Monthly Report – An Overview of the Human Rights Situation in Iran in June-July, 2015

HRANA News Agency – The Department of Statistics and Publications of the Human Rights Activists Association of Iran has published the following monthly report on the human rights situation in Iran during the period of June – July, 2015 (Persian calendar month of Tir, 1394). This report cannot perfectly and comprehensively reflect the details of human rights concerns in Iran for obvious reasons including the existing governmental limitations and ban on the free exchange of information. It should be emphasized that in addition to the monthly reports, the Department of Statistics and Publications of the Human Rights Activists Association of Iran publishes a comprehensive and analytical annual report at the end of each year.

An Analytical and Statistical Report on the Human Rights Situation in June-July, 2015

Although during the month of Tir, the numbers of reports in various domains have shown a massive decline due to the month of Ramadan, the systematic violation of human rights continued just as before and reports have been produced about the fundamental human rights violation that we mention the most important of them in the following:

Due to the concurrent of the month of Ramadan with the month of Tir, there have been a meaningful drop in the number of executions but boldest of them were the mass execution of 10 death row prisoners at Karaj Rajaee Shahr Prison and the public execution in Khorasan Razavi.

The chief of Judiciary of Fars State announced that there are executions in Fars State on weekly basis but not all of them are public.

On the other hand several death row prisoners have been pardoned such as 14 death row prisoners in Qom and one death row prisoners at Kashan Prison.

The other good news related to execution was the cancelation of death sentence for Soheil Arabi. After months of silence and uncertainly about his whereabouts, Saman Nasim was announced to his family and lawyer to be kept at prisoned at Zanjan Prison.

The month of Tir continued with the violation of fundamental rights of racial and religious minorities in Iran and the boldest of them was the compulsory exile and banning a Sunni congregation Prayer Imam, Summoning another one from Rusk by the ministry of Intelligence and the situation with citizen rights of the “Alle Hagh” minority that has resulted in a written notice by a member of parliament about the violation of “Yasaran” minorities in the Parliament.

In the domain of violation of basic citizens’ right there were reports of harassing and discrimination of Bahaie citizens just as before. Also the hearing for 4 Bahaie citizens took place in Gorgan. Preventing the funeral of a Bahaie citizen in Sanandaj was the other occasion of violating the human rights in the month of Tir in which the body of “Baji Khanoom Mohammadi Far” was prevented from burial even after two days by security forces in “Golestan Javid” (the special cemetery for bahaies in Sanandaj).

In the domain of violating Cristian and newly converted Christians, there was the report of arrest and uncertainly about the location of Hamid Jalilvand for more than 10 days.

Afghan citizens were banned from entering Mazandaran State and the violation of their rights continued in the month of Tir.

In the domain of child rights we can point out to the complaint of ShinAbadi students to the benefit of 600,000 Toman and the HIV positive of more than 4% of homeless children in Tehran. In addition, “Anoshirvan Mohseni Band Pi”, the head of State Welfare Organisation announced that every year more than 1000 children under the age of three are abandoned on the streets.

Self-Immolation of a woman in Ardabil, increasing number of homeless females and extreme reaction of State Judiciary to the “lose-Hijab” issue were among the reports that portrayed the horrible situation of Women rights. “Ahmad Alamolhoda” the Friday Prayer Imam of Mashhad, in his misogynist speech mentioned that: “we cannot be kind and considerate to improperly-dressed women”. “Parviz Fattah” the head of Relief Committee also mentioned that there are 1,300,000 women as the bread barer of families in Iran under the protection of this committee and announced the increasing rate of poverty among women.

Protest gathering of 170 current and retired employees of “Haft Tappeh” Sugar Cane factory, report of the lowest possible wages for Iranian labours, continues protest of Asalooyeh workers to the delay in receiving their wages and the announcement that 90% of temporary workers do not benefit from job security portrays the unstable condition of labours in Iran.

The news about layoff of “Ilina News Agency” journalists which resulted in the protest of teachers and social activists was another proof for the unstable working conditions in the month of Tir. Death of workers due to the lack of safety equipment continued in the month of Tir, Self–immolation of a female because of her argument with her employer in Mashhad, death of two workers in Mahdishahr State and death of 2 young workers in Tehran were examples of such reports in this domain.

In the domain of unions right and organisations in this month, we can mention the protest of more than 70 social activists in front of Evin Prison in complain to the arrest of Chancellors of Teachers’ Union, the protest of Nurses to the plan of “getting paid based on performance” and the silent demonstration of Teachers resulting in the arrest of tens of teachers.

A Note was added to the Article 48 of new Criminal Law setting lawyers into different groups was another controversial issue in the month of Tir. According to the Note, during the initial investigations, Criminal and Political accused can only select their lawyer from a list of legal representatives approved by the State Judiciary. This Note resulted in a massive protest by Lawyers.

In the domain of Culture, a ban has been imposed on a singer by the IRIB, extreme threats to stop a concert, the hearing for the Chief Editor of “Ansaf News” on the charge of publishing a news about the people under siege (Karoubi, Mousavi) and complaints of the supreme religion authorities about the screening of “Rastakhiz” movie were among the reports published in the month of Tir.

In the domain of health and environment, there have been little reports and most of them were about the pollution, environment and the low level of water storage in the country. The protest of villagers of “ Qasr Qand” county due to the drought, warning by the parliament research centre about the increasing threat of drought, placement of “Bakhtiari” Dam and damaged caused by this dam to the 18000 years historic artefacts were some of these reports. Also in the morning of Tuesday 16Th of Tir the density of small floating particles in the air has reached 1577 micrograms in Sisitan and Blouchestan State which is about 10 folds of allowed level and 3 folds of critical level.

Specific Attention to the Violation of Human Rights

In this section of this monthly report, the most controversial and publicly sensitive cases of violations of human rights in Iran are highlighted. It is obvious that more attention does not necessarily mean that it is a measure of the magnitude of the violations of human rights in that specific category.

Request made by “Taghi Rahmani” husband of “Narges Mohammadi” (a child right activist), ban of “Fatemeh Motamed Aria” from acting and on the charge of taking part in a movie that she did not even starred in, and explosion in the “Isphahan Steel Company” were among the highly noted news. Another highly noted news was the implicit support of gay marriages law by “Bahram Radan” caused protest by extremists and consequently he was summoned by the security office at the ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. He was forced to apologise for his support.

Other news attracting massive attention during the month of Tir were: 30 month of suspended sentence for “Amin Anvary Rostami”, the hearing session for “ Arash Sadeghi”, default  sentence for “ Golrokh Ebrahimi”, arrest of at least 4 people in Tabriz and the reduction on Nasrin Sotoudeh sentence resulting in a shorter ban from work for her .

The least underlined human rights violations

In contrast to the reports indicated in the previous section, many human rights reports received little or no attention from social media, bloggers, Internet activists, who are considered key contributors of the public opinion. It should be note that these unintentional or intentional negligence resulted in further spread of human rights violations in Iran.

Some of the less noted reports were: the conviction of “shargh” and “Ansaf News”, arrest of “Abbas Pourazhari Vadadi Zadeh” for 24 hours, conviction of “Atila Sayafi” to 6 month imprisonment, 23 years imprisonment for those protested against the attack on the Ward 350 of Evin Prison and the delay in the court proceeding of “Sayed Mohammad Ebrahimi”.

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