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Search for tag "Javaid Rehman"
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| 2018. 6 Jul |
Mr. Javaid Rehman was appointed as the third Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran since re-establishment of the mandate. The former mandate holder, Ms. Asma Jahangir assumed the mandate from November 2016 until her sudden passing in February 2018.
Mr. Rehman was a Professor of International Human Rights Law and Muslim Constitutionalism at Brunel University, London. Mr Rehman taught human rights law and Islamic law and continued to publish extensively in the subjects of international human rights law, Islamic law and constitutional practices of Muslim majority States. Several of his published works have been translated into various languages.
Overview of the mandate
The Human Rights Council Resolution 37/30 requested the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran to submit a report on the implementation of the mandate to the Human Rights Council at its fortieth session and to the General Assembly at its seventy-third session and calls upon the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteur, to permit access to visit the country, and to provide all information necessary to allow the fulfillment of the mandate.
In the discharge of his mandate, the Special Rapporteur will:
a) Monitor and investigate human rights violations, transmits urgent appeals and letters to Iran on alleged violations of human rights;
b) Seek to undertake country visits to Iran and to the region and engage with relevant stakeholders;
c) Submit reports to the General Assembly and Human Rights Council on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran; and
d) Engage publicly on issues of concern, including through press releases. |
New York, NY |
Javaid Rehman; UN; United Nations; Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran |
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| 2021. 9 Mar |
Javaid Rehman, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, presented his report to UN’s Human Rights Council detailing the scale of human rights abuses perpetrated by the regime in Tehran against members of many groups in the country. (It should be noted that his requests to visit Iran were denied and so he compiled his report using data collected from government, non-governmental and media sources. He also interviewed victims of abuses, along with their families and lawyers.) In the report he revealed that women, girls, human rights advocates, ethnic minorities, writers, journalists and people with dual nationality are among those targeted by the regime. They faced abuse, torture, arbitrary detention, harassment, forced confessions, and even the death penalty. What follows are some of the details of his report:
Women: Females suffered as a result of deep-rooted discrimination in law and day-to-day life. Domestic violence, acid attacks, patriarchal values and misogynist behaviours, discriminatory legal provisions were among the issues women faced. Women’s rights advocates, both women and men, including those who campaign against compulsory veiling laws were targeted. The enforcement of veiling laws by the police, Basij militia and vigilante “morality police” has often resulted in violence against women, including acid attacks and murder.
Rehman’s report also detailed how blatant gender discrimination permeated almost all aspects of the law and daily life in Iran, including marriage, divorce, employment and culture, with the result that women are treated as second-class citizens. He called on the Iranian government to repeal discriminatory laws and ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women. Iran is one of the few states not to have signed it.
Child marriages: In just six months during the previous year, 16,000 girls between the ages of 10 and 14 were married in Iran.
Girls as young as 13 could marry in Iran with their father’s permission, and at an even younger age if authorized by a judge.
Protesters: There has been a brutal crackdown by security forces on protesters during the nationwide demonstrations on November 19th. Firearms were used “in a manner that amounted to a serious violation of international human rights law,” resulting in the deaths of more than 300 people, including women and children. In the days following the protests the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps raided homes, hospitals, schools and workplaces to arrest demonstrators, including children, and crush what Iranian officials described as “a very dangerous conspiracy.” More than 7,000 detainees were held in secret facilities without access to lawyers, many of them in solitary confinement where they were tortured, starved and forced to make false confessions. The targeting of relatives in an effort to force human rights activists to halt their campaigning has been widely documented.
Capital punishment: He also voiced concern about the high rate of death sentences in Iran, especially the execution of child offenders, and the recent cases in which protesters received the death penalty. There have also been reports of secret executions in connection with the protests “following unfair trials and after the systematic use of torture to extract forced confessions.”
The targeting of human rights activists, journalists, labour rights campaigners, dual and foreign nationals, and lawyers.
Violation of the right to freedom of expression: The “authorities” repeatedly disrupted telecommunications. Telegram, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are “permanently blocked and inaccessible without circumvention tools, in an attempt to prevent protesters from revealing regime abuses to the world. Internet shutdowns and the blanket blocking of websites and applications represent a violation of the right to freedom of expression.
Minorities: There was ongoing discrimination against ethnic, religious and sexual minorities. The report included details of executions and enforced disappearances of political prisoners from ethnic minorities. Bahá’í have been arrested for membership in the Faith and many Gonabadi Dervishes also remain in prison.
Forced evictions: Many ethnic minorities have been evicted and their homes have been destroyed.
Since completing his report further “disturbing incidents” involving the targeting of minorities have come to light, including: more than 20 executions of Baloch prisoners; the “suspicious” death of a Dervish follower; excessive use of force against protesters in Sistan and Balochistan province; the detention of 100 Kurdish activists, and house raids and land confiscations targeting members of the Baha’i faith. Individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender also experience human rights violations and widespread discrimination.
COVID-19: The Iranian government has continued the targeting of journalists and writers who report on subjects such as corruption and the COVID-19 pandemic. Health experts who question the regime’s management of the health crisis also reportedly face prosecution or losing their jobs. Although international sanctions have hampered Iranian efforts to respond to the pandemic, it criticized the government’s “opaque and inadequate coronavirus response which has resulted in excess deaths, including the deaths of medical workers who were left to fend for themselves without sufficient protective equipment.” Detainees were also abandoned in “overcrowded and unhygienic” prisons. According to the World Health Organization, in June 2020 there were 211,000 prisoners in Iran’s state prisons, 2.5 times the official capacity.
The Report: English; French.
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New York; New York; Iran |
Persecution, Iran; United Nations; Javaid Rehman |
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