Iranian human rights defenders have no security in terms of their lives or professions in Iran, writes Shirin Ebadi, the head of Iran’s Human Rights Defenders Centre, in a letter to Ahmed Shaheed, the United Nation’s Special Rapporteur on human rights for Iran.
The letter indicates that the Revolutionary courts in Iran have classified human rights activities as “grave crimes” and are punishing human rights activists according to this classification.
Ebadi lists several such cases, including those of Nasrin Sotoudeh, Abolfattah Soltani, Mohammad Seifzadeh, Mohammadali Dadkhah, Abdolreza Tajik and Bahareh Hedayat.
The Human Rights Defenders Centre in Iran was established by a group of prominent Iranian lawyers in 2000. Six years later, the non-profit organization was banned by the government and shut down accordingly. Ebadi maintains, however, that the centre has been registered with the International Federation of Human Rights.
The Iranian Nobel Peace laureate calls on Shaheed to protest the “violation of human rights in Iran” and to urge the Islamic Republic to respect the rights of its citizens.
