Archive for Human Rights

25 NGOs Urge UN to Pass Iran Human Rights Resolution

(November 18, 2013) – As the United Nations General Assembly Third Committee prepares to vote on the resolution on the promotion and protection of human rights in Iran on November 19, 25 human rights organizations—including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran—have joined together to urge member states to vote in favor of the resolution.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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