prioritize human rights as you shape your administration’s foreign policy toward Iran. As the United States works to return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of ...
May 5, 2021 – Eight months after an Iranian wrestler was unjustly executed in Shiraz, his brothers Vahid and Habib Afkari remain in prolonged solitary confinement in the same prison where they’ve also been tortured and threatened with execution, the Center for Human Rights in ...
Mohammad Nourizad appears with a bloody face after protesting outside the home of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khaminei, October 14, 2014 (photo credit: courtesy/Abazar Noorizad) UN Press Release GENEVA (4 May 2021) – UN human rights experts* today expressed serious ...
A defense attorney who has represented many detainees held on politically motivated charges in Iran explains what it’s like to work in a country where the state is actively working to eliminate his profession ...
Holding a public referendum in Iran on the fate of the Islamic Republic is an idea that has recently been gaining favor among Iranian political activists and civil rights advocates, both inside the country and abroad. Proponents of a referendum want action on what is perceived as the ...
Intelligence agencies in Iran are increasingly using state-funded entertainment productions to spread state propaganda and improve their image among the public, according to research by the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). Iranian Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi boasted about the substantial role of the state’s security establishment in the production ...
Iran’s judicial system allows detainees and prisoners to be subjected to harsh and inhuman interrogations without access to counsel and with impunity for interrogators and other judicial officials. First-hand accounts of being interrogated in Iranian prisons and detention centers have been documented by the UN and human ...
Shirin Neshat film still from "Land of Dreams" signed and numbered limited print edition available for purchase on ...
Ten months after being arrested in Iran, a French national has been charged with “espionage” and “propaganda against the state,” the Center for Human Rights in Iran has learned. Benjamin Briere, 35, appeared at a hearing in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad on ...
Arash Ganji, a translator and secretary of the board of directors of the Iranian Writers Association (IWA), must serve five years of an 11-year prison sentence that was upheld by the Appeals Court in Tehran on ...
Widespread Shutdown of Internet Described as Violation of International Law In response to the killing by state security forces of couriers and protesters in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchistan Province since unrest broke out in the area on February 22, 2021—and the intermittent shutdown of the internet ...
Imam Ali Popular Students Relief Society Shuttered after Tehran Court Grants Motion by Interior Ministry March 4, 2021—An Interior Ministry motion to disband the Imam Ali Popular Students Relief Society (IAPSRS) was granted by a court in Tehran on March 3, 2021. ...
Following is an excerpted translation by the Center for Human Rights in Iran of comments made by the renowned rights activist and former prisoner of conscience Narges Mohammadi in a February 26, 2021, video message about being assaulted by the director of Evin Prison and other security ...
As the world marked International Mother Language Day in 2021, non-Persian native languages remained under attack in Iran, where non-Persian-speaking ethnic minorities are subject to state and institutional discrimination and the official teaching of mother languages is restricted and monitored by the Iranian government. “For years, the state ...