Human Rights in Iran; 2,541 Protests and Strikes, 53% Increase in Worker Arrests
The organization “Coalition of Human Rights Activists in Iran” in its annual report on the human rights situation in Iran in 2021, reported the holding of 2,541 professional and labor protests and strikes including 1,261 professional gatherings, 192 professional strikes, 618 labor gatherings, 339 labor strikes and 131 instances of prisoner hunger strikes.
These gatherings were typically accompanied by confrontation and suppression by government institutions, and in addition to major protests such as the objection of the people of Isfahan which was accompanied by widespread government suppression, according to this report, during the current calendar year, 64 labor activists were arrested and 9 labor activists or defenders of workers’ rights were “sentenced to 276 months imprisonment, 124 lashes and twenty-three million tomans in fines” and worker arrests increased 53 percent compared to the previous year.
According to this report, the main focus of these protests was “wage demands of professions, objection to poor economic conditions and objection to inefficient management of government institutions.” In recent weeks, multiple groups of teachers, retirees and workers have protested and struck, and it is planned that today protesting retirees will also hold a protest gathering regarding their living conditions.
In the annual report of the organization “Coalition of Human Rights Activists in Iran” by referring to increased pressure on citizens of ethnic minorities, a 55 percent increase in the arrest of minorities compared to 2020 was reported, and it stated that during the current calendar year 445 citizens of ethnic minorities were arrested.
In this report, also by referring to the situation of executions in Iran, it stated that during the current calendar year execution sentences of 299 people were carried out which was accompanied by a 26 percent increase compared to the previous calendar year, and “88% of those executed were executed secretly or without announcement in official or domestic media.”
The process of issuing execution sentences continued in the current year and 85 people were also sentenced to execution. According to this report, 4 of those executed were child offenders and 4 percent of those executed had security and political charges.
Based on the thirteenth annual report of the Iran Human Rights organization released this March, in 2020, Iran was “the only country that continued to execute child offenders.”
Kazem Gharibabadi, secretary of the Judiciary’s Human Rights Headquarters of Iran, on Saturday, December 17, following the passage of a resolution on human rights violations in Iran by the United Nations regarding punishment of execution for persons under 18 years of age, described the number of this type of execution in Iran as “negligible” and said “there is no binding international obligation that persons under 18 years of age do not receive execution punishment.”
Beyond this, judicial authorities in Iran during this period issued sentences of 16,531 months imprisonment and 6,982 lashes and fines of approximately 800 million tomans, and security and military forces also arrested 1,676 citizens and in total shot at 242 citizens, of which 94 citizens were killed including 23 kolbars and 31 fuel carriers.
In another section of the annual report of the organization “Coalition of Human Rights Activists in Iran” regarding the situation of women’s and children’s rights in Iran, various statistics were mentioned to a minimum of “20,187 cases of spousal abuse and 24 cases of honor killing of women” and “2,117 cases of child abuse and 15 cases of sexual assault and harassment of children, 54 cases of child suicide, 2 cases of acid throwing, 29 cases of child trafficking and 9 thousand or more child marriages,” and it stated that during this period “25 people under 18 years of age were arrested by security institutions.”
Source: Radio Farda
