Iran: End arbitrary house arrests of Mousavi, Karroubi, and Rahnavard; Free all prisoners of conscience http://www.fidh.org/Free-all-prisoners-of-conscience-12891?var_mode=calcul (Beirut, London, Paris, 13 February 2013) – The Iranian authorities should immediately release from arbitrary house arrest two former presidential candidates Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi, his wife Zahra Rahnavard, author and political activist, and cease harassing or detaining [...]
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Arseh Sevom — For months now, Iranian state media has been slandering BBC Persian journalists, accusing them of a number of crimes including drug trafficking, sexual impropriety, and even rape. Recently, they also began detaining the family members of the journalists for questioning in the hopes of intimidating the foreign-based journalists.
“This is unprecedented in its level of viscousness,” BBC correspondent Kasra Naji tells Arseh Sevom. “We have not seen this level of brazen and vicious attacks before.”
“It is impossible to miss the pattern of arrests and intimidation from the regime against those who challenge the dominance of its hold on information,” says Arseh Sevom board president, Bert Taken. “We saw a sharp rise in arrests before the 2009 elections as well. This was particularly the case with women’s rights activists, reporters, and bloggers. The harassment of the families of human rights defenders, journalists, and others is a new low for Iran. We know the mother of an imprisoned human rights defender was imprisoned simply for speaking with the international media. Arseh Sevom asks the Iranian government to rescind these policies and to respect its citizen’s freedom of speech as guaranteed by its own constitution.”
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On the recommendation of a group of Iranian parliament representatives, the bill for the “Establishment and Supervision of NGOs” has been dropped from the agenda of the assembly and sent back to committee for review. The articles of the bill which had already been approved by Iran’s parliament will stand. The recommendation to send the [...]
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PUBLIC STATEMENT 10 April 2011 AI Index: MDE 13/044/2011 Iran: Parliament ignores concerns of independent civil society organisations over draft bill Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi and nine human and labour rights organizations today expressed dismay at parliamentary proceedings in Iran which look set to pass into law a bill which appears intended to wipe [...]
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The chapter on Iran summarizes the continuing abuses of human rights in Iran. It states that more than 6000 arrests were made following the flawed elections in 2009. There have been “routine” arrests and harassments of human rights defenders. Members of minority groups such as the Baha’i and the Kurds have suffered disproportionately. The report also notes the governments efforts to control the universities by forcibly retiring social sciences professors.
To read the full chapter, click here.
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