WUNRN
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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Thank you.