A coalition of over 30 leading human rights organisations has urged the UN Human Rights Council to renew the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Iran to ensure continued international monitoring and reporting on the human rights situation in the country.

(Geneva) - A coalition of over 30 leading human rights organisations has urged the UN Human Rights Council to renew the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Iran to ensure continued international monitoring and reporting on the human rights situation in the country.

The organisations - which include international NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and ISHR, regional organisations such as the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project, and NGOs focused on Iran such as Impact Iran and Iran Human Rights - said, 'the situation in Iran remains one of systemic human rights violations that are deeply rooted in laws, policies, and practices that require the sustained attention of the Council. Renewal of the Special Rapporteur’s mandate will ensure that human rights in Iran remain a priority globally and for the Council.'

The open letter on Iran, which was sent to all 47 Member States of the Human Rights Council, says, 'As a member of the Council, your government is entrusted with the responsibility to promote and protect human rights. This responsibility includes pressing the Iranian authorities to ensure that the people of Iran enjoy the human rights enshrined in the human rights treaties to which the country is party and to which they are entitled. The mandate of the Special Rapporteur provides an effective and constructive means for the Council to promote and protect these rights.'

A briefing paper which accompanies the letter, says 'Iran faces a chronic situation in which serious violations of human rights continue to be perpetrated by the authorities, particularly Iran’s security, intelligence and judicial authorities'.

A separate ISHR briefing paper on Iran, which focuses on the situation of human rights defenders in the country, found that Iran severely restricts the work of human rights defenders, both in law and in practice. In addition to being curtailed by the use and abuse of laws relating to 'national security’, ‘propaganda against the system’ and ‘enmity against god’, human rights defenders in Iran are frequently subject to arbitrary arrest and severe torture, including beatings with batons, mock hangings, electrocution, rape, sleep deprivation, and denial of food.

The ISHR briefing paper found that journalists, women human rights defenders and defenders of the rights of ethnic and religious minorities are particularly vulnerable to attack and stated that a number of cases of reprisals against human rights defenders for cooperating with UN human rights mechanisms have also been documented.

'ISHR urges all Member States of the Human Rights Council to actively participate in the upcoming interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, to encourage the Iranian authorities to cooperate with the Special Rapporteur, and to strongly support the renewal of his mandate as a means to contribute concretely to the promotion and the protection of human rights in the country,' said ISHR Director Phil Lynch.