Ghost of Navid Afkari Haunts Judiciary Chief’s Election Bid June 15, 2021 – One week before Iranian Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi runs virtually uncontested for president, the family of Navid Afkari—a wrestler who was executed under Raisi’s watch—has filed a supreme court petition seeking a ...
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 concern over ...
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 Her 12 ...