Statement of Executive Director Roya Boroumand to the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations, as Part of the Fourth Periodic Review of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Thank you Madam Chair, members of the Committee,
The systemic lack of transparency and accountability in the Islamic Republic of Iran has impeded the realization of a wide spectrum of human rights enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
My organization, Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights, has documented how, for decades, Iran has been routinely violating the right to life through summary, arbitrary and extrajudicial and extraterritorial executions. It has violated the right to fair trial and due process, including detainees’ right to defense, and has been coercing, under torture, confessions that are used in prosecutions of capital crimes. Iran has used disproportionate and deadly force targeting protesters' heads, chests as well as their eyes as a means to impose laws that violate its international obligations and for the purpose of crowd control, as it did to stop nationwide protests sparked by the death of Zhina Mahsa Amini in morality police custody in September of 2022. Iran persecutes families of victims who seek justice, prevents its victims’ commemorations, and punishes journalists, lawyers and other citizens who shed light on human rights abuses and seek the truth and justice.
Amini’s case is emblematic. More than a year after her death, no one has been charged or tried. The authorities have denied the family access to video recordings of the police van. The journalists who broke the news of her death are still imprisoned, and her lawyer is being prosecuted for “propaganda against the regime” because he called for an independent investigation and the release of missing police cameras footage. Her family members were detained in their home and prevented from commemorating the anniversary of her death.
The lack of transparency and the well-established culture of impunity in the Islamic Republic put individuals at risk inside and outside prisons and beyond Iran’s borders. We encourage the Committee to address the questions of transparency and accountability as well as that of the right to proper defense and the presence of attorneys during interrogations with the Iranian Delegation as well as in its concluding observations.