Iran is one of the largest prisons for human rights defenders in the world. Since the 2009 repression, many have been arrested and tried on abusive accusations.
Over the past years, independent human rights organisations in Iran have been stripped of any possibility to act. The Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC), one of the two FIDH member-organisations, was closed down in late 2008. In addition, FIDH is banned from any access to the country.
In that context, dozens of human rights defenders have been forced to exile while many of those who remained inside Iran have been arrested, detained arbitrarily, and persecuted in many other ways by the regime.
To see the full list of Iranian human rights defenders presently behind bars( name of Mr.Hamid Reza Moradi Sarvestani, Human Rights activist, Pre-trial detention since September 2011 unfortunately is missed in the list), see: http://fidh.org/Iran-Human-rights-defenders-behind-12235
Among those detained are the following members of the DHRC, one of the two FIDH member-organisations in Iran:
Mohammad Seifzadeh, member of DHRC and human rights lawyer.
Abdolfattah Soltani, founding member of the DHRC and human rights lawyer.
Nasrin Sotoudeh, DHRC member, prominent human rights lawyer, known for defending juveniles facing death penalty, prisoners of conscience, human rights activists and children victims of abuse.
Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, founding member of the DHRC and human rights lawyer.
In addition, Nargess Mohammadi, another DHRC member was released on bail on July 31, 2012 after more than 3 months’ imprisonment.
MAIN TRENDS OF REPRESSION AFFECTING HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS IN IRAN
Human rights lawyers targeted by the regime
As illustrated by the above-mentioned harassment of DHRC members, the authorities target human rights lawyers as an attempt to reduce the number of those prepared to defend victims of the overtly flawed judicial system, in particular human rights defenders, trade unionists and student activists, effectively criminalising human rights legal representation.
Between 2009 and 2011, at least 49 lawyers have been subjected to persecution, including arbitrary detention, condemnation and a ban on practicing their profession, while some others had to leave the country to avoid harassment and detention.
Intimidation of women’s rights defenders
In August 2006, a group of women set up the ‘One Million Signatures Campaign’, commonly known as the ‘Campaign for Equality’, in an effort to collect signatures to ask the parliament to change or amend the gender-based discriminatory laws. Members of this grassroots campaign have been repeatedly imprisoned on spurious charges.
Source: Campaign for Equality
In addition, the ‘Mothers of Park Laleh’ otherwise known as the ‘Mourning Mothers’ are a movement of women whose children have been executed, killed, or have disappeared since the early 1980s. They started by organising silent protests each Saturday evening in Tehran’s Laleh Park after the post-election violence in June 2009. They also campaign for the state’s acknowledgement of the 1980s mass secret executions in the prisons, the right to know the burial places of their relatives, the abolition of the death penalty and freedom for all political prisoners. Their supporters are heavily targeted by the regime.
Repression of labour activists and unionists
Since the Islamic regime took power in 1979, workers have been consistently denied the right to form free and independent trade unions. In recent years, a number of unionists have started organising their own unions independently from the state and have consequently paid a high price for their activities, particularly in the wake of the 2009 political unrest. Other than the Iranian Writers Association, well known independent trade unions repressed by the regime are the Tehran Bus Workers Syndicate, the Teachers Associations, the Journalist Association, as well as the student unions.
Persecution of defenders of cultural, ethnic and religious minorities
Defenders of the rights of cultural, ethnic and religious minorities continue to be subjected to judicial and other harassment in reprisal for their human rights activities. Iranian Kurdish, Arab, Baluch, and Azeri are among the oppressed ethnic communities. Religious discrimination is commonly practised against dissident Shia clerics, followers of the Baha’i faith, Christians, Sunni Muslims, Sufis and dissident Shia Muslims.
FOCUS ON FIDH REPORT, “THE HIDDEN SIDE OF IRAN, discrimination against ethnic and religious minoritiesé, October 2010
Prosecution of defenders fighting against death penalty and denouncing detention conditions
FOCUS ON EMADDEDIN BAGHI, founder of the Centre for the Defence of Prisoners’ Rights (CDPR) and laureate of the 2009 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders
Mr. Emaddedin Baghi was summoned on September 21, 2010 by the Tehran Revolutionary Court regarding the closure in 2009 of the CDPR. He was then informed that on August 17, 2010 he had been sentenced by Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court to six years of imprisonment on charges of “propaganda against the system” and “colluding against the security of the regime” in relation to an interview with the late Grand Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri. The sentence was later reduced to one year by the Court of Appeal of Tehran. On July 27, 2010, Mr. Baghi was also sentenced by Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court to one year of imprisonment and five years of ban on civil activities in another case for heading the CDPR, which was considered as spreading “propaganda against the system”. He was imprisoned on December 5, 2010 and remained detained as of April 2011.
MORE ABOUT THE GENERAL CONTEXT IN WHICH HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS OPERATE IN IRAN
Source: 2011 Annual Report of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (FIDH-OMCT)