Human Rights Situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Your Excellency, Ms. Michelle Bachelet

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and
Mr. Javaid Rahman, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Dear Madam Bachelet and Dr. Rahman,

While our country is suffering from economic and social problems, poverty, unemployment, corruption, incompetence and official violence; and while the Islamic Republic’s useless and unnecessary foreign military adventures have caused harsh international economic sanctions and threats of war, the Islamic regime’s reaction toward opposition has always been violence, arrests, incarcerations, terror, torture and execution.

There is not a day when someone or some group from our best citizens that are not threatened or arrested. Unfortunately, one of the victims to this violent suppression has been Ms. Giti Pourfazel, an outstanding human rights lawyer and one of the bravest woman-activists who signed a letter along with 13 other brave woman-activists requesting resignation of the Islamic Republic leadership and transfer of power from dictatorship to a democracy based on the International Declaration of Human Rights. Today is the fifteenth month of her incarceration despite ill health at an advanced age and threat of dangerous pandemic corona virus in prison.

Ms. Pourfazel is one of the most celebrated defense attorneys for political, human rights, religious minorities and prisoners of conscience. She is also an author and a poet with several published books to her credit. She is accused of protesting corruption, incompetence, official violence and other social and economic ills which have caused social and moral degradation causing the country to decline dangerously. She is the voice of the majority of Iranian people. People who are desperate and may easily be provoked to start a national uprising which event may easily end in civil war. We believe that her hard stand against corruption, violence, pilferage and lawlessness of the Islamic Republic leadership and its cronies has caused anger of the security apparatus and their revenge against her.

We the undersigned, considering her unlawful prison sentence based on false accusations, which is a standard for all prisoners of conscience is an anti-human rights Islamic regime, strongly condemn the inhuman and anti-national security policy of the regime against her and all other prisoners of conscience, politics, human rights, and also environmentalists, teachers, labor unionists and students, demanding their immediate release.

We expect of you International Human Rights officers to demand of the Islamic Republic immediate release of Ms. Pourfazel who is in her 70s who’s been in prison for 14 months while suffering from serious health issues and threat of Corona infection in prison. We also demand immediate release of all innocent people in prison whose only guilt has been expressing opposition to official violence and corruption. We also demand that all innocent prisoners such as workers, teachers, students, environmentalists, and prisoners of conscience be freed immediately.
Best Regards,

Iran National Front – Sixth Assembly, a democratic and human rights organization
Tehran, June 18, 2021