Joint Submission: Universal Periodical Review (UPR 2024) – Freedom of Expression

In the 2019 report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (“UPR”) on the Islamic Republic of Iran (3rd cycle), Member States issued at least 26 recommendations to the Government that explicitly refer to the rights to freedom of opinion, expression, peaceful assembly and association, access to information as well as human rights defenders, lawyers and media workers and the conduct of their work. Iran “supported” six and “noted” or “not supported” 20. Iran remains one of the most restrictive countries in the world regarding freedom of expression. In 2023, it ranked 147th out of 161 countries in ARTICLE 19’s Global Expression Report. Rights monitors have extensively documented recurring patterns of repressive and violent responses from State authorities to protests, with the use of unnecessary, disproportionate, and unlawful, including lethal force by security and police forces, unlawful killings and extrajudicial executions, large-scale arbitrary arrests, torture, and ill-treatment, gender-based and sexual violence, violations of fair trial and due process rights. State authorities have also increasingly used the death penalty as a tool of political repression, aimed at deterring those seeking to publicly voice opposition to State policies or the Government more generally. The State’s systemic failure to ensure accountability has been persistently documented. Authorities have taken concerted action to conceal the truth, prevent timely, independent reporting of violations including casualties, and undertaken arrests and trials of protesters while silencing those seeking accountability, including justice-seeking families. No senior official has ever been held to account in Iran for the grave human rights violations and crimes under international law committed, including in the context of the protests that have taken over the past four decades, feeding into the cycle of impunity.