related charges. Almost all prisoners who were arrested for drug-related offences have been kept in solitary confinement and subjected to physical torture during the investigation phase following their detention, all while being denied access to a lawyer.21 As of January 2021, there is no readily available information that might indicate that Iranian authorities have opened investigations compliant with international standards into allegations of torture committed by police, security and intelligence agents and prison officials in the context of the November 2019 protests. Despite the existence of several mechanisms that ostensibly accept complaints regarding violations of citizens' rights, such as the Parliament’s Article 90 Commission (established under Article 90 of the Constitution, offering a mechanism to citizens to file complaint against any of the three branches of power) and the Oversight Bodies for the exercise of Citizenship Rights in the country's provincial courts, there is no evidence to suggest that complaints to these bodies are independently reviewed and investigated.22 Additionally and as aforementioned, the absence of a crime of torture in itself under Iranian law prevents prosecution, which is limited to cases of torture provided under the law, and therefore hindering access to justice for victims. In light of the above, the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has not duly investigated complaints of torture and ill-treatment, and the shortcomings of the Iranian legal framework hinder accountability for perpetrators. The Iranian authorities have not prosecuted and sentenced appropriately all officials found responsible for the torture and ill-treatment of detainees, in line with Iranian and international law. B. The Special Rapporteur encourages the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to address the substandard detention conditions identified previously by the human rights mechanisms and in the present and previous reports of the Special Rapporteur that may have been identified by its own audit. Article 39 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran stipulates that “All affronts to the dignity and repute of persons arrested, detained, imprisoned, or banished in accordance with the law, whatever form they may take, are forbidden and liable to punishment.”23 Additionally, there are two sets of regulations ruling over the management of prison facilities in the Islamic Republic of Iran, one for police detention centers and one for security detention centers.24 Both sets of regulations are often referred to together as Iran’s Prison Regulations. Notably, Iran’s 21 https://iranhr.net/en/articles/4732/ Joint submission to the Human Rights Committee, Abdorrahman Center, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC), Impact Iran and Human Rights Activists in Iran, 2020, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=INT%2fCCPR%2fICS%2fIRN%2f42313 &Lang=en 23 Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, English Translation, Iran Data Portal, https://irandataportal.syr.edu/wpcontent/uploads/constitution-english-1368.pdf 24 Dastour.ir http://www.dastour.ir/brows/?lid=224404 ; http://www.dastour.ir/brows/?lid=224414 22 4