Prisoners Trapped in Overcrowded, Unhygienic Prisons without Adequate Medical Care April 14, 2021—The start of a fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran has increased concerns about the spread of the virus in the country’s overcrowded and unhygienic prisons and detention centers, the Center for Human ...
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 ...
Lawyer: “Humanity, in addition to the rule of law, has vanished” Political prisoners in Iran, long subjected to especially harsh treatment in Iran’s prisons, have been largely left out of the furloughs (temporary leaves from prison) typically granted to many prisoners for Nowruz, the Persian New Year that ...
*Editor's Note: Transfers that occurred after this article was published are listed at the bottom. Iran’s judicial system has a long, documented history of sentencing detainees held on politically motivated charges to “exile”—prolonged banishment to a remote, underdeveloped town or city far from the detainee’s residence—after the completion of ...
Judicial Action Sought Against “Those Who Enforce Solitary Confinement and Superiors Who Order It” Use of Solitary Confinement Not Supported Under Iranian law Key Findings: Civil rights activists have filed a lawsuit in Tehran against those who order or enforce solitary confinement in Iran’s detention centers and prisons ...
The Imam Ali Popular Students Relief Society (IAPSRS) is Iran’s largest independent NGO and the only one in the ...
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 ...
Two imprisoned student activists continue to be persecuted for peacefully protesting unjust policies and practices in Iran, including so-called "virginity tests." Charged with “assembly and collusion against national security” for peacefully participating in protests, Saha Mortezaei must now serve six years in prison after her sentence was ...
*This article was originally published in Foreign Policy The U.S. government has a long history of pursuing multiple policy goals with adversaries and demanding respect for human rights will not derail nuclear negotiations. By Hadi Ghaemi Less than a month into President Joe Biden's first term, Iran is ...
A group of international human rights groups including the Center for Human Rights in Iran today published a joint statement expressing serious concerns over a renewed crackdown on Afghan civil society, including a wave of kidnappings and murders of journalists and activists. "The people of Afghanistan are squeezed ...
Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court in Iran sentenced writer, translator, and the secretary of the board of directors of the Iranian Writers' Association, Arash Ganji, to 11 years in prison. Ganji was convicted of conspiracy, membership of an illegal organization and propaganda after he ...
Iranian human rights attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh has already previously served three years in prison for her defense of dissidents, activists, journalists and minorities in Iran after being convicted of national security charges. Weak and Ill with COVID-19, She Must Continue Serving ...
A group of human rights organizations including the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) have penned an open letter to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei calling on him to secure the permanent release from prison of renowned defense attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh and "help to restore ...
Top Experts Say Her COVID-19 Diagnosis “Shows the real risks for those in detention in Iran” Top UN experts* released a statement today, welcoming the temporary release of human rights attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh on November 7, 2020, who had been imprisoned since 2018 on manufactured charges, ...
Human Rights Lawyer, Weakened from Lack of Proper Medical Care, Now Home in Tehran November 7, 2020—Imprisoned human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh was released on temporary furlough today from Gharchak Prison in the Iranian city of Varamin, south of Tehran, her husband Reza Khandan told the Center for ...
Harassment of Family Members of Imprisoned Human Rights Attorney Intensifies As part of a continuing campaign of harassment and manufactured prosecutions against the families of political prisoners and activists in Iran, Mehraveh Khandan, the 20-year-old daughter of imprisoned human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, appeared in a ...
“Nasrin Sotoudeh and all other individuals arbitrarily detained must be immediately released” The UN’s top expert on Iran, Javaid Rehman, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, said in a statement today, October 26, 2020, that the ...
Sotoudeh and Three Other Activists Transferred Out of Evin’s Women’s Ward to Other Prisons As part of a new policy to isolate political prisoners by incarcerating them alongside common criminals at various prisons in Iran, three women convicted of national security crimes for opposing Iran’s mandatory hijab laws ...
Ali Younesi and Amirhossein Moradi Under Pressure to Make Forced “Confessions” Student Groups: Allegations Unfounded, State Building False Case Without Evidence Two honor students at the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, who were both violently arrested by the security forces on April 10, 2020, have been in detention ...
Doctors Say Hospitalization Required, Instead Sotoudeh Moved to Iran’s Most Dangerous Prison Human Rights Lawyer’s Health in Serious Danger October 20, 2020 -- Nasrin Sotoudeh, the imprisoned human rights attorney, has been moved to the notoriously harsh Gharchak Prison (also spelled Qarchak) in the Iranian ...
Doctors: Her Return to Prison Was “A deliberate attempt to put her life in danger” Family’s Repeated Requests for Medical Furlough and Hospitalization Denied October 13, 2020 -- New information regarding the severe deterioration in the health of imprisoned human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh emerged today, as her husband, ...
Iran is “Using the criminal justice system as a tool to silence civil society” Farsi version Geneva (6 October 2020) – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Tuesday expressed deep concern at the deteriorating situation of human rights defenders, lawyers and political prisoners held in ...
Available for viewing within the U.S. at the Globe Docs Film Festival from October 1-12, 2020, "Nasrin" is a new feature documentary about one of the world’s most courageous human rights activists and political prisoners, Iranian attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh--and the women's rights movement she's helping lead. Narrated by Academy Award-winning ...
Rushed Convictions Show Judiciary Willing to Do Bidding of Intelligence Forces State Responds to Growing Societal Discontent with Intensified Efforts to Silence All Dissent October 1, 2020—In a blatant move to keep political prisoners in Iran behind bars despite completing their sentences, judicial authorities in Iran are increasingly issuing ...