![\"Iran](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/01\/Iran-Regime-Intensifies-Crackdown-on-Human-Rights-Defenders.jpg\" "\\"Iran-Regime-Intensifies-Crackdown-on-Human-Rights-Defenders\\"")
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By\u00a0Mahmoud Hakamian<\/p>\n
The World Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, written by by Michel Forst, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, was recently released by the United Nations. It focuses on Iran\u2019s suppression of human rights defenders, and describes the increasingly intense measures that the Iranian regime is taking in 2018.<\/p>\n
According to the report, \u201csince December 2017, the situation for human rights defenders in Iran has become significantly more dangerous, as scores of protestors were arrested, detained, charged and even killed in anti-government protests which swept across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report addresses issues that affect women in Iran, especially women\u2019s rights defenders, including journalists, and lawyers. It explains that the regime \u201chas also intensified its crackdown on women defenders in general, and particularly for their peaceful protests in removing their hijabs.\u201d Forst maintains that \u201cScores of women defenders are persecuted for their legitimate work. Hoda Amid, Najmeh Vahedi and Rezvaneh Mohammadi were arrested and arbitrarily detained in unknown locations in September 2018 in retaliation for their involvement in workshops on equal marriage rights and other peaceful activities related to women\u2019s rights. Atena Daemi and Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee are detained for fighting for women\u2019s rights, opposing child labour, and opposing the death penalty. They are being kept in \u2018quarantine\u2019 and have restricted contact with the outside world.\u201d<\/p>\n
In fact, the report goes on to say, \u201cThe State views human rights defenders as threats to national security. Therefore, there is no national law or policy to protect human rights defenders, and the rights of the Declaration are not respected. The State has argued that \u2018the West\u2019 uses the term human rights defender to protect what it describes as terrorists, spies or a feature of Western infiltration propaganda.\u201d So, it is not surprising that the report alleges that \u201cdefenders have been subjected to torture, including mock executions, beatings, sleep deprivation and denial of access to adequate medical care; arbitrary arrest and detainment followed by unfair trials; violent dispersal of peaceful protests; travel bans and harassment of human rights defenders\u2019 family members including their children.\u201d<\/p>\n
The crackdown on lawyers in Iran in 2018 is unprecedented, the report states. As well, it accuses the Iranian regime of violently repressing peaceful protests, of harassing and intimidating human rights activists and their families, and of \u201carbitrarily arresting and detaining them, subjecting them to torture and dangerous conditions in prison (there are several reports of suspicious deaths in prison and denial of urgent medical treatment), unfair trials and lengthy sentences or execution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Forst demands that the Iranian regime \u201ccease its relentless persecution of all human rights defenders. The State should acknowledge the productive and legitimate social and political role played by human rights defenders in Iran and elsewhere, and cease trying to silence them by labeling them as foreign voices or threats to national security. He calls for the release of human rights lawyers and other defenders who are currently languishing in prison for their peaceful and legitimate work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Mahmoud Hakamian The World Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, written by by Michel Forst, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, was recently released by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":52575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178],"class_list":{"0":"post-25725","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-human-rights","8":"tag-save"},"yoast_head":"\n