Archive for Human Rights

New Sanctions Would Sabotage Nuclear Talks and Stymie Human Rights in Iran

(November 14, 2013) – The United States Congress should not impose further sanctions on Iran while the negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 countries are ongoing as adopting new sanctions will seriously jeopardize all efforts to end Iran’s nuclear standoff and worsen their impact on ordinary Iranians, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today.

Read more

Political Prisoners Embark on Hunger Strike on Behalf of Sick Prisoners

Abdolfattah Soltani

November 6, 2013 – iranhumanrights – Abdolfattah Soltani, an imprisoned lawyer and human rights activist, embarked on a hunger strike together with three other political prisoners on November 2, his sixtieth birthday, to protest the conditions of sick prisoners who need medical treatment and have been refused transfers to a hospital, his daughter told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

Read more

Executed Prisoner Did Not Know He Would Be Hanged Until He Saw the Gallows

Shirkoo Moarefi

November 6, 2013 – iranhumanrights – A human rights activist with knowledge of the details of the Monday morning execution of Shirkoo Moarefi, a Kurdish political prisoner, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that Moarefi did not know he was to be executed until his final moments.

Read more

Iranian Government Official Dismayed at Rise in Executions

November 6, 2013 – iranhumanrights – According to a former reformist Member of Parliament, President Rouhani’s Special Assistant in Ethnic and Minority Affairs Ali Younesi expressed his dismay at the recent executions in Kurdistan and said that “extremist elements” were responsible for them.

Read more

Iran’s Ebadi Criticizes Rouhani’s Rights Record

November 6, 2013 – abc News – NEW YORK  (AP) By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press
Iranian Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi strongly criticized the human rights record of President Hassan Rouhani, citing a dramatic increase in executions since he took office this year and accusing the government of lying about the release of political prisoners.

Read more

Iran: Authorities prepare silent death of prisoners of conscience

Paris, 4 November 2013 – On 1 November 2013, prominent human rights lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani (a founding member of the Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC)) and three other political prisoners started a hunger strike in Evin prison in protest against the authorities’ denial of adequate medical care to dozens of sick prisoners in the prison. Two days later, about 80 prisoners also started a 3-day strike in Rajaishahr prison, near the city of Karaj, west of Tehran.

Read more

Execution of 16 Baluchi prisoners highlights the ongoing State terror policy

Paris, 28 October 2013. Sixteen Iranian Baluchi prisoners were speedily executed on 26 October in retaliation for an armed attack by Baluchi insurgents on the previous day in Saravan city, south-east Iran.

Read more

IRAN: Pressure against human rights defenders continues

THE OBSERVATORY – PRESS RELEASE – Paris-Geneva, October 18, 2013. While international relationships between Iran and western countries have been warming up, progress on human rights remains to be seen. Dozens of human rights defenders continue to serve prison sentences and dozens of others are awaiting court decisions in retaliation for their human rights work.

Read more

Alireza M.: An Appeal to Our Humanity

“Carrying out a second execution on a man who somehow managed to survive 12 minutes of hanging … betrays a basic lack of humanity that sadly underpins much of Iran’s justice system.”
 Philip Luther, Amnesty International

Read more

Iran must halt execution of prisoner who ‘survived hanging’

16 October 2013 – Amnesty International – Iran must stop the execution of man who was found alive at a morgue a day after being hanged, Amnesty International urged today after authorities said the prisoner would be hanged for a second time once his condition improves.
Read more