Amnesty International Report on Iran 2019: The rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly have been severely repressed
Amnesty International said in its annual report on the state of human rights that the Islamic Republic's authorities "severely" suppressed the "rights of freedom of expression, association and assembly" of the Iranian people in 2019.
According to this report, the Islamic Republic's security forces used deadly force to suppress the protests, killing hundreds of people and arbitrarily arresting thousands of protesters without due process.
The report states that more than 200 human rights defenders in Iran have been arbitrarily detained and in many cases sentenced to imprisonment and flogging.
Amnesty International also referred to the right to grant citizenship to the children of Iranian women in its report, emphasizing that during this period, "women continued to face widespread discrimination."
The repression of women's rights defenders who fight and campaign against mandatory hijab laws is also among the issues that have been reported to have been intensified by officials and authorities this year.
The report also noted that “ethnic and religious minorities faced institutionalized discrimination. Ethnic minorities, including Ahwazi Arabs, Azerbaijani Turks, Baluchis, Kurds, and Turkmen,” faced institutionalized discrimination that limited their access to education, jobs, and adequate housing.
Last year, authorities in the Islamic Republic executed a large number of people, including those who were under 18 years of age at the time of the crime, Amnesty International said. The executions were sometimes carried out in public.
Iranian officials and officials also continued to commit the crime of "enforced disappearance" on a large and organized scale, which is an example of a crime against humanity, by concealing the fate and burial locations of several thousand political opponents and dissidents who were secretly executed in the 1980s.
Amnesty International previously called the human rights situation in Iran a "year of shame" in a 2018 report, saying that Iranian authorities in 2018 had adopted a shameful campaign of suppressing protesters and mass arrests of critics.
Iran has faced widespread protests in recent months. Among them was the November protests in Iran, which initially began over the high price of gasoline. From the very first days, protesters in various cities blocked roads and streets and chanted slogans against the Islamic Republic government.
Amnesty International reported that 304 people were killed in the November protests in Iran between November 15 and 18, and that 12 children were among those killed.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has repeatedly referred to the issue of Iranian protesters and America's support for the Iranian people, saying that "the protesters in Iran are seeking freedom and we fully support them."
The United States has also repeatedly condemned institutionalized financial corruption and the plundering of Iran's God-given assets by the regime's affiliates, citing them as the main causes of Iran's economic and financial problems. Not long ago, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted about the Islamic Republic's officials that they were involved in corruption instead of helping the people.
Source: Voice of America
