Human rights situation in Iran deteriorated significantly in 2007

Brief summary of the human rights situation in Iran from Human Rights Council’s:


The human rights situation in Iran deteriorated significantly in 2007. The government has increasingly used “national security” as a pretext for arresting student activists, women’s rights campaigners, labor leaders and activists, independent scholars, and journalists. Ministry of Information agents have subjected such detainees to various forms of ill-treatment and torture, such as prolonged interrogation sessions that include physical beatings and psychological abuse as well as extensive periods of solitary confinement. The government has not held Ministry of Information officials accountable for arbitrary arrests and detentions, and interrogations of civil society activists in violation of Iran’s domestic law and international obligations. Iran continues to be among the world’s top executioners. In July and August alone, the authorities executed at least 39 people. Jafar Kiani suffered a particularly brutal form of execution when he was stoned to death by officials on July 5 in Aghche-Kand, a village in Ghazvin province. Local authorities carried out the death sentence despite a June 20 order by Iran’s head of judiciary, Ayatollah Shahrudi, to indefinitely stay the execution.