Arcdh
Dear Prof. Rehman,
Brief: The Reports of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, to the Human Rights Council in 2022 with a Particular Focus on Accountability using Events since June 2021
Please find enclosed Brief (the Brief) to inform you on your topics of interest as required for the above towards Special Rapporteur’s (SR) next report in 2022. We thank you for consulting us and giving us this opportunity to respond to the issues identified for the report.
The Brief will strive to create a general picture in Iran but will illustrate the issues in terms of the situations of Azerbaijanis in Azerbaijani provinces in Iran. We notice that your Call for Consultation lists emblematic events including:
- The use of force during the November 2019 protests
- The use of force during the protests in Khuzestan in July 2021
- The shooting down of Flight PS752 in January 2020
- Health crisis over the summer of 2021 associated with the COVID-19 vaccination policy
We have informed you of all these in our past responses in detail but none of them found directly or indirectly their way into your reports. Likewise, our reports have informed you details of emblematic events by Azerbaijanis in Azerbaijani provinces systematically suppressed and repressed during:
- The persecution for celebrating the International Mother Language Day on 21 February 2014 still goes on and yet no word in this call for contributions or any other SR’s reports.
- At least 34 Azerbaijani individuals were arrested for expressing their solidarity with Al-Ahwazis protesting against the water crisis in the Summer 2021.
We take the opportunity to call your attention to key issues identified in our response to the “Next Reports of Secretary-General and Special Rapporteur on Iran to the General Assembly.’ These were as follows:
- The dire situation of “Mr. Alirza Farshi and Mr. Abbas Lisani continues and they even more critical state now.
- We wrote to you that “The Iranian Majlis has now approved the new major changes on the entry requirement to the education in primary schools to impose the Sufficiency of Farsi for enrolment. Our campaigns will go to expose this through your channels.
- Also Prof. Jalali, a Swedish scientist from Tabriz (with dual passport), who is on death row in Evid prison accused of spying, has just been awarded for Academic Freedom and therefore we would strongly recommend that his case for freedom is promoted in your report too.
Our summary in May 2021 was that “Unfortunately, any positive progress in the functions of the Iranian authorities in Azerbaijani provinces in the course of the last year are none to be detected.” After nearly six months of time lapse we would only say that this hypernormalised conditions still remains.
.
We thank you in advance for your care.
Your sincerely ArcDH