Several Kurdish women and other women’s rights activists in Iran have been arrested throughout the year. Amnesty International has released another public statement renewing it’s demands that the Iranian authorities end their pressure and discrimination against these women’s rights defenders.
18 June 08 - Public Statement from Amnesty International:
Turkey: Three children on trial in case over freedom of expression
Tomorrow, 19 June, three boys, aged 15, 15 and 17 at the time that the alleged offence was committed, will go on trial in Diyarbakır in the south east of Turkey accused of violating Article 7/2 of [...]
From Amnesty International:
A Kurdish boy, believed to be 16 or 17 years old at the time of execution, was executed in Iran on Tuesday. Mohammad Hassanzadeh was hanged in Sanandaj prison following his conviction for the murder, when aged about 15, of another boy, then aged 10.
A 60-year-old man, Rahim Pashabadi, also convicted of murder, [...]
The authorities continued to suppress dissent. Journalists, writers, scholars, and women’s rights and community activists were subject to arbitrary arrest, travel bans, closure of their NGOs and harassment. Armed opposition, mainly by Kurdish and Baluchi groups, continued, as did state repression of Iran’s minority communities. Discrimination against women remained entrenched in law and practice. Torture [...]
The state of emergency, in force since 1963, continued to give security forces sweeping powers of arrest and detention. Freedom of expression and association were severely restricted. Hundreds of people were arrested and hundreds of others remained imprisoned for political reasons, including prisoners of conscience and others sentenced after unfair trials. Human rights defenders were [...]
In the wake of increased political uncertainty and army interventions, nationalist sentiment and violence increased. Freedom of expression continued to be restricted. Allegations of torture and other ill-treatment and the use of excessive force by law enforcement officials persisted. Prosecutions for violations of human rights were ineffective and insufficient, and fair trial concerns persisted. The [...]
Amnesty International calls upon the Turkish authorities to ensure that the right to freedom of peaceful assembly is respected and that law enforcement officers use force only where strictly necessary and only to the extent required to perform their duties.
Amnesty International
In a letter to the Minister of the Interior Mr Besir Atalay, Nicola Duckworth, [...]
