“Drawing Repression”: New Book Illustrates 52 Weeks of Human Rights in Iran
This new book of editorial cartoons by leading Iranian artist Touka Neyestani chronicles one year of human rights issues in Iran. ...
Unfair Trials
Amid Calls for Tehran Mayor’s Resignation for Negligence, Two Firefighters Arrested Instead
Iranian citizens and politicians are calling for the Tehran mayor’s resignation in relation to the thwarted rescue efforts in the January 19 Tehran fire that left two women dead after firefighting equipment failed. This week two firefighters who had attempted to rescue the women were taken into custody, though the judicial basis for their arrest ...
Imprisoned Human Rights Lawyer Eligible for Release If New Code Enforced
The daughter of imprisoned Iranian lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani, who is serving a 13-year prison sentence, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that if the new Islamic Penal Code is implemented, her father will be eligible for release, along with several other prisoners of conscience. ...
President Rouhani’s Draft Citizenship Rights Charter: English Translation
The full English text of the Draft Citizenship Rights Charter proposed by President Hassan Rouhani and widely circulated for feedback, is available thanks to UN Special Rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed and the Human Rights in Iran Unit at the City University of New York – Brooklyn College. ...
Student Activist Released for Five-Day Furlough After 55 Months in Jail
After 55 months in prison, most of which has been spent in exile, Iranian student activist Zia Nabavi was released on bail of approximately $168,000 for a five-day furlough today, a source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. ...
Iran’s Justice Minister Says Detained Opposition Leaders Should Receive No Trial
Justice Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi In statements during a speech in the city of Mashhad, Iran's Justice Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi said yesterday that a trial for imprisoned 2009 presidential candidates ...
Culture Minister Asks Judiciary to Provide More Freedom of Expression
Iran’s Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Ali Jannati publicly stated that the Iranian Judiciary should join the Rouhani administration in providing more freedom of expression to Iranian media and artists, drawing strong criticism from Iran’s Prosecutor General and Spokesperson for the Judiciary Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehi for his remarks to Al Jazeera. ...
Iranian Officials to Answer Questions About Foreign Travel Bans
Iranian citizens can now learn whether they have been banned from foreign travel, a change in policy from recent years. “Citizens can appear at their local passport offices holding their passports and inquire about whether they have been banned from foreign travel,” the Head of the Passport Office of the Iranian Police told Fars News ...
Rouhani’s Citizenship Rights Charter Contradicts Constitution, Says Iranian Lawyer
In an exclusive interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, lawyer and human rights activist Mehrangiz Kar analyzed the various problems with the draft Citizenship Rights Charter presented by Hassan Rouhani last November, saying it is a “hodge podge of things” that both repeats and contradicts the Constitution, and it needs a ...
Judiciary Official Urges “Maximum Punishment” for Detained IT Professionals Even Before Trial
The Iranian Judiciary has announced charges against the seven Internet specialists arrested in December 2013, accusing them of collaborating with hostile foreigners and insisting on the harshest punishment available. One month after the IRGC Intelligence Unit arrested several Internet specialists in the city of Kerman, the Head of the Kerman Province’s Judiciary has stated the ...
Intelligence Ministry May Be More “Flexible” in Respecting Human Rights, Says Lawyer
Ghasem Sholeh Sadi, lawyer and former Member of the Parliament and political prisoner, told the International Campaign for Human Rights that he is somewhat optimistic about the consequences of the draft Citizenship Rights Charter presented by President Hassan Rouhani in November. ...
Religious Scholar Ali Asghar Gharavi Awaits Trial in Dire Health
Forty days after the arrest of Qoran scholar Seyed Ali Asghar Gharavi, 68, his family was allowed to visit with him at Tehran’s Evin Prison. Gharavi has been in solitary confinement since his November 10, 2013, arrest, after Bahar Newspaper published his article, “Imam: Political Leader or Spiritual Role Model?” raising scholarly questions about the ...
Rights Lawyer Says Iran Needs Existing Laws Enforced, not a New Charter
Lawyer and member of the Defenders of Human Rights Center Mahnaz Parakand discussed necessary steps for implementing human rights protections in an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. “Before thinking to design a Citizenship Rights Charter, we must implement the Iranian Constitution, even with all its shortcomings. Many of the articles ...
Rights Lawyer Says Citizenship Rights Charter Is “Distraction”
In an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, lawyer Khalil Bahramian, who has represented many political prisoners, said the draft Citizenship Rights Charter is just a distraction for the public. ...
Officals and Clerics Verbally Attack and Threaten 2009 Protestors and Leaders
Over the past few days, influential Iranian leaders have unleashed a fresh wave of verbal attacks and threats against the 2009 post-election protesters and their leaders, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. The threats and attacks have included a hardliner cleric’s volunteering to hang Mousavi and Karroubi, as well as others stating that the chant ...
Rouhani Delivered on Rights Charter Promise “Immediately,” but Issue Is with Implementation, Says Lawyer
In an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, lawyer Farideh Gheirat said that the draft Citizenship Rights Charter presented by Hassan Rouhani in November is almost exactly like the Iranian Constitution in substance, just with different phrasing. Gheirat added that there was no need to draft a new Charter that was ...
Guardian Council May Approve Citizenship Rights Charter, Says Lawyer
President Hassan Rouhani’s draft Citizenship Rights Charter, currently before the Guardian Council, may win approval, lawyer and head of the National Iranian Bar Associations Union Bahman Keshavarz told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. ...
Prominent Activist Cites Numerous Omissions in Citizen Rights Charter
In a interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Narges Mohammadi, human rights activist and spokesperson for the Defenders of Human Rights Center, acknowledged that the Citizen Rights Charter was a positive step, but noted that the draft document contained many serious shortcomings that needed to be addressed. ...
Draft Citizenship Charter Will Allow Continued Rights Violations say Human Rights Groups
In a letter addressed to Hassan Rouhani, Iran's President, Human Rights Watch and the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran expressed appreciation for the draft Citizenship Rights Charter, but expressed deep concern over the consultation ...
Ebadi: Citizenship Charter Is Redundant Distraction from Justice
Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Peace Laureate and human rights lawyer, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran in an exclusive interview that the draft Citizenship Rights Charter published by Hassan Rouhani in November to solicit input from analysts is redundant and ineffectual, and “is in fact a tool to distract those who ...
Tehran Police Publicly Parade 123 Theft Suspects
The Iranian Police publicly paraded a large group of alleged theft suspects early Sunday morning. In a set of photos published on the Islamic Republic of Iran News Agency (IRNA) website, a group of dozens of young men appears disheveled, some without shoes and the rest wearing slippers, most of them are wearing light clothing ...
IRGC Forces Arrest Music Distributors, Pressure Them to Confess on Television
IRGC forces arrested three men involved in the production, distribution, and promotion of Iranian underground music in October, a source with knowledge of the arrest told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Musician Mehdi Rajabian, his brother, and Yousef Emadi, who managed BargMusic, were arrested on October 12 in the Northern city of ...
One Week After Arrest, Detained Internet Technologists Appear Handcuffed on TV
Iranian state television has shown images of several men they claim have been in contact with and funded by “espionage networks,” charged with “offering reporter training seminars in Turkey and Malaysia,” “internet activities aiming for a ‘soft overthrow’ of the Iranian regime,” and “contact with foreign media, including the BBC.” In the images, the men, ...
Sattar Beheshti Murder Case Closed
A Tehran court has closed the case against the interrogator accused of murdering blogger Sattar Beheshti, determining it was not murder but rather “quasi-murder.” Gohar Eshghi, Beheshti’s mother, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that she is protesting the court’s decision to dismiss the murder charges in the case of her son’s ...
Kurdish Sunni Prisoners in Critical Health After 30 Days on Hunger Strike
Six Kurdish Sunni prisoners on death rowat Ghezel Hessar Prison in Karaj have been on a hunger strike since Monday, November 4, a human rights activist told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Hamed Ahmadi, Kamal Molaei, Jamshid Dehghnai, Jahangir Dehghani, Seyed Hadi Hossein, and Seddigh Mohammadi, all being kept in Unit 3 ...