Iran ‘unlawfully detaining rights activists’: Javaid Rehman

Iran is cracking down on protesters, unlawfully detaining human rights activists, including new Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, and carrying out an “alarming” number of executions, the UN independent investigator on human rights in Iran said in a report.

The wide-ranging report by Javaid Rehman, covering the period from October 2022 through July, was written before the announcement early Friday that the Nobel Peace Prize had been awarded to Mohammadi, a longtime campaigner for women’s rights even from her current cell in Tehran’s Evin Prison.

Rehman, a Pakistani-born professor of international human rights law at Brunel University in London, singled out Mohammadi among lawyers and human rights defenders imprisoned for their work in the report to the General Assembly.

He was highly critical of the “excessive and lethal use of force” unleashed by Iranian authorities in reaction to nationwide protests following the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old member of the Kurdish minority who was arrested for wearing an “improper hijab” or head scarf.

By the end of July, Rehman said that at least 537 people, including 68 children and 48 women, had died for protesting and hundreds more had been injured “while thousands have been reportedly arrested, detained or incarcerated.”

Iran’s UN mission spokesman did not respond to an email requesting comment on the report.

Rehman expressed disappointment that Iran has not conducted an independent and transparent investigation into Amini’s death or the unlawful use of force against protesters.