On December 21, 2008, the headquarter of the Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC) in Tehran, FIDH member organisation in Iran, was violently searched without judicial search warrant and closed by the police. A private meeting was scheduled on the very same day to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
"We were fearing this closure already for several weeks: Mrs. Shirin Ebadi, one of the Centre’s founding member, has been victim of recurrent and increasing pressure so that DHRC ceases its activities. Representatives of the Ministry of Information visited her on two occasions at her office to that extent, but she energetically refused to put an end to the work of the DHRC", declared Karim Lahidji, FIDH Vice-President.
At the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the UDHR, 300 persons had been invited to participate in a ceremony during which the DHRC Prize was supposed to be awarded to Mr. Taghi Rahmani, an independent journalist who spent more than 10 years in prison during the Islamic regime. In addition, Ms. Nargues Mohammadi, DHRC Spokesperson, was verbally attacked by security forces and then expelled of the offices like the other members present at the time of the police raid. The police then put lock on all entrances of DHRC.
"The Iranian authorities exert an increasingly severe repression against Iranian human rights defenders. Arrests, judicial proceedings, heavy sentences are commonplace. DHRC has engaged a work on very important themes for the future of the country: support to political prisoners and their families, monitoring and denunciation of human rights violations, support to the campaign in favour of equality of women and men, scrutiny of the legislation and practices regarding elections. Besides, DHRC has established a working group on peace and human rights - a key issue in the eyes of the Iranian population following the threats of an armed American intervention in the country", declared Eric Sottas, OMCT Secretary-General.
DHRC is nowadays repressed because of the credibility it has acquired in the eyes of the Iranian population. A new struggle starts today in Iran: to obtain the reopening of DHRC as soon as possible. DHRC is indeed the only resort for victims of human rights violations in Iran, whose number has been constantly increasing.
More generally, the Observatory calls upon the Iranian authorities to immediately put an end to all kind of repression against human rights defenders, and to conform with the United Nations Declarations on Human Rights Defenders, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as regional and international human rights instruments ratified by Iran.
For further information, please contact:
OMCT: Delphine Reculeau, + 41 22 809 49 39
FIDH: Gaël Grilhot, + 33 1 43 55 14 12