Iran: Civic space shrinks as executions rise, warns independent rights expert

This article is published in association with United Nations.

Civic space in the Islamic Republic of Iran is shrinking, as human rights defenders and journalists continue to be targeted and charged for “vaguely defined national security offences”, Mai Sato, the independent UN expert on the human rights situation in the country has said.

Speaking to UN News’s Julia Foxen during her visit to UN Headquarters in New York, Ms. Sato highlighted the issue of non-transparency, the rising number of executions and the worsening treatment of women among her main areas of concern in Iran.

Taking up her role as Special Rapporteur in August this year, Ms. Sato spoke of her hopes for the position and the goals of her mandate which comes from the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Rapporteurs and other independent experts are not UN staff, receive no salary for their work and do not represent any organisation or government.

UN News: From your assessment as Special Rapporteur, how do you see the human rights situation in Iran right now?

Mai Sato: I started my mandate in August, so I’m pretty new to the role and will only be able to talk about the reports that I’ve received over the last three months.

There are several areas that really concern me. One is the shrinking civic space and the violation of freedom of expression and assembly. Another area that I’m concerned about is the number of executions happening.

UN News: Regarding the problem of transparency in the country, how will you go about getting information without access to Iran? How will you examine the impact of non-transparency given the difficulty accessing information in the first place?

Mai Sato: Thank you for asking about transparency because it’s one of the priority areas that I really want to focus on. I think transparency is key, because we have limited official information data to truly assess the progress or the lack of progress of human rights protection. My current conversation with the Islamic Republic of Iran is that they are willing to engage and are willing to provide information. So, I will need to see for my next report to what extent I could see cooperation in terms of sharing of data.

But I think when gathering data, it’s not just about getting information through the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iran has very active civil society organisations. They’re very well networked and can provide information.

And I think they are really key in giving victims a voice to speak truth to power. I’m confident that I will be able to perform the functions of the mandate through various sources, not just the official information through the Islamic Republic of Iran. But I think it is important, as a matter of principle, that a State is transparent.

UN News: Can you explain a bit more about your correspondence with these organisations so far?

Mai Sato: Some of the reports that I’ve received from civil society organisations are about the shrinking civic space, such as human rights defenders and journalists being intimidated, targeted and, in some cases, detained and charged for vaguely defined national security offences.

And after they are incarcerated, there’s been cases where medical treatment has not been provided. So, I’ve raised concerns in my communications and in public statements about that.

UN News: You also mentioned earlier in the conversation the worsening treatment of women in the country. Can you expand on the situation a bit more, and what your vision would be for bettering the situation in the future?

Mai Sato: Yeah, absolutely. So, after the Women Life Freedom movement, there hasn’t been much progress since then. There is a chastity and hijab bill that was passed by the Guardian Council.

The implementation is yet to be seen, but what that bill basically does is that it not only mandates the wearing of the hijab, which is already in place, but also applies further punishments for noncompliance. So, I’ll be looking at the life course of this bill with great interest.

© Unsplash/Seyed Amir Mohammad Tabatabaee

Two people in front of a building in Iran.

UN News: Turning back to the death penalty, why do you think that there’s such an increase in the use of the death penalty? And why do you think that nearly half of these recently were due to drug offences specifically?

Mai Sato: There’s certainly been a rise in the number of executions over the last couple of months. In August, there were at least 93 executions, and this month, over 140.

It’s not that the month of August was unique in that half of the executions were for drug related offences. I think it’s been consistently high. So, around half, for drug related executions.

What’s interesting about this is that the change in drug laws in 2017 resulted in a dramatic drop in the number of drug related executions. But what we see in numbers is that there’s been a recent surge in the number of drug executions.

Again, these are estimated numbers because official data is not available on this. So, this is data collected by civil society organizations but without data about the number of death sentences passed, it’s difficult to see why that is the case.

UN News: What do you hope for yourself in this position? What does success look like to you?

Mai Sato: I’ve been in the role for three months, so it feels premature to say what will be my target exactly and what I can realistically achieve. I think the success of the mandate will very much depend on how much cooperation I receive from the Islamic Republic of Iran.

With civil society organisations and their network inside the country, I feel fairly confident that I will be able to understand and reflect the views of the Iranian people. To what extent I have cooperation from the State, I’m not sure. If I look back at my predecessors, since the re-establishment of the mandate in 2007, special rapporteurs haven’t been allowed access into the country.

So, I think once I know what the relationship is going to be like, I might be able to adjust or readjust what can be achieved.