the country's provincial courts, there is no evidence to suggest that complaints to these bodies are
independently reviewed and investigated.8
Reports of disproportionately long pretrial detentions in the Islamic Republic of Iran suggest
that, in practice, pretrial detention is not a measure of last resort and is not applied for the
shortest time possible. 9 10 11 12 13
Reports show that long pretrial detention regularly involves a lack of access to legal assistance in
the Islamic Republic of Iran. Defendants in national security cases are often denied access to a
lawyer in the investigative stage of the judicial process. In the hundreds of cases of individuals
arrested for political reasons or suspected for ordinary crimes that the Abdorrahman Boroumand
Center has investigated, all detainees were interrogated without the presence of an attorney.14
Reports have shown a pattern of reported cases where prisoners remain incarcerated without
proper access to legal representation during all stages of their trial process. 15 16 17 18 In many
reported cases, especially national security cases, defendants have reported seeing their lawyer
for the first time on their day of trial. 19 20
The Islamic Republic of Iran has not taken all necessary measures to ensure that pretrial
detention is not excessively long in law and in practice, particularly through independent judicial
supervision and prompt access to lawyers, in full compliance with article 9 of the Covenant.
B. The State party should also take immediate steps to eliminate incommunicado
detention, taking due care to ensure compliance in practice.
8
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
9
Human Rights Watch, https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/03/13/iran-submission-committee-rights-child
10
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, July 2020,
https://undocs.org/A/75/213
11
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, September 2019,
https://undocs.org/en/A/HRC/37/24
12
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, January 2019,
https://undocs.org/en/A/HRC/40/67
13
Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1328912020ENGLISH.PDF
14
Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, joint submission to the Human Rights Committee from the Abdorrahman Boroumand
Center, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, Impact Iran, Human Rights Activists in Iran, 2020,
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CCPR/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CCPR_ICS_IRN_42313_E.pdf
15
HRANAhttps://www.en-hrana.org/political-prisoner-denied-access-to-an-attorney
16
HRANA https://www.en-hrana.org/arash-sadegh-golrokh-iraeis-lawyers-access-cases
17
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
18
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, July 2020, https://documentsdds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N20/190/27/PDF/N2019027.pdf?OpenElement
19
Joint submission to the Human Rights Committee from the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, Iran Human Rights
Documentation Center, Impact Iran, Human Rights Activists in Iran, 2020,
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CCPR/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CCPR_ICS_IRN_42313_E.pdf
20
Human Rights Watch https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/03/24/iran-detainees-denied-fair-legal-representation
3