Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran
A/HRC/43/61 para 70(g)
Full recommendation:
The Special Rapporteur recommends that the Government, the judiciary and the parliament, as
appropriate: Ensure that medical care for detainees is never made conditional upon their
making confessions and that officials who deny medical care to prisoners and detainees or who
withhold medication as a form of coercion, as punishment or to elicit confessions are punished;
Assessment using Impact Iran human rights indicators1
Iran’s Prison Regulations provide for the management and supervision of all prisons and
detention center in the country, including the conditions of detentions such as access to adequate
food and water and medical care for detainees, visits and communications with the family. The
Regulations specify that all prisoners should have access to medical care, including regular
medical check-ups, and that their medical needs should be addressed to the extent possible unless
transfer to treatment centers outside the prison is considered necessary.2 3
Amnesty International4 and Iran Human Rights Documentation Center5 have documented cases
where medical care in detention was denied or cases where medication was withheld seemingly
as a form of punishment or for reasons based on discrimination, including political opinion,
ethnicity, religion, and legal status. These cases include notably women political prisoners facing
additional discriminations when seeking medical care. More recently, OHCHR has documented
numerous cases where protestors and human rights defenders were denied access to medical
treatment while in detention.6 Notably, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in
the Islamic Republic of Iran received numerous reports of abusive use of torture to extract
confessions, use of solitary confinement, and medical treatments conditional upon confession in
detention.7
1
CCPR.10.1.S.1
CCPR.10.3.P.2; CCPR.10.2.P.3
CCPR.10.1.O.1
2
See more: Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, https://iranhrdc.org/rights-disregarded-prisons-in-the-islamic-republic-ofiran/
3
See more: Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1341962016ENGLISH.PDF
4
Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1341962016ENGLISH.PDF
5
Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1341962016ENGLISH.PDF
6
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, July 2020,
https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=A%2FHRC%2F43%2F61&Language=E&DeviceType=Desktop
7
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights 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
1