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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Death of Behnam Mahjoubi Will Be Followed by Others without Urgent Action February 22, 2021—The death of prisoner of conscience Behnam Mahjoubi, who died on February 21, 2021, after untreated medical conditions that included serious neurological issues, reflects the continued crisis in Iran’s prisons, where prisoners, especially prisoners of conscience ...
Iran Must End Systematic Denial of Healthcare in Prisons February 16, 2021 – Prisoner of conscience Behnam Mahjoubi could die if he is not provided the immediate and comprehensive medical treatment that he was initially denied, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said in a statement ...
Juvenile Executions, Persecution of Human Rights Defenders Also Condemned In the latest report issued by the UN’s top expert on Iran, UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran Javaid Rehman expressed alarm and concern over a broad range of human rights violations in ...
When the World Health Organization approved vaccines to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries began planning for mass immunizations. Yet the Iranian supreme leader’s televised speech on January 8--where he announced that “importing American and English vaccines into the country is forbidden”--dimmed hopes for an effective and rapid effort to ...
Iran Should Base COVID-19 Vaccine Decisions on Science January 20, 2021 -- In light of the statement by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on January 8, 2021, that the Islamic Republic will not import any COVID-19 vaccines made in the United States or the United Kingdom, we ...
US Government Must Provide Assurances that Sanctions Will Not Impede Purchases A coalition of major human rights and humanitarian organizations released a statement today, calling on the US government to ensure that Iranians would have access to “safe, effective, and affordable Covid-19 vaccines.” It noted that US ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
UN Calls Her Return to Prison “Unfathomable” and “State Retaliation for Her Tireless Work Defending Human Rights” Sixteen of the UN’s top experts released a statement today demanding that Iran immediately release imprisoned human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh for medical treatment, saying it was “unfathomable” that ...
Urgent Concerns Over Health of Human Rights Attorney Six Weeks into Her Hunger Strike Family Still Kept in Dark about Her Medical State September 23, 2020—The prominent civil rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, who was hospitalized for a serious heart condition and has been on hunger strike for more than ...
Husband Catches Glimpse as She is Wheeled for Tests: “She does not look well at all” Imprisoned Human Rights Lawyer on Hunger Strike Since August 11 to Free Iran’s Political Prisoners September 20, 2020—The imprisoned human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, who has been on a hunger strike ...
Imprisonment of Lawyers and Human Rights Defenders, Juvenile Executions, Singled Out for Condemnation In the latest report by the UN’s top expert on Iran, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Javaid Rehman, expressed “alarm” and “dismay” over ...
Imprisoned Human Rights Attorney Refuses Food to Demand Release of Prisoners Endangered by COVID-19 Husband: “Nasrin has become extremely weak” August 31, 2020—The health of imprisoned human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh has become critically threatened by a hunger strike she began on August 11, 2020 to call for ...
New Law Reduces Derafshan’s Sentence By 6 Months, Must Still Serve Two Years Sentence Reductions at Judge’s Discretion in “National Security” Cases Imprisoned human rights attorney Payam Derafshan is in poor health and in need of hospitalization, his lawyer Saeed Dehghan informed the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) ...
Prominent Attorney Seeks Release of Political Prisoners Amid COVID-19 Outbreak August 12, 2020—The imprisoned human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh began a hunger strike on August 11, 2020, to demand the release of political prisoners threatened by the COVID-19 virus, which has spread in Tehran’s Evin Prison. “With ...