What We Do

The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to protect and promote human rights in Iran. Headquartered in New York, CHRI is comprised of award-winning journalists, researchers, lawyers, activists, writers, multimedia specialists and advocates based around the world who work to support the basic rights and freedoms of the Iranian people.

Research and Documentation

Since 2008, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), formerly the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, has been researching and documenting human rights violations throughout the country. We rely on primary sources inside Iran to meticulously research, verify and report on events and issues that would otherwise go uncovered, channeling our research and analysis into press releases, articles, briefings and in-depth reports. Our work is distributed to over 6000 government, UN, NGO and media leaders around the world. CHRI’s work is produced in both English and Persian, supporting our mission to reach and inform Iranians as well as a global audience. In 2016, CHRI published over 800 articles (375 in English; 445 in Farsi), and multiple briefings and reports.

Multimedia

CHRI also channels its research and documentation into multimedia products that are designed to reach a mass audience outside the traditional human rights community. We produce videos on a broad range of issues in both English and Farsi, which, in 2016 alone, received over 2 million views. Our Farsi language videos, extensively viewed on social media, are central to our goal of building the human rights community inside Iran.

Art

CHRI regularly publishes editorial cartoons on its website, many of which are extensively disseminated through social media, that are designed to deliver human rights information in concise and impactful visual formats.

CHRI also publishes artwork by leading Iranian artists that communicate human rights themes though a variety of mediums, and the Center has brought the work of leading Iranian artists to international audiences through gallery shows and other special events.

Media Outreach

CHRI focuses international media attention on human rights abuses in Iran through outreach to journalists and editors throughout the world. We alert the media to events and issues that might otherwise go unnoticed, furnish verified documentation of real-time developments on the ground in Iran, provide background information and analysis of conditions in Iran, give frequent in-depth interviews and commentary to major international print and broadcast media outlets (in English and Farsi), and write op-eds for major publications. CHRI regularly receives over 2000 international media citations annually, and many hundreds more each year in Farsi-language media. Our Farsi social media outreach is also extensive: CHRI reaches on average 1.5 million people inside Iran every month through various social media platforms (such as Twitter and Facebook), supporting our mission to help inform Iranian civil society on human rights issues.

International Advocacy

CHRI engages in extensive international advocacy, with national governments around the globe and leading international and multilateral organizations, working to inform the international community of rights violations in Iran and support international initiatives that help to address these issues. We have an active presence at the UN in New York and Geneva; our representatives regularly brief UN diplomats and human rights bodies, and we advocate with UN member states and members of the Human Rights Council. We partner with activists and human rights organizations around the world to advance human rights in Iran and also advocate with relevant private sector actors, particularly in the area of internet freedom, to support the basic rights of the people of Iran.

Capacity Building

CHRI works actively to support and build the capacity of Iranian civil society, especially journalists and activists, in such areas as human rights research, documentation and advocacy, as well as in the critical areas internet privacy, security and access.

Our Approach

Our approach is non-partisan and nonpolitical; we operate within the framework of human rights law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), as well as other conventions Iran has ratified, customary international law, and humanitarian law.

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