Labor Rights
Rouhani Promises to Withdraw Anti-Labor Amendments While Police Quash Peaceful Protests
During a ceremony marking International Labor Day on May 1, 2017, President Hassan Rouhani, who will be running for re-election on May 19, pledged to withdraw ...
Deadly Coal Mine Explosion in Iran: Who’s Responsible?
The employer, and possibly the government are legally liable for the explosion at a coal mine in northern Iran that killed more than 30 workers and injured dozens on May 3, ...
Labor Activist Freed From Rajaee Shahr Prison After Serving Seven Years Behind Bars
After serving seven years, labor activist As’ad (Behnam) Ebrahimzadeh was released from Rajaee Shahr Prison in Karaj, east of Tehran, on May 1, 2017—a year after his ...
Amendment Could Save Thousands of Drug Traffickers on Death Row in Iran
If passed by Parliament and the Council of Guardians, an amendment to Iran’s death penalty law could save thousands of drug traffickers currently facing execution. ...
Cartoon 163: Rouhani Protecting Citizen’s Rights
President Hassan Rouhani stands between Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and a political prisoner, ostensibly to protect the prisoner from Khamenei's bat, a metaphor for the Revolutionary Guards, while himself threatening the prisoner with a bat, representing his Intelligence Ministry....
Teachers Hold Rallies Across Iran for Labor and Education Rights
Teachers held rallies in several Iranian cities in March 2017 demanding livable wages and improved student resources. ...
Hardliners Float Name of Major Human Rights Violator for Iran’s Next Supreme Leader
For the time being, a powerful hardline cleric implicated in major human rights violations, Ebrahim Raisi, has ruled out his candidacy in Iran’s May 2016 presidential election. He remains, however, as a favorite among ...
Largest Trade Union Body Asks Iran’s Leader to End Persecution of Prominent Activist
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has written to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei calling for an end to the persecution of Reza Shahabi, a prominent labor activist ...
Trump’s travel ban is a gift to Iran’s rulers
Marian Vayghan reacts after her uncle is released from a detention center for deportation back to Iran as people protest President Trump’s travel ban from Muslim-majority countries ...
Revolutionary Guards Blocking Temporary Release of Canadian Resident Imprisoned in Iran
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards are blocking the granted furlough (temporary release) request of Saeed Malekpour, an Iranian-born Canadian resident who has been in imprisoned in Tehran since 2008, his ...
Union Leader Receives Unofficial Warning To Return to Prison or Lose $140,000 Bail
Labor rights activist Jafar Azimzadeh has been told that he must return to Evin Prison in Tehran by January 13, 2017 or his guarantor will lose 450 million tomans ($140,000 ...
Rouhani Unveils Toothless Charter on Citizen’s Rights Without Path to Implementation
Five months before his second term re-election bid, President Hassan Rouhani signed his government’s “Charter on Citizen's Rights” on December 19, 2016. The announcement was touted as the fulfillment ...
Anti-Riot Forces Violently Attack Peacefully Protesting Tehran Bus Union Members
Members of one of Iran’s oldest unions who were peacefully demanding their past due housing allowances and other benefits in front of the Tehran Municipality building were violently attacked by anti-riot police on December 4, ...
85 UN Member States Say Iran Must Improve Its Human Rights
Resolution Passes UN General Assembly Third Committee November 16, 2016—The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran welcomes the United Nations’ adoption of a resolution expressing serious concern ...
Pressured by Revolutionary Guards, Court Orders Iranian Teachers’ Rights Leader Back to Prison
Prominent labor union activist Esmail Abdi has been forced to continue serving the remainder of the six-year prison sentence handed down to him in 2015 for peacefully campaigning for teachers’ ...
Briefly Freed After Long Hunger Strikes, Three Teachers’ Rights Leaders Ordered Back to Prison
Prominent teachers’ rights leaders Jafar Azimzadeh, Esmail Abdi, and Mahmoud Beheshti-Langroudi—who had all been previously imprisoned for their peaceful activism ...
Two Labor Rights Activist Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison for Peaceful Activism
Labor rights activists Jafar Azimzadeh and Shapour Ehsani-Rad were sentenced to 11 years in prison each for their peaceful activism on October 15, 2016 by Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court ...
Six-Year Prison Sentence Against Teachers Union Leader Upheld After Pressure by Revolutionary Guards
Branch 36 of the Tehran Appeals Court has upheld the six-year prison sentence against Esmail Abdi, the chairman of the Iranian Teachers’ Trade Association, confirmed Abdi in an ...
Imprisoned Journalist Begins Hunger Strike on Hospital Bed
Hospitalized political prisoner and prominent reformist journalist Issa Saharkhiz began a hunger strike on October 2, 2016, to convince the authorities to grant him conditional release. “My father is legally eligible for conditional release for medical reasons and has served more than half ...
Union Leader: Less Pressure on Teachers Thanks to Rights Activists
Under Rouhani, “They have changed tactics from hard forms of pressure to milder ones.” The leader of Iran’s largest teachers’ rights organization has said that due to pressure from civil rights activists, the government of President Hassan Rouhani has been less repressive ...
Labor Activists Put on Trial After Hundreds of Workers Protest Unpaid Wages
Labor activists Jafar Azimzadeh and Shapour Ehsani-Rad have been put on trial for allegedly inciting workers to strike. The first day of ...
New Law Reduces Employment Prospects for Women in Iran
Iran’s Parliament has ratified an amended law that reduces the working hours of female employees with certain family obligations by eight hours per ...
Labor Rights Activists Detained Incommunicado in Iranian Kurdish City of Sanandaj
Labor rights activists Hashem Rostami and Mozaffar Salehinia have been imprisoned in Sanandaj, the capital of Iran’s Kordestan Province, for more than two weeks without charge or access to a lawyer, informed sources told the International Campaign ...
Ailing Political Prisoner Temporarily Released and Promised Retrial Shortly After Judiciary’s Harsh Refusal
Imprisoned labor activist Jafar Azimzadeh was temporarily released on “extendable furlough” on June 30, 2016 and promised a retrial three days after judicial authorities publicly refused ...