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The chain of shocking news from the Islamic Republic of Iran continues unabated. As if the exceptionally high number of executions were not enough, we have received the news that yet another young person has to pay with his life for exercising his internationally recognised right to freedom of expression and art. We are talking about Toomaj Salehi, the young

We, the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Iran – Austria and Medical Professionals for Human Rights in Iran – Austria, would like to express our deep concern about the attack on Iranian journalist Pouria Zeraati in London. It is deeply disturbing that a journalist dedicated to disseminating information from whatever angle has been the victim of such

The circumstances of the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny must be independently investigated. Like many prominent Kremlin critics before him, Alexei Navalny paid for his fearless fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin with his life. The country’s most famous political prisoner died on Friday, 16 February, at the age of 47 in the notorious IK-3 penal colony in

Dear Mrs Deputy High Commissioner Al-Nashif Dear Mr High Commissioner Türk, As Austrian-Iranian organisations working for human rights in Iran, we are concerned that the visit of Deputy High Commissioner Nada Al-Sharif to Iran is being misused by the Iranian regime for propaganda purposes. Numerous human rights groups worldwide have already appealed to the OHCHR to postpone the visit until

We welcome the initiative of the Republic of South Africa to indict the State of Israel for genocide, the ongoing destruction of human life and livelihoods in Gaza at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, while also naming and condemning the atrocious crimes of Hamas. The United Nations organisations, as “representatives of the world’s conscience”, have so far

Increased Pressures Against Women Political Prisoners In recent days, out of 61 women political-prisoners of Evin Prison, 13 women have been deprived of the right to make phone calls by the orders of security-judicial authorities. Among the 61 women political-prisoners of  Evin Prison: 4 women are over seventy years old. 10 women are over sixty years old. Among the 61

Security forces in Iran used rape and other forms of sexual violence, amounting to torture and other ill-treatment, to intimidate and punish peaceful protesters during the 2022 “Woman Life Freedom” uprising, Amnesty International said in a new report published today.   The 120-page report, “They violently raped me”: Sexual violence weaponized to crush Iran’s “Woman Life Freedom” uprising, documents in detail the harrowing ordeals

To civil society, The Islamic government of Iran has accelerated the movement of its killing machinery, this time in the media shadow of the war in the Middle East. In recent days, several people have been led to the gallows, including 33-year-old Kamran Rezaie in Adelabad prison (participant of a protest movement) in Shiraz, Sunni prisoner Ayoub Karimi in Karaj

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and its member organisation for Iran, the League for the Defence of Human Rights in Iran (LDDHI), welcome the findings published by a United Nations (UN) body last week, which underscored the grave and systematic violations of civil and political rights by the Iranian authorities. FIDH and LDDHI urge the government to fully