confinement.5 The Human Rights Committee has stipulated that the prolonged solitary
confinement of detainees may amount to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
or punishment.6
Reports suggest that the Section 209 of the Evin Prison in Tehran, under the control of the
Ministry of Intelligence, is the place of systematic and large-scale use of solitary confinement
“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.
5
Rule 44, Nelson Mandela’s Rules or UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners,
https://www.unodc.org/documents/justice-and-prison-reform/Nelson_Mandela_Rules-E-ebook.pdf
6
General comment No. 20 (1992) on the prohibition of torture, or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,
para. 6.
7
Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, https://iranhrdc.org/rights-disregarded-prisons-in-the-islamic-republic-of-iran/#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
2