What we do : www.iranhrc.org
The Islamic Republic of Iran has a long record of human rights violations. Executions, death threats, acts of harassment, judicial harassment, stigmatization, violent attacks, maltreatment, torture and rape in prisons point up the gravity of the violations suffered and stress the need for greater international pressure on Iran to create space for Iran’s human rights and democracy movement. Iranian human rights defenders both within Iran and abroad need to be strengthened through technical support, as well as through advocacy in order to reduce the pressure on them. They urgently seek and welcome international expressions of concern, and solidarity for them must be stepped up through linguistic, legal, financial, technical and administrative support. In an endeavour to encourage and assist Iranian human rights defenders and provide a basis for public awareness, the project was launched in October 2012; it runs until September 2015. The activities are funded by the European Union and the Austrian Development Co-operation. − Monitoring the human rights situation in Iran, as well as writing and issuing written and oral statements and publishing reports to the Human Rights Council and its Special Procedures; − Organizing parallel events at session of the Human Rights Council on human rights issues in Iran; − Awarding Iranian human right prizes to honour Iranian human rights defenders and inviting them to Geneva; − Providing Iranian human rights defenders with specific training in the acquisition of knowledge and skills related to international human rights procedures and law, as well as to informatics; − Lending financial support (sub-grants) for independent Iranian news blogs; − Providing legal counsel to Iranian human rights defenders in exile; − Establishing contacts with people in Iran and enabling them to report on violations; − Covering via the Internet a full spectrum of activities at the United Nations Human Rights Council, thus providing Iranian human rights defenders with opportunities to engage with, and augment information on, the international human rights system. Our mission is to contribute on behalf of the Iranian people to the securement of fundamental human rights in Iran and the provision of effective support to Iranian human rights defenders. Our endeavours are directed towards assisting those defenders to establish links to, and cooperate with, the special procedures at the United nations Human Rights Council as well as to building a platform for Iranian human rights defenders at the Council Other aims include promoting the active use of the Internet to supplement the defenders’ work on human rights, increase their organizational capacities and contribute actively to breaking their isolation and social exclusion in Iran.
Our values
We carry out our mandate in an independent, impartial, objective and supra-denominational manner. We respond to the needs of Iranian human rights defenders, irrespective of the rights and causes they defend. We believe in the principle of the universality of all human rights. As such, we are respectful of others, treating everybody equally – with dignity and without discrimination.
