The global membership of Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) calls on the Iranian authorities to immediately release the 2012 recipient of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought and prominent human rights lawyer Ms. Nasrin Sotoudeh who was arrested and imprisoned based on politically motivated charges.

On 11 March 2019, Ms. Sotoudeh was sentenced by the branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court to 38 years in prison and 148 lashes (a sentence of five years in prison from a prior case and 33 years in prison and 148 lashes in the current case). She is incarcerated in Evin Prison where she has been carrying-out a hunger strike since 11 August 2020 to protest the incarceration of prisoners of conscience who are treated poorly by Iranian authorities and detained in dire conditions, further exacerbated the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, Judiciary chief informed that 70 000 prisoners had been temporarily freed as Iranian prisons became “focal points” of the novel coronavirus outbreak; human rights defenders were not a part of that operation.

On 19 September 2020, Ms. Sotoudeh’s health sharply declined and consequently, she was transferred to the hospital. Her family has not been kept informed of her physical state and have suffered the intimidation of Iranian authorities. Her husband, Reza Khandan, was sentenced to six years in January 2019 for posting updates about his wife’s case on Facebook.

PGA president Margareta Cederfelt, MP (Sweden) made a plea to her colleagues to raise awareness on the cases of political prisoners worldwide and especially in Iran:

Margareta Cederfelt
MP (Sweden)

Colleagues, the case of Ms. Nasrin Sotoudeh is illustrative of the fate of so many political prisoners around the world and in authoritarian regimes such as Iran, where human rights and democratic principles are not worth anything. The state apparatus is instrumentalized to persecute and torture human rights defenders considered as dissidents, including women who are fighting for equality before the law.

As parliamentarians, we have the prerogative and the duty to ensure that the voice and call to action of Nasrin and so many political prisoners in Iran and worldwide is not left unheard. We stand with them in solidarity because their lives matter, human rights matter! Margareta Cederfelt, MP (Sweden)

On previous occasions, Iranian judicial authorities had persecuted Ms. Sotoudeh by arresting her at her home in Tehran, on 13 June 2018. She was then charged with “propaganda against the state” as she was a member of the Campaign for Step by Step Abolition of the Death Penalty (LEGAM), and “assembly and collusion against national security”. She was also imprisoned because of her legal representation of women who had been arrested for peacefully protesting the compulsory hijab law by publicly removing their headscarves – the charges against the women included “inciting corruption and prostitution”, “openly committing a sinful act by […] appearing in public without a hijab” and “disrupting public order”.

Attorney Sotoudeh was accused of violating national security laws including by “conducting interviews with foreign media and against the Islamic Republic” and participating in “illegal” demonstrations, one of which had been organized by LEGAM, in front of the United Nations Office in Tehran on 12 October 2017.

PGA Executive Committee Member, Ali Ehsassi, MP (Canada) stated:

Ali Ehsassi
MP (Canada)

Nasrin Sotoudeh has consistently proven herself to be a civic-minded advocate par excellence and an exemplary paragon of virtue. No one should remain indifferent to the tragic plight of this selfless lawyer, whose only offense has been to stand up for the rights of others and to avail them of legal counsel. We should all demand that the Iranian Government respect the most fundamental principals of human rights and the most elemental norms of decency by unconditionally releasing Nasrin Sotoadeh from prison and from further harm. PGA Executive Committee Member, Ali Ehsassi, MP (Canada)

In his report, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Javaid Rehman, recommended the government of Iran:

Javaid Rehman
Special Rapporteur

[to] ensure that human rights defenders, including women human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, environmentalists and dual and foreign nationals, are not threatened with or subjected to intimidation, harassment, arbitrary arrests, deprivation of liberty or other arbitrary sanctions; release all those detained in connection with their work; and extend the policy for the temporary release of prisoners in the context of COVID-19 to those individuals, as well as other detainees who pose no threat to public safety.

Many international actors issued statement in support of the release of Ms. Sotoudeh, denouncing the unlawful and politically motivated detention of the lawyer. The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) sent an open letter to the Supreme Leader of Iran. Prominent civil society organizations and individuals have issued statements calling on Iranian authorities to stop persecuting human rights defenders, among which the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights (RWCHR), Canadian Parliamentarians, and the European Parliament.

PGA reiterates its call to the Iranian government to respect its obligations under international law, inter alia those stemming from international instruments to which Iran is a Party. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights clearly states that “All persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person.” As a State Party, Iran has an obligation to uphold its dispositions.

Respect for human rights is a conditio sine qua non to achieve a functioning and peaceful democracy. In a global context where the United States is carrying-out the restoration of sanctions against Iran, facilitated by an executive order of President Trump on 21 September 2020, International Day of Peace, PGA urges the government of Iran to ratify human rights treaties, including the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT).