‘The Top Executioner’: Iran Executed at Least 975 People in 2024
A ‘Surge’ in Executions: Tehran executed at least 975 people in 2024, making Iran the year’s “top executioner in the world per capita,” two human rights groups said in...
Javaid Rehman
New UN Report Denounces Iran’s Genocide in the 1980s
Latest Developments Iran committed crimes against humanity and genocide when it executed thousands of dissidents in 1981-1982 and 1988, a new United Nations report released on July 22 declared. Authored...
Flash Briefs
UN Special Rapporteur: Biden Has No Clear Iran Strategy
President Joe Biden’s administration lacks a clear Iran strategy, the United Nations’ special rapporteur for human rights in Iran said on July 9. Arguing that Tehran has “been...
Flash Briefs
In Prisoner Swap, Sweden Releases Iranian Official Convicted of War Crimes
Sweden released a former Iranian judiciary official on June 15 convicted of crimes against humanity in exchange for two innocent Swedish citizens imprisoned by Tehran. Stockholm...
Flash Briefs
Iran’s Repression of Baha’is Condemned by U.S. Agency
A key U.S. agency condemned Iran on November 15 for its resurgent persecution of the Baha’is, the country’s largest non-Muslim religious minority. The U.S. Commission on International...
Flash Briefs
Iran Publicly Hangs Two Afghan Prisoners
Iran publicly hanged two Afghan nationals on July 8 on charges of efsad-fil-arz (corruption on earth) and baghy (armed rebellion) after trials devoid of due process that relied on confessions elicited...
Flash Briefs
Iran Surpasses 500 Executions in 2022
Tehran executed a prisoner today for allegedly wounding a paramilitary officer during nationwide protests, the first formal execution of a demonstrator since the unrest began in September. The sentence reportedly followed a brief trial devoid of due process in which the conviction rested on a confession elicited through torture. Iran has executed more than 500 people to date in 2022, constituting “the highest rate in five years,” according to the Norway-based nonprofit Iran Human Rights (IHR). This figure does not include the more than 450 protesters whom security forces have killed since September.
Flash Briefs
Biden Calls for a Free Iran
“We’re gonna free Iran,” said President Joe Biden on Thursday. “They’re gonna free themselves pretty soon.” A White House spokesperson appeared to back-pedal the statement the next day, saying that Biden was merely “expressing, again, our solidarity” with Iranian protestors rather than articulating a new U.S. policy. Still, the president’s declaration constitutes an apparent endorsement of regime change in Iran, implicitly repudiating his current policy, which centers on engaging the regime in hopes of reviving the 2015 nuclear deal.
Flash Briefs
Canada must increase pressure on Iran
There is a hesitation on the part of Canada's current leaders to exact meaningful consequences on Tehran
Op-eds
Trapped in a Pandemic: Iran’s Political Prisoners Face COVID-19 Behind Bars
“Our bodies are ruined,” Narges Mohammadi, the imprisoned Iranian journalist and human rights advocate, wrote in July. “There are twelve of us in the ward who have come down with the coronavirus,”...
Op-eds
The JCPOA Has Not Improved Iran’s Human Rights Record
The Obama administration routinely argued that the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran could spur Tehran to moderate, thereby reducing its systematic human rights abuses. But this forecast has proven unfounded:...
Policy Briefs
Iran refuses to release Christian prisoners amid coronavirus outbreak while EU sends millions in aid
Iran’s theocratic rulers have temporarily released some 85,000 prisoners, including political prisoners, in an effort to prevent the spread of the Middle East’s worst coronavirus outbreak, but have...
Op-eds
UN issues scathing indictment of Iran’s human rights violations
The newly released U.N. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran savaged Tehran’s failure to adhere to basic human rights norms. Javaid Rehman,...
Op-eds
UN Appoints New Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Iran
The UN Human Rights Council on Friday appointed Javaid Rehman, a British-Pakistani...