Imprisoned Journalists Granted Brief Reprieve from Prison
After eight months in detention, newspaper columnist Afarin Chitsaz was released from Evin Prison in Tehran on July 5, 2016 on 10 billion rials ($324,000 USD) bail until her ...
Human Rights Defenders
Imprisoned Human Rights Defender Narges Mohammadi on Hunger Strike to Maintain Contact with her Children
In a desperate bid to gain permission to speak to her children on the phone, the prominent human rights activist Narges Mohammadi started a wet hunger strike on June 27, 2016....
Commentary: Iran’s Foreign Minister Toes the Supreme Leader’s Line on Human Rights
ICHRI- When Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif recently tried to side-step questions about the country’s abysmal human rights record, he yet again exposed his government’s inability—or reluctance—to face the issue even though President Hassan Rouhani ...
Kurdish Political Prisoner Resumes Hunger Strike Despite Risk of Death
Prominent Kurdish human rights activist Mohammad Sediq Kaboudvand has resumed his hunger strike following his hospitalization in Tehran on May 25, 2016, increasing his risk of a ...
Leading Iranian Human Rights Activist to Serve Ten Years in Prison
Narges Mohammadi Sentenced for Her Peaceful Activism in Iran May 19, 2016—The prominent Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi has been sentenced to serve ten years of a 16-year ...
Four Iranian Rights Activists Summoned to Appear Together at Appeals Court
Rights activists Omid Alishenas, Atena Daemi, Ali Nouri and Aso Rostami have been summoned to appear together at an Appeals Court in ...
Public Outcry in Iran Over Plan for Increased Morality Police Prompts Review
Deploying 7,000 undercover morality police in Tehran contradicts the principle of the presumption of innocence, Iranian lawyer Ali Rambod told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. “We should move towards interpreting laws on the basis ...
Revolutionary Guards’ Cyber Attacks Now Directed at Rouhani Cabinet Members
IRGC Actively Recruiting Technical Experts to Staff New Hacking Team April 26, 2016—Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, who have long waged cyber attacks against the country’s activists and journalists, have extended their hacking attacks to Rouhani ...
Prominent Human Rights Defender Narges Mohammadi Goes on Trial Behind Closed Doors
The trial of human rights activist Narges Mohammadi, postponed four times since its original date of May 3, 2015, finally began on April 20, 2016 at Branch 15 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court. ...
Business Leaders around the World Call for an End to Iran’s Closure of Baha’i Businesses
Read this article in Persian here. Letter to Khamenei Urges Respect for Economic Rights of Baha’is In a signed statement addressed to Iran’s supreme leader, 54 leading business people ...
Lawyer Released from Prison in Iran Describes Grim Conditions for Political Prisoners
Prisoners Face Denial of Medical Care, Refusal to Transfer Inmates to Hospital despite Life Threatening Illness, Solitary Confinement Aimed at Extracting False Confessions, Poor Nutrition, Denial of Family Visits April 14, 2016—Mohammad Seifzadeh, the prominent Iranian ...
Iranian Internet Freedom and Cyber Security at RightsCon
Fundamental Changes in Content Delivery: Opportunities and Challenges On the first day of the RightsCon conference, hundreds of participants from around the world shared their insights on various panels focused on freedom of expression on the Internet ...
Why the UN Human Rights Mechanisms Must Continue to Monitor Iran’s Human Rights Situation
This video explains why it is so imperative that the United Nations Human Rights Council ensures the Special Rapporteur and other UN mechanisms continue their critical work of monitoring Iran’s human rights situation, given the severe rights violations that persist in Iran and Tehran’s refusal to implement the dozens of promises it has made to ...
Iran Vote: Political Freedoms Must Be Rouhani’s Top Priority
Electorate Wants Human Rights and Rouhani Must Deliver March 1, 2016—In the elections for Parliament and the Assembly of Experts held across Iran on February 26, the Iranian electorate handed the country’s supreme ...
Prominent Lawyers Disqualified from Iran’s Bar Association Election
More than two dozen prominent lawyers, including well-known human rights defenders, have been disqualified from running in next month’s election for the Iranian Bar Association’s board of directors. Judge Hosseinali Nayeri, the head ...
Dispute between Judicial Officials on the Release of Kurdish Human Rights Activist Keeps Him in Prison
The prominent Kurdish human rights activist, Mohammad Sediq Kaboudvand, has been recommended for conditional release by the chief warden of the notorious Evin Prison, but the prosecutor in his ...
Nobel Peace Laureate Asks Iranian Government to “Make Peace with Its Own People”
While expressing joy at Iran’s recent release of four imprisoned Iranian-Americans, Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi has called on the Iranian government to “make peace with its own people,” now that it has shown ...
Journalist Resumes Hunger Strike to Protest His Continued Detention
After two months of detention, the prominent reformist journalist and political activist Issa Saharkhiz has resumed his hunger strike, in protest against his ongoing detention at Evin Prison. Mehdi Saharkhiz, told the ...
Judiciary Claims No Knowledge of Student Not Heard from Since His Arrest Almost 17 Years Ago
The mother of a student who has not been heard from since soon after his arrest in Tehran in 1999 has dismissed the Iranian Judiciary’s claim that there was no evidence he was ever arrested. Saeed ...
Commentary: Khamenei’s New Letter to Western Youth is Case Study in Hypocrisy
Seyed Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, has written a letter addressed to youths in Western countries and, as he did in an earlier similar letter, he scolded the West on a number of issues of ...
Imprisoned Children’s Rights Activist Denied Bail
Saeed Shirzad Saeed Shirzad, a children’s rights activist sentenced to five years in prison, has been denied bail during the appeal process, a source close to ...
Cartoon 130: Infiltration
Hardliners in Iran’s Parliament, Judiciary, and Revolutionary Guards are intensifying a broad crackdown on supporters of human rights and free elections, in a campaign underpinned by supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s assertion that the US seeks ...
Clerical Battles over Legally Sanctioned Retaliatory Killings and Stoning Continues in Iran
Controversy over Strict Adherence to Islamic Law Dates Back to 1979 Revolution A battle over the necessity of strict adherence to Islamic law, including Quranic punishments that in modern times have been designated by the UN ...
Iran Should Allow UN Human Rights Expert into Country
International Community Should Pursue Human Rights with Same Commitment as the Nuclear Deal October 29, 2015—The international community should urge Iranian authorities to allow the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, into the country, said the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran and ...
Narges Mohammadi Should Be Released Immediately and Given Medical Treatment
Narges Mohammadi October 20, 2015—The health of imprisoned activist Narges Mohammadi has deteriorated, and the prominent human rights defender is now reportedly chained to a hospital bed, denied ...