Freedom from execution, torture, and inhuman therapy
In March the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child famous that flogging stays a authorized punishment for girls and boys convicted of sure crimes. The committee famous studies that lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) youngsters had been being subjected to electrical shocks for “therapeutic” functions.
Fair Trial and Treatment of Prisoners
Iranian courts, notably revolutionary courts, don’t repeatedly present truthful trials and have allegedly used confessions obtained underneath torture as proof in court docket. Iranian regulation limits defendants’ rights to entry to counsel, notably throughout investigations.
According to Iran’s felony process code, people charged with nationwide or worldwide safety crimes, political crimes, media crimes, and crimes punishable by demise, life imprisonment, or retribution (qisas) could also be denied entry to a lawyer throughout their detention, which might last as long as one week, and so they should select a lawyer from an inventory of pre-approved legal professionals decided by the lawyer basic.
Freedom of expression and knowledge
In April, a Revolutionary Court sentenced journalists Afarin Chitsaz, Ehsan Mazandarani, and Saman Safarzai to 10, 7, and 5 years in jail, respectively, and Davood Assadi, the brother of France-based journalist Houshan Assadi, to five years. Mazandarani and Chitsaz’s sentences had been decreased to 2 and 5 years, respectively, by an appeals court docket. The Revolutionary Guards’ (IRGC) intelligence wing arrested the 4, together with journalist Issa Sakhrahiz, and accused them of being a part of an “infiltration community” conspiring with international media.
In June, the nation started implementing a political crimes regulation that might prohibit freedom of speech, albeit a step ahead in permitting truthful trials. According to the regulation, insulting or defaming a public official is taken into account a political crime “if it isn’t supposed to focus on the system with the intention of reaching reform.” However, political prisoners have to be held individually from basic criminals and be tried in public earlier than a jury until their crimes are deemed dangerous to household disputes, nationwide safety, or spiritual or ethnic emotions.
Last yr, police and regulation enforcement officers blocked dozens of music concert events in numerous states, particularly these that includes feminine vocalists and musicians.
Freedom of affiliation, meeting and voting
In February, tens of millions of Iranians voted in parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections. Prior to the elections, the Supervisory Council, accountable for screening candidates, disqualified most candidates affiliated with reformist actions primarily based on discriminatory and arbitrary standards. After the elections, in an unprecedented transfer, the Supervisory Council disqualified Minou Khalegi, elected in Isfahan, for allegedly shaking palms with a person.
On February 22, a Revolutionary Court sentenced Ismail Abdi, secretary basic of the Teachers’ Association, who had been detained since June 2015, to 6 years in jail for organizing a lecturers’ demonstration in entrance of parliament on May 15.
Human rights defenders and political prisoners
Many human rights and political activists stay imprisoned for his or her peaceable activism, together with Abdel Fattah Soltani. In May, a Revolutionary Court sentenced outstanding Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi, who had been detained for a yr, to a complete of 16 years in jail for “collaborating within the step-by-step motion in direction of the abolition of the demise penalty,” amongst different fees.
In May, Mohammed Sedik Kavdvand, a Kurdish human rights activist and former chairman of the Kurdistan Human Rights Organization, started a starvation strike in his ninth yr of detention to protest the brand new fees.
Prominent opposition leaders Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Zahra Rahnavar and Mehdi Karroubi have been underneath home arrest with out cost or trial since February 2011. Tehran prosecutors, who’ve banned the media from publishing the identify of Iran’s former president, Mohammed Khatami, have additionally barred him from collaborating in a number of public rallies.
Women’s Rights
Iranian ladies face discrimination in standing points associated to marriage, divorce, inheritance, and little one custody. Women should have the approval of a male guardian to marry, no matter age, and can’t go on their nationality to a international partner or their youngsters. Married ladies can not receive a passport or journey overseas with out their husband’s written permission.
On July 31, 2016, President Rouhani suspended public sector recruitment exams to research obvious discrimination in opposition to ladies within the labor market.
Treatment of ethnic minorities
The authorities denies Baha’is spiritual freedom and discriminates in opposition to them. As of October 2016, a minimum of 85 Baha’is had been detained in Iranian prisons. Security forces additionally proceed to focus on Christian converts of Muslim descent and members of the “home church” motion, who meet to worship in personal properties.
In August, a number of Sunni leaders within the Kurdistan area had been summoned for questioning after they criticized the execution of a minimum of 20 folks on August 2.
The authorities restricted the cultural and political actions of the nation’s Azerbaijani, Kurdish, Arab, and Baluchi ethnic minorities. However, in August candidates for the nationwide entrance examination for Iranian universities had been allowed to pick out Kurdish and Turkish as undergraduate majors. Last yr, Kurdistan University reportedly accepted 40 college students learning Kurdish for his or her undergraduate diploma.
Key worldwide actors
On January 16, Iran and its worldwide companions introduced the “implementation date” of the nuclear deal, referred to as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and the following lifting of financial and monetary sanctions linked to Iran’s nuclear actions. Since the settlement, a number of commerce delegations have been touring between Iran and different nations, notably in Europe.
The Iranian authorities continued to supply army help to the Syrian authorities in 2016. Human Rights Watch has documented a sample of deliberate and indiscriminate assaults and torture in opposition to civilians by the Syrian authorities. On August 15, media reported that Russia had used an Iranian army base within the metropolis of Hamadan to conduct airstrikes in Syria.
On April 16, Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union and Vice-President of the European Commission, and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif introduced in a joint assertion that the EU and Iran intend to cooperate on human rights, migration and drug points.
On October 25, the European Parliament adopted a report on the EU technique in direction of Iran after the nuclear deal, expressing concern over the alarming charge of executions in Iran and calling for the discharge of all political prisoners.
The UN Human Rights Council in September chosen Asma Jahangir as the brand new particular rapporteur on the human rights scenario in Iran. Iran didn’t enable Jahangir’s predecessor, Ahmed Shahid, who was appointed in 2011, to go to the nation.