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IRAN - GENDER - URGENT APPEAL - THE OBSERVATORY

 

IRN 008 / 0807 / OBS 095

Sentencing / Harassment

 Iran

August 22, 2007

 

 

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Iran.

 

Description of the situation:

 

The Observatory has been informed by the Iranian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LDDHI) of the sentencing to suspended imprisonment of Ms. Nasim Sarabandi and Ms. Fatemeh Dehdashti, two women’s rights activists involved in the “One Million Signatures Campaign”, which aims at revising discriminatory legislation against women.

 

According to the information received, on August 12, 2007, the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced Ms. Sarabandi and Ms. Dehdashti  to six months’ suspended imprisonment for “actions against national security through the spread of propaganda against the State”.

 

These two women were arrested in January 2007 while collecting signatures in the subway, in the framework of the “One million signatures” campaign. They were subsequently held in detention at Gisha prison for 24 hours before being released on bail.

 

On April 18, 2007, Ms. Sarabandi and Ms. Dehdashti were summoned to the security section of the Revolutionary Courts and then taken to Eshrat Abad, the headquarters of the Security Police, where they were interrogated. They were then transferred to Revolutionary Courts’ Special Prosecutor’s Office on Security, where they were charged.

 

The Observatory expresses its deep concern about the increasing repression of the Iranian authorities against human rights defenders, in particular pro-reform students, intellectuals and women’s rights activists involved in the “One Million Signatures Campaign”[1][1]. The Observatory strongly condemns the increasing number of abusive sentences pronounced by the Iranian judiciary against women’s rights defenders and considers it as a tool to repress their activities.

 

The Observatory further wishes to insist on the fact that Iran had committed to “uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights”[2][2] by presenting its candidacy to the Human Rights Council 2006 election and had insisted in this regard on the fact that the country had “continuously put great efforts into safeguarding the status and inherent dignity of the human person as well as the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms”[3][3]. In order to ensure the continuation of these efforts, the Observatory urges the Islamic Republic of Iran to conform with international human rights standards.

 





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