NCRI – According to a statement posted on the website of the United Nations office at Geneva on Tuesday, the UN Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur on violence against women, special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the rights to freedom of expression and opinion, and the Special Representative of the Secretary General on the situation of human rights expressed deep concern about the arrest of four women and one man on April 3 in Laleh Park in Tehran, where the five had been collecting signatures for a campaign to change Iranian laws that discriminate against women.
The statement calls on the Iranian authorities to immediately release two women Nahid Keshavarz and Mahboubeh Hoseinzadeh who remain in detention. The statement cites several other incidents resulting in arrest of women activists.
"Iranian women and men who have peacefully demonstrated or otherwise stood up for gender equality and women’s rights have been arrested or attacked on several occasions, including on International Women’s Day 2006 and on 4 March 2007, when at least 31 women activists were arrested during a peaceful gathering in front of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran," the statement added.
The statement calls on the Iranian government to abide by its obligations under the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a State Party.