“for its own sake and not for traditional disciplinary purposes”, 7 8 9 as the Working Group on
Arbitrary Detention firstly noted during its last visit of the prison in 2003.10 Similarly, Section
240 of Evin Prison, partially under the authority of the Ministry of Intelligence and other
security and intelligence units, has been reportedly used exclusively for holding prisoners in
solitary confinement.11 12 Section 240 of Evin Prison reportedly contains 700 to 800 solitary
confinement cells.13
The Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions considers that such “prison within a prison” is
“arbitrary in nature and must be ended.”14 The Government noted in a 2020 Special
Rapporteur’s report that solitary confinement “is used only in rare instances during the
judicial investigation, as well as a punitive measure in places of detention”.15 Yet, the
existence of sections within Iranian prisons adapted to the use of large-scale solitary
confinement suggest the contrary. Additionally, OHCHR and NGOs frequently report cases
of solitary confinement in the Islamic Republic of Iran.16 17 18 19 Further, NGOs have reported
cases of prisoners placed in solitary confinement only because they were displaying COVID19 symptoms.20 21
B. The report of the Article 90 Parliamentary Commission on prisons should be
made public or at least debated in Parliament.
The Article 90 Commission of the Parliament is in charge of investigating complaints from
citizens made against the operations of the Parliament itself, the executive and the judiciary.22
There is no publicly available information on data relating to the number of complaints
7
Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, https://iranhrdc.org/rights-disregarded-prisons-in-the-islamic-republic-ofiran/#2.1.1
8
Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1310212019ENGLISH.pdf
9
En-HRANA, https://www.en-hrana.org/abdul-sattar-sheikh-transferred-solitary-confinement-evinprison?hilite=%27solitary%27%2C%27confinement%27%2C%27evin%27%2C%27prison%27 and
https://www.hrw.org/reports/2008/iran0108/iran0108web.pdf
10
Country Visits, Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, https://www.ohchr.org/en/issues/detention/pages/visits.aspx
11
Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/8000/mde130232014en.pdf
12
Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, https://iranhrdc.org/rights-disregarded-prisons-in-the-islamic-republic-ofiran/#2.1.1
13
Human Rights Watch, https://www.hrw.org/reports/2008/iran0108/iran0108web.pdf
14
Country Visits, Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, https://www.ohchr.org/en/issues/detention/pages/visits.aspx
15
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran, January, 2020,
https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/IR/Report_of_the_Special_Rapporteur_on_the_situation_of_human_rights_in_
the_Islamic_Republic_of_IranA4361.pdf
16
OHCHR News, https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26716&LangID=E%20
17
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, January 2021,
https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=A%2FHRC%2F46%2F50&Language=E&DeviceType=Desktop
18
Human Rights Watch, https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/06/06/iran-free-students-long-solitary
19
Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1328912020ENGLISH.PDF and
https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE0113572020ENGLISH.PDF
20
Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/07/iran-leaked-letters-reveal-state-denial-of-covid19crisis-in-prisons/
21
See more: Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, https://www.en-hrana.org/wpcontent/uploads/2020/09/COVID19_FEAR_IN_IRANS_PRISONS_.pdf
22
Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, https://iranhrdc.org/internal-regulation-on-the-commission-of-article-90-of-theconstitution/
2