Thursday 7 May 2015

At Least 1193 Executions since Hassan Rouhani’s Election as President in Iran

– MARCH 12, 2015POSTED IN: EXECUTION, FEATURE, PUBLIC EXECUTION, REPORTS, UNCATEGORIZED
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The annual report on the death penalty in 2014 shows that since the election of President Rouhani in June 2013, Iranian authorities have executed more than 1193 people. This is an average of more than 2 executions everyday.
Iran Human Rights, March 12, 2015: On Tuesday March 12, Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort (ECPM) presented IHR’s seventh annual report on the death penalty in Iran.
Different parts of the report will be published in the coming days.

Execution trends before and after the election of Hassan Rouhani:

Despite the optimism and hope after the election of Mr. Hassan Rouhani as the Iranian president, there are few indications that the human rights situation in the country has improved. In fact, a comparison of the 18 months before and after the presidential elections of June 2013 shows that the use of the death penalty has in fact increased.
Slide10
The diagram on the right shows that the number of executions in the 18 months after the election of Hassan Rouhani as president (1. July 2013 – 31. December 2014) is 31% higher than the numbers in the 18 months before (1. January 2012-31 June 2013).
Even worse, the number of juvenile offenders executed in 2014 is at its highest annual rate since 1990.[4]



Responsibility of the government in the implementation of the executions[1]

According to the Iranian constitution, the government, led by the President, doesn’t have the authority to issue and implement executions. The judiciary is the body directly involved, and it is the head of the judiciary (appointed by the Supreme leader) or the General Prosecutor in drug-trafficking cases, who sign the execution orders.  However, public executions seem to be the exception to this rule. According to the law regarding responsibilities and authority of governors (who represent the government and not the judiciary), the Council for the Security of the Province (headed by the local governor) is specifically responsible for public order and tranquility.[2] Therefore, besides the judiciary (represented by the local judges), the government (represented by the local governor) does have the authority to decide whether an execution should be carried out in public or not. For example, in 2014, the governor of the Sistan and Baluchistan Province (Southeastern Iran) had initially disagreed with the public execution of three alleged terrorists in his province.[3] This decision was later changed (possibly due to political pressure) and the prisoners were hanged in public. This means that although the judiciary makes the initial decision of carrying out the executions in public, the government, if willing, can in fact prevent public executions. Therefore, the government, led by the President, is equally responsible for the high numbers of public executions in Iran.
Flogging-execution-public-karaj-2014
Picture: A young man is flogged before being publicly executed on 6 August 2014 in Karaj. The government of Mr. Rouhani can according to the Iranian law stop implementation of punishments in public spaces.


Role of the President and his government in use of the death penalty in Iran

As mentioned in the previous section, the President, via his governors, has direct influence on the implementation of public punishments such as flogging, amputation and executions. Although we have observed a slight decrease in the number of public executions, Iran is among the very few countries that implement public executions. In fact, Iran is, together with Saudi Arabia, on top of the list of countries implementing public executions.
On the other hand, there is an increase in the total number of executions during the presidency of Hassan Rouhani. Although the judiciary, and not the government, have the authority to issue and implement death sentences, nor the President or his government representatives have even once criticized the high number of executions in Iran.
It seems that Mr. Rouhani’s government is not preoccupied with the issue of the death penalty. However, this can be changed if the countries involved in a dialogue with Iran put it on the agenda. The government is normally the counterpart in the dialogue between Iran and the international community.
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[1] Tabasom Fanaian and Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam: Public executions in Iran: an unfit measure in a modern society. In: ECPM Review on the death penalty in Iran, pp. 84-90, 2014.
[4] Amnesty International, Executions of Juveniles Since 1990, http://www.amnesty.org/en/death-penalty/executions-of-child-offenders-since-1990

2052 Executions For Drug-Offences in the Last Five years in Iran

Iran Human Rights (IHR) published its seventh annual report on the death penalty on March 10, 2014. The following is part of the annual report. 
Also see:

Iran Human Rights, March 16, 2014: According to a report published by Iran Human Rights (IHR) at least 2052 people charged with drug-related offences, have been executed by the Iranian authorities in the period of 2010-2014.

Execution for drug-related chargesdrug-related-5year

During the past five years, drug-related charges have counted for the majority of executions in Iran.[1] Based on death penalty reports, at least 2052 people have been executed for drug-related charges since 2010 in Iran. In 2013, there was a relative decrease in the number of drug-related executions compared to the previous three years. However, the decrease didn’t continue. In 2014, at least 367 people were executed for such charges. 123 of these executions were announced by the official sources.


Iranian authorities claim that many of those sentenced to death for drug-related charges are involved in organized, armed smuggling. However, there is a general lack of transparency in the Iranian judicial system and all those convicted for drug-related charges have been tried by the Revolution Courts behind closed doors, and most of those executed are not identified by name. Human rights groups have received many reports on unfair trials and confessions under torture. An example is Saeed Sedighi[2] who was executed in October 2012 despite calls from the UN Special Rapporteurs to halt the execution.[3] Furthermore, many of those executed belonged to the most marginalized parts of society.REF

The international fight against drug trafficking and executions


The United Nations’ Office for Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) has cooperated with Iran in the fight against drug trafficking for the past decades. Several European states have provided millions of dollars worth of support through UNODC to counter-narcotics forces in Iran. A recent report by Reprieve provides a direct link between the UNODC funding and thousands of executions in Iran.[4],[5] Together with several other right groups, IHR and ECPM have urged the UNODC on several occasions to freeze its counter-narcotic funding[6],[7] to Iran or condition it to a stop in drug-related executions. Several countries such as Denmark, Ireland[8] and the UK have stopped their counter-narcotic aid to the UNODC programs in Iran. However, the UNODC continues praising Iranian authorities for their efficient struggle against trafficking without taking into account the several hundred who are executed every year for such charges in Iran. Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), told reporters that “Iran takes a very active role to fight against illicit drugs,” [9] before an international meeting on global efforts to combat narcotics in Vienna on March 13-14. “It is very impressive,” Fedotov said referring to the reports showing that in 2012, Iran seized 388 tons of opium, the equivalent of 72 percent of all such seizures around the world. Commenting on Mr. Fedotov’s praise of Iran’s fight against drugs, IHR spokesperson Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: “The amount of seized drugs is the only positive result UNODC and the Iranian authorities can present. But there is no evidence that the UNODC cooperation with Iran has led to a decrease in drug trafficking. Besides, UNODC cannot be indifferent to the indiscriminate execution of hundreds of prisoners under the pretext of fighting the drug trafficking. UNODC must take its share of responsibility.” [10]
Although there has not been a significant reduction in the number of executions for drug-related charges, the growing international attention seems to have some impact on the Iranian authorities’ rhetoric regarding this issue.

Change in the Anti-Narcotic Law: a change in rhetoric or practice?

In previous years, Iranian authorities proudly presented the high number of executions for drug offences as a sign of their efficient struggle against  international drug trafficking. As late as March 2014, referring to the drug-related executions, Javad Larijani, head of the Iranian Judiciary’s “Human Rights Council” said: “ We expect the world to be grateful for this great service to humanity”. He continued: “Unfortunately, instead of celebrating Iran, international organizations see the increased number of executions caused by Iran’s assertive confrontation with drugs as a vehicle for human rights attacks on the Islamic Republic of Iran.” [11],[12]
However, the rhetoric has clearly changed in the last months of 2014. On December 4, in an English-language interview with France 24, Javad Larijani said, “No one is happy to see that the number of executions is high.” Javad Larijani continued, “We are crusading to change this law. If we are successful, if the law passes in Parliament, almost 80% of the executions will go away.[13] This is big news for us, regardless of Western criticism.” Interestingly, his statement was published also by the state-run Fars News Agency.[14]
This has been echoed by the judiciary. Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, Javad Larijani’s brother and the head of Iran’s Judiciary, addressed the need to change the country’s drug laws. During a December 2 meeting of judiciary officials, he said, “On the issue of drugs and trafficking, it seems necessary that we need a change in the legislation because the ultimate goal of the law should be implementing justice, while in reality, this goal is often not realized”.[15],[16]
Based on these statements, one can conclude that the Iranian authorities have at least publicly admitted that the executions have not been an efficient mean in the fight against drug trafficking.

However, it remains to be seen to what extent these statements represent a real willingness for policy change and are not just a change of rhetoric by the Iranian authorities. Iran’s response to the UPR recommendations regarding the drug-related executions will be indicative of where Iran is heading.

UPR Recommendations on drug-related executions:

Several countries have recommended Iran to respect the ICCPR, which restricts the death penalty for the most serious offences. Below are the recommendations that directly mention the drug-related executions.

  • Amend the Penal Code to exclude drug-trafficking related crimes from those punished by the death penalty (Spain);

  • Consider introducing a moratorium on the death penalty, with a view to its abolition, in particular for drug-related offences and other crimes that cannot be labelled as “most serious” according to international standards (Italy);


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[1]http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE13/090/2011/en/0564f064-e965-4fad-b062-6de232a08162/mde130902011en.pdf
[2]http://iranhr.net/2012/10/urgent-saeed-sedighi-and-several-other-prisoners-scheduled-to-be-executed-tomorrow-ihr-urges-un-and-eu-to-react-now/

Annual Report on the Death penalty in Iran- 2014: At Least 753 Executions

The execution numbers in 2014 are the highest reported executions in more than 15 years.
Iran Human Rights, March 11, 2015: In a press conference held in Oslo yesterday, Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort (ECPM) presented IHR’s seventh annual report on the death penalty in Iran.

Different parts of the report will be published in the coming days.

Annual 2014 Report at a Glance

  • 753 people were executed in 2014 (10% increase compared to 2013)cover
  • 291 cases (39%) were announced by official sources
  • 49% (367) were executed for drug-related charges
  • 32% (240) were executed for murder charges
  • 53 executions were conducted in public spaces
  • At least 14 juvenile offenders were among those executed
  • At least 26 women were executed
  • At least 4 people were resuscitated after being hanged

Introduction

The present report is being published while diplomatic relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the international community are at their strongest following the election of Hassan Rouhani as Iran’s president in June 2013.
In 2014 there have been high level meetings between the Iranian authorities and governments of many Western countries. In addition to visits by hundreds of lawmakers and politicians from the Western countries, top EU officials and foreign ministers of several countries including Norway, Sweden, Italy, Spain and Austria have visited Tehran. Dozens of high level meetings involving Iranian leaders have taken place on the international stage.[1]

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In spite of this level of engagement, the data collected by Iran Human Rights (IHR) and published in this report show that the number of executions conducted in 2014 is the highest in more than 15 years.  Moreover, a comparison of the execution rates in the 18 months before and after the election of Mr. Rouhani shows a significant increase in the use of the death penalty after Rouhani’s election. There has also been the highest number of reported juvenile executions since 1990. In addition, Iranian authorities continue execution for non-violent civil and political activists. Executions of Arab teachers, Hadi Rashedi and  Hashem Shabani, who belonged to an Arabic cultural group called “Al-Hiwar” (dialogue)[2], Gholamreza Khosravi, charged with giving economic support to a banned opposition group[3] and Mohsen Amir Aslani charged with insulting the Prophet Jonah and heresy[4], are just few examples of this practice. The Iranian Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for Soheil Arabi, for insulting the Prophet on Facebook and he remains in danger of execution[5].


This report raises the question whether the use of death penalty has been an issue in the bilateral dialogue between Iran and the countries which are the main promoters of abolition of the death penalty on the international scene.  If the death penalty is an important issue in these talks, why are the execution numbers rising at the same time as the diplomatic relations are increasingly flourishing? And more importantly, what specific measures are the international community going to take in order to counteract this trend?

Commenting the report Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director and spokesperson of IHR said, “Despite the improving relations between the international community and Iran, the situation of the death penalty has deteriorated significantly during the presidency of Hassan Rouhani.  This trend cannot continue. Restriction of the use of the death penalty must be one of the top demands in any dialogue between the international community and Iran.  It is time to show that human rights also benefit from these dialogues.”

The present report is being published just days before adotion of Iran’s UPR at the Human Rights Council (HRC) where Iran will be responding to more than 290 recommendations, among them 39 specific recommendations on the death penalty.  At the same time, public opposition to the death penalty is increasing inside Iran.  There is an ongoing open debate on the issue of public executions. Further, some Iranian officials have indicated a need for change in the Anti-narcotic Law in order to decrease the execution numbers for drug related offences. Further change in the legislation regarding the death penalty for juvenile offenders has also been mentioned. At the same time, a forgiveness movement is forming in Iran, where the families of the murder victims increasingly denounce the use of the death penalty as punishment.
Raphaël Chenuil-Hazan, the executive director of ECPM[6] said, “Diplomatic relations and the UPR are good opportunities to improve the situation of the death penalty in Iran. But it demands a stronger will from the international community and Iran’s dialogue partners, particularly the European Union and its members.”

IHR and ECPM believe that extending the mission of the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, close monitoring of the UPR recommendations accepted by Iran, conditioning further improvement of the relations with Iran on a reduction in the use of the death penalty and strengthening the Iranian civil society struggling against the death penalty, are the means by which the international community can contribute to restriction of the death penalty in Iran.

IHR and ECPM further believe that abolition of the death penalty for juvenile offenders, public executions and death penalty for drug-related offences are the areas where significant progress can be made in 2015.

More Than 12 Executions Today – At Least 43 Executions in the Last 6 Days

execution wave continues in Iran. During the last 6 days more than 60 executions have been reported and 43 of these executions have been confirmed.

Iran Human Rights, March 7, 2015: Three prisoners were executed in the prison of Ardebil on Saturday morning 7 March, reported the Iranian state media today. The prisoners who were not identified by name, we convicted of drug related charges in three different cases: Possession and trafficking of 2900 grams of Crystal, possession and trafficking of 1900 grams of crack and buying 2 kilograms of heroin, said the report. 070315-HRANA-Ghezelhesar

According to reports from human rights groups at least 9 prisoners were executed in the Gehzelhesar prison of Karaj, on Saturday March 7.
The website of “Human rights and democracy activists in Iran” (HRDAI) reported about the execution of 12 prisoners, among them two women, where of  8 men were identified by name. “Human rights activists news agency” (HRANA) reported about execution of 9 prisoners in the same prison and identified 8 of the prisoners by name. Except one of the names (Adel Salmanzadeh), the rest of the names in the two reports were different. All the prisoners were convicted of drug-related charges. Thus, as many as 20 prisoners might have been executed in Ghezelhesar prison on Saturday. HRANA published pictures of several of the prisoners, some of the funerals today.
Earlier this week at least 8 prisoners were hanged in Ghezelhesar prison, charged with drug-related offences.
Several reports by the Iranian media published quotes by the Iranian interior minister, Rahmani Fazli, saying “drug smugglers must be executed, the Judiciary must not show any mercy”.

Another Mass-Execution By the Iranian Authorities

Another Mass-Execution By the Iranian AuthoritiesAt the same time as the six Sunni Kurdish prisoners were executed in Rajaishahr prison of Karaj, Iranian authorities hanged at least 8 prisoners in the Ghezelhesar prison of this city. At least 32 people have been executed in the past three days in Iran.

Iran Human Rights, March 4, 2014: According to sources Iran Human Rights (IHR) has been in contact with at least eight prisoners were executed in the Ghezelhesar prison of Karaj Wednesday morning March 4.  According to this report 16 prisoners were transferred from the Unit 2 , ward 4 of Ghezelhesar prison for execution. eight of them were executed and the remaining eight haven’t come back to their ward yet.evin-small
Six of the prisoners who were executed are identified as: Mohammad Khandan, Mohsen Alipour, Masoud Rasouli, Asghar Mir-Adli and Mohammad Mahmoudi. All the prisoners were convicted of drug-related charges.
Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported about 15 executions in the Ghezelhesar prison of Karaj on Wednesday. Eight of these prisoners are the same as the ones reported by Iran Human Rights sources here. The remaining seven might be from the other units of the prison. According to this report 23 prisoners were scheduled to be executed in this prison on Wednesday, but eight of them were not executed.
According to Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) six prisoners have been executed in the prison of Urmia during the past two days. Two Prisoners charged with murder and sentenced to “Qesas”  and four prisoners charged with drug trafficking  were hanged in Orumiyeh Central Prison, from 2 to 4 March, reported KHRN.
The prisoners are identified as Bahman Baduyi and Babakhan  Hatam Pour charged with murder and hanged on March 4, and Naser Tamari, Farhad Bagheri, Nihad Joulideh and Behzad Jalili all charged for drug trafficking and hanged on March 2.
None of the above mentioned executions have been announced by the official Iranian sources.
Iranian authorities implemented blinding punishment of a prisoner on Tuesday March 3.

11 Prisoners Executed in Iran

Iran Human Rights, March 3, 2015: One prisoner was hanged publicly in Darab (Southern Iran) early Tuesday morning reported the Iranian media, and 10 prisoners were executed in the Adelabad prison of Shiraz according to the rights groups.
Quoting Mousavi,the Prosecutor of Darab, the local news website Darab online reported that the prisoner who was hanged outside the city,s silo was convicted of rape. The prisoner was not identified by name.

According to the “Human rights activists news agency” (HRANA) 10 prisoners were hanged in the Adelabad prison of Shiraz (Southern Iran) early this morning. Seven of the prisoners were convicted of drug related charges while the three others were charged with murder said the report.
The official Iranian sources have not announced the 10 executions in Shiraz yet.

Six Kurdish Sunni Prisoners at Imminent Danger of Execution

Six death row Kurdish Sunni prisoners have been transferred to an unknown location. Families of prisoners have been asked visit met their loved ones for the last time. Right groups believe the prisoners might be executed within the coming 24 hours. Iran Human Rights (IHR) calls for immediate reaction of the international community and urges the Western leaders meeting with the Iranian Foreign minister today, to put pressure on Iran to stop these unlawful executions.
hadi-hoseini-sedig-mohamadi
Iran Human Rights, June 14, 2014: Unofficial sources from Iran report that six Sunni Muslim prisoners,Jamshid and Jahangir Dehgani (brothers), Hamed Ahmadi and Kamal Molayee, Sedigh Mohammadi and Hadi Hosseini belonging to the Kurdish ethnic minority in Iran have been transferred out of their prison wards in Rajaishahr prison of Karaj to an unknown location. According to these reports the prisoners were brutally beaten and taken away while their hands and feet were tied and eyes were blindfolded.
Some family members of the prisoners have confirmed to IHR that they have been asked by the prison officials to urgently visit death row family members. One of the family members has been told to come for the last visit.
IHR is strongly concerned that the execution of the six Sunni Kurdish prisoners could be imminent.
Hamed Ahmadi, Jamshid Dehghani and his younger brother Jahangir Dehghani, Kamal Mosunni-kordlayee, Hadi Hosseini  and Sedigh Mohammadi are among six Sunni Muslim men from Iran’s Kurdish minority who were sentenced to death after being convicted of vaguely-worded offences including  Moharebeh (enmity against God) and “corruption on earth”.
IHR calls for a reaction by the international community to save these prisoners. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson of IHR, said: These prisoners have been subjected to ill-treatment, unfair trials and are possibly sentenced to death as part of the Iranian authorities’ crackdown of the Sunni minority in Iran. They are being executed while the Iranian Foreign Minister is meeting with the US  Secretary of States and possibly other Western leaders in Switzerland. We ask the international community to use all the channels in order to stop the executions. The world must show that their dialogues with the Iranian authorities also benefits the human rights”. 

Background: Jamshid and Jahangir Dehgani (brothers), Hamed Ahmadi and Kamal Molayee were arrested in 2009. They were accused along with six others of involvement in the assassination of a senior Sunni cleric with ties to the Iranian authorities.
They have denied any involvement, saying that their arrest and detention preceded the assassination by several months. They were sentenced to death by the branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, convicted of “Moharebeh” (enmity against God) and “acts against the nation’s security”. Their trial lasted about 10 minutes and they haven’t seen their lawyer, according to sources who have been in contact with Iran Human Rights (IHR).
The six other prisoners were executed in December 2012, but the death sentences of the four prisoners were postponed.
Their execution was scheduled to be carried out in on September 25, 2013, and June 15, 2014,  but it was postponed possibly due to the international attention.

Four Prisoners Hanged in Iran

Iran Human Rights, March 1, 2015: Four prisoners were hanged in two different Iranian cities, reported the Iranian state media.edam-isca
According to the official website of the Iranian Judiciary in Hormozgan province (Southern Iran) one man was hanged in Bandar Abbas Thursday morning 26 February. The prisoner who was identified as “M. K.” was convicted of murdering a man in 2010.
Three other prisoners were hanged in the prison of Rasht (Northern Iran) reported the Judiciary in Gilan province. Two of the prisoners identified as “H.M.” (40) and “H.R.” (28) were convicted of murder and the third prisoner identified as “D.F.” (35) was convicted of drug trafficking said the report.

Three Prisoners Hanged in Northwestern Iran

Iran Human Rights, February 28, 2014: Three prisoners were hanged in the prison of Ardebil (Northwestern Iran), Thursday morning February 26. edam-isca
According to the official website of the Iranian Judiciary in Ardebil Province, the prisoners were convicted of drug trafficking and were arrested while transferring 27 kilograms of heroin out of the country.
Due to lack of transparency in Iran’s Judiciary, the charges have not been confirmed by independent sources.

UN Must Intervene in the Environmental Crisis in Iran

UN Must Intervene in the Environmental Crisis in Iran – Call by 11 NGOs


“The environmental crisis in Ahwaz and other cities in Western and Southwestern Iran is indeed becoming a humanitarian disaster. Dust storms which have existed for years in this part of Iran, have been significantly intensified in the last few days and made local people to breath dust instead of air” write 11 NGOs in an open call to the UN Special Rapporteurs. NGOstatement-environment

Iran Human Rights, February 17, 2014: In an open letter to three of United Nations’ (UN) Special Rapporteurs released today, Iran Human Rights (IHR) along with 1o non-governmental organizations urged the UN to intervene in the environmental crisis in southwestern Iran:

Mr. Ahmed Shaheed, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran

Mr. John Knox, UN Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment,

Mr. Dainius Pūras, UN Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health,

Your Excellencies,
We, the undersigned human rights and civil society organizations, write to call your attention to an issue of urgent and serious concern in Iran. We wish to urge you to use your respective mandates to make an urgent appeal to the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran with regard to environmental crisis in western and southwestern Iran.
The environmental crisis in Ahwaz and other cities in Western and Southwestern Iran is indeed becoming a humanitarian disaster. Dust storms which have existed for years in this part of Iran, have been significantly intensified in the last few days and made local people to breath dust instead of air. For a good portion of year the amount of dust particles in the air reaches dangerous levels, sometimes up to 60 times the permissible level, and the air pollution up to 15 times the permissible level. On some days, the intensity of dust particles has been so high that it has rendered air pollution testing devices dysfunctional.
Ahvaz
On occasions, the dust has reduced visibility to less than 50 meters, which has resulted in some fatal car accidents with high numbers of casualties. According to official reports, everyday, an average of more than 250 people attend emergency departments in Ahwaz hospitals for respiratory problems while some of them need to be admitted to special care units. So far, official authorities have declined to give any statistics on air pollution related deaths. They also refuse to give any clear, non-contradictory, and accurate explanation and information on the reasons behind the crisis, responsible bodies, and solutions to the problem.

It has been announced that the government has an “Executive Package” on the way to battle the dust storms, which sounds promising. However, the only tangible measure taken by the government so far in order to protect the lives of more than one million people of Ahwaz has been ordering schools and government departments closed. In the last two weeks alone, schools in Ahwaz have been closed down for seven days. Further, it was only days after the beginning of the crisis, and following public protests, that the government began distributing free surgical masks. This was however limited only to Ahwaz and in other towns and cities people still have to pay for the masks. The intensity of dust and air pollution is also observed in other cities in Western and Southwestern Iran such as Ilam, Piranshahr, Abadan, Dehloran, Dezful, Hendijan, Mahshahr, Ramshir, Khoramshahr, Bukan, Mianduab, Hoveyzeh, Hamidiyeh, and Dasht-e Azadegan and Urmia (Orumieh) where the majority of population belongs to ethnic minorities who are subjected to discrimination and violation.

Multiple reasons have been suggested for this environmental crisis, which has become more problematic since ten years ago and affected the lives and health of millions of Iranians. It has been claimed that drought as a regional problem, excessive use of water resources and the diverting of the Karun river, development plans without taking environmental concerns into account such as excessive construction of water dams in the region including in Iran, oil exploration projects, etc. have resulted in desertification and drying up of marshlands and lagoons, which used to prevent dust from getting into residential areas. Lack of cooperation between Iran and Iraq in preserving the marshlands is another factor contributing to the dust storms originated inside Iraq.

Over the past ten years, the government of the IRI has not carried out any effective plan to prevent dust particles getting into the air breathed by people. Now this has turned into an emergency crisis with no short-term solution, if any, in the horizon.

In a 2003 report[1], the UNEP had sounded alarm about the disappearance of two of the largest marshlands in the world and the largest ecosystem in southwestern Asia, Hur-ul-azim and Hur-ul-hoveyzeh, located on the Iran-Iraq border. According to this research, by that time 90 percent of this ancient and unique ecosystem had been destroyed. The report described the death of these marshlands as one of humanity’s worst engineered disasters and suggested that the only solution to prevent a major environmental crisis would be urgent measures to preserve these two international marshlands. However, this never materialized, neither by Iran nor Iraq, and dust particles raised from the dried-up marshlands became one of the main reasons of the current disaster that is unfolding in southwestern Iran, particularly the city of Ahwaz.

It is evident that short-sighted regional and national development plans and poor environmental policy-making have contributed to this disaster. The governments in the region, including the IRI, have failed to effectively and timely address the environmental problems and control harmful activities within their own terri­tories, which have caused the current disaster.

Human rights and environmental protection are interlinked and the rights to life, health, and development undoubtedly depend on a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. The government of the IRI owes positive obligations towards its citizens in this regard and we are extremely disturbed by the fact that, the IRI has failed to effectively protect its citizens against environmental harm and to mitigate the consequences.

We, therefore, respectfully request that you consider the situation described above and urge the government of the IRI to take the following steps:

  • Take effective and tangible measures to prevent and mitigate harm to people.

  • Take urgent and special measures to protect those most vulnerable including children, ill people, and older people.

  • Carry out a comprehensive inquiry and hold accountable those responsible for causing the problem or failed to take effective and timely measures.

  • Provide full access to information about the problem and its impacts on the health and lives of people, as well as the decisions made and plans adopted.

  • Take into account in decision-­making process the environmental impact of activities on the right to life and health of people.

  • Invite local authorities, independent experts, civil society and rights groups to participate in environmental decision-making.

  • Provide effective remedies and access to justice –while ensuring non­-discriminatory treatment– for those individuals or communities who are directly affected by this problem.

In conclusion, we request that you watch the situation closely until all required measures by the Islamic Republic of Iran are taken and the problem is solved.

Sincerely yours,


Duman Radmehr, Board Member
AHRAZ )Association for the Human Rights of Azerbaijani People in Iran(

Dr Hossein Ladjevardi, President
Association des Chercheurs Iraniens’ (ACI)

Karen Parker, President
Association of Humanitarian Lawyers

Taimoor Aliassi, UN Representative
Association of Human Rights in Kurdistan of Iran-Geneva

Ibrahim Al Arabi, Executive Director
European Ahwazi Human Rights Organisation (EAHRO)

Keyvan Rafiee, Director
Human Rights Activists in Iran  (HRAI)

Mohammad Nayyeri, Founder and Director
Insight Iran

Lydia Brazon, Executive Director
International Educational Development, Inc

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, Executive Director
Iran Human Rights (IHR)

Shadi Sadr, Co-Director
Justice for Iran (JFI)

Mohammad Mostafaei, Director
Universal Tolerance Organization
[1] UNEP, The Mesopotamian Marshlands: Demise of an Ecosystem, available at: <http://www.grid.unep.ch/activities/sustainable/tigris/report.ph>.

Thursday 22 January 2015

Three Prisoners Hanged Publicly in Northwestern Iran


– JANUARY 22, 2015POSTED IN: AZERBAIJANI, EXECUTION, EXECUTION FOR MURDER, FEATURE, PUBLIC EXECUTION
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Iran Human Rights, January 21, 2015: Three prisoners were hanged in the public in town of Bonab (Northwestern220115-BonabIran) reported the Iranian state media. According to the state run Iranian news agency Mehr, the prisoners were convicted of kidnapping and murdering a 12 year old girl in October 2014. The public hangings took place today, Wednesday 21. January.
According to a local website the prisoners were identified as “Hamed”, “Siyavash” and “Ali”. The report didn’t mention how old the men were.
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