IRAN WATCH CANADA

Wednesday, November 06, 2019

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL 
PRESS RELEASE 
6 November 2019
World must condemn appalling deterioration
 of human rights in Iran
The international community must publicly condemn
 the deterioration in Iran’s human rights record during
 the country’s upcoming review session at the UN Human
 Rights Council in Geneva on 8 November, Amnesty
 International said today. 
The organization urges states taking part in Iran’s 
Universal Periodic Review (UPR) to denounce the 
widespread human rights violations and make concrete 
recommendations for the Iranian authorities to address them.
“From horrific execution rates, to the relentless persecution 
of human rights defenders, rampant discrimination against
 women and minorities, and ongoing crimes against 
humanity, the catalogue of appalling violations recorded in 
Iran reveals a sharp deterioration in its human rights record,” 
said Philip Luther, Research and Advocacy Director for the
 Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International. 
“Iran’s upcoming UN human rights review session offers
 a crucial opportunity for the international community to
 send a strong and clear message to the Iranian authorities
 that its shocking disregard for human rights will not be
 tolerated.
“It is also an opportunity for states to place increased 
attention on the ongoing enforced disappearance of 
thousands of political dissidents over the past three 
decades, a crime against humanity which has been
 overlooked for far too long by the international community.”
Since Iran’s human rights record was last reviewed
 in 2014, the level of repression by the authorities 
has risen significantly. 
Thousands of people have been rounded up for
 expressing their views or taking part in peaceful 
demonstrations and a vindictive crackdown has 
been launched against human rights defenders, 
including activists campaigning against forced veiling
 laws, in order to destroy the last vestiges of Iran’s civil
 society. 
The authorities have further eroded fair trial rights 
and have executed more than 2,500 people, including
 juvenile offenders, in blatant violation of international law.
In a submission to the UN Human Rights Council ahead 
of the session, Amnesty International concluded that
 Iran is “failing on all fronts” when it comes to human rights. 
The organization is calling on the country’s authorities
 to lift restrictions on the rights to freedom of 
expression, association and peaceful assembly, 
end discrimination against women and minorities,
 impose an immediate moratorium on the use of the
 death penalty, and end torture and other ill-treatment,
 unfair trials and ongoing crimes against humanity.
During its last review session, Iran accepted just 130
 out of the 291 recommendations it received from 
other states. Amnesty International’s analysis indicates
 that the Iranian authorities have failed to deliver on 
the majority of those promises. 
Iran rejected calls during its last UPR to protect the 
rights of human rights defenders, stop their harassment
 and release those imprisoned for peacefully exercising
 their rights to freedom of expression, association and 
assembly. 
“Instead of strengthening co-operation with civil society 
and human rights organizations, as Iran had pledged
 to do, the authorities have instead further undermined
 these rights, intensifying their crackdown on dissent,” said 
Philip Luther. 
Those unjustly imprisoned include journalists, artists 
and human rights defenders including lawyers, women’s
 rights defenders, minority rights activists, labour rights
 activists, environmental activists and those seeking
 truth, justice and reparations for the 1988 prison massacre.
Some of those jailed have been given shockingly harsh
 prison sentences, in some cases lasting several decades. 
Human rights lawyer Amirsalar Davoudi was sentenced
 to 29 years and three months in prison and 111 lashes
 for his human rights work and is required to serve 
15 years of this sentence. Lawyer and women’s
 rights defender Nasrin Sotoudeh was sentenced to 
38 years and 148 lashes for her peaceful activism 
and is required to serve 17 years of her sentence.
As well as continuing to subject women and girls to 
discrimination in law and practice, Iran’s authorities
 have rejected ratification of the UN Convention on 
the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against 
Women and failed to criminalize gender-based violence,
 including marital rape, domestic violence and early and
 forced marriage. 
Women’s rights defenders, including those who have
 campaigned against Iran’s discriminatory and degrading
 forced veiling laws, have faced arbitrary arrest, detention,
 torture and other ill-treatment, unfair trials and lengthy 
prison sentences. They have also faced harassment and 
abuse by pro-government vigilantes for defying such laws. 
Iran also continues to deny defendants the right to a fair trial, 
including by refusing them access to lawyers during 
investigations and trials, and continues to convict people
 based on “confessions” extracted through torture 
and other ill-treatment. 
The authorities have a dreadful record of flouting prisoners’
 right to health, deliberately denying medical care
 to prisoners of conscience, often as punishment, 
amounting to torture and other ill-treatment. Human
 rights defender Arash Sadeghi continues to be
 tortured through the denial of cancer treatment.
Meanwhile, in a relentless execution spree, more than
 2,500 people have been put to death since Iran’s last 
UPR session, including at least 17 who were under 18 at
 the time of the crime, in flagrant violation of international law. 
The Iranian authorities also continue to commit the ongoing 
crime against humanity of enforced disappearance by 
systematically concealing the fate or whereabouts of 
several thousand imprisoned political dissidents who
 were forcibly disappeared and extrajudicially executed 
in secret between July and September 1988.
“The Iranian authorities must reverse the catastrophic 
deterioration of their human rights record,” said Philip Luther. 
“That means releasing prisoners of conscience, ending 
the persecution of human rights defenders, granting 
defendants the right to a fair trial and putting an end to
 their grotesque use of the death penalty by establishing 
an immediate moratorium with a view to abolishing it completely. 
“It also means immediately disclosing the truth regarding
 the fate of victims of the 1988 massacres, stopping the
 destruction of mass grave sites containing the remains of
 the victims, and bringing to justice those suspected to be
 responsible for these crimes against humanity.”
For more information or to arrange an 
interview please contact:Sara Hashash, 
MENA Media Manager on sara.hashash@amnesty.org 
or out of hours press@amnesty.org +44 (0) 203 036 5566



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