Report uncovers Khamenei’s regime’s violation of the right to peaceful assembly in Iran

By: Hend Ahmed

The Monitoring Center for Human Rights in Iran has released a detailed report about violations committed in the Islamic Republic of the right to peaceful assembly.

The report covers the protests that erupted in the country last month. Here is a summary of the repot:

Massive protests erupted in all parts of Iran against corruption and commodity and service price hikes.

The protests erupted on Thursday, December 28, 2017. Around 10,000 people took to the streets in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad. Soon, however, this show of anger reverberated in 120 more Iranian cities.

Slogans chanted by the demonstrators expressed the enormity of anger they felt at economic and political conditions in Iran. They also expressed public anger at poverty, high unemployment, corruption and inequality in their country.

The demonstrators called for the release of political prisoners, and expressed opposition to the Iranian regime.

Official statements about the protests, mainly about the failure of the demonstrators to get permission for staging the protests, violate international human rights standards. The right to peaceful assembly is a basic human right.

In democratic states, the government has the responsibility of protecting the demonstrators and preventing any attacks against them.

Soon after the demonstrations erupted, the Iranian government blocked internet services, including a number of social media sites, to prevent the demonstrators from publishing news about the suppression of the protests.

The Iranian regime also used live fire, water hoses, tanks and armored vehicles to disperse the demonstrators. Regime forces also arrested a large number of the protesters and tortured a large number of those they detained in order to force them to appear on TV. Five people, at least, died in jail because of torture.

In the past few days, the relatives of the detainees staged protests outside Evin Prison in Tehran, and outside prisons in Isfahan and Ahvaz cities to put pressure on the authorities to release them. However, anti-riot police responded by firing tear gas on them and arresting many of them.

These protests invited the attention of the international community. Amnesty International issued two statements in which it expressed concern about the fate of the detainees. The organization called for conducting an inquiry into the case of these detainees and releasing them.

Four human rights experts also expressed concern at the United Nations over human rights conditions in Iran. They expressed sorrow over the killing of 20 demonstrators. They said orders issued by the Iranian regime to police to use force against the demonstrators were unacceptable.

Around 50 people were killed in the protests since they erupted on December 28, until now. Nonetheless, pro-government media says only 27 people have been killed so far.

Detentions and internet blockage

A large number of people were detained during the protests, even as Iranian authorities tried to underestimate numbers in this regard.

Around 3,700 people were arrested and put in jail, according to Iranian authorities. However, the National Council for Iranian Resistance said as many as 8,000 people were detained during the protests.

Iranian authorities blocked internet services to prevent the demonstrators from communicating with each other and publishing demonstrations’ news.

Judiciary authorities, meanwhile, described the demonstrators as “rioters” and accused them of destabilizing Iran. This was why the same authorities justified using live fire in dispersing the protests. They also staged quick executions and allowed the torture of the demonstrators.