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.35 In its 2019 Report to the Universal Periodic Review, the Islamic Republic of Iran stated that it adopted measures including “providing access to a lawyer and benefiting from legal advice” and added that “in the agreement with the centre of lawyers and legal advisers of the Judiciary and a number of bar associations, free judicial assistance is provided to prisoners” and that “social and judicial assistance units also provide legal counsel to prisoners.”36 However, individuals accused of committing crimes against national security, including those that might be sentenced to the death penalty, are often denied access to a lawyer during the investigative stage of the judicial process. In the hundreds of cases of individuals arrested for political reasons or are suspected of committing ordinary crimes that the Abdorrahman Boroumand Centre has investigated, all detainees were interrogated without the presence of an attorney.37 Reports have shown a pattern of reported cases where prisoners remain incarcerated without proper access to legal representation during all stages of their trial procedure. 38 39 40 41 In many reported cases, especially those involving charges of crimes against national security, defendants have reported seeing their lawyer for the first time on the day of their trial. 42 43 C. The Islamic Republic of Iran should also ensure that everyone sentenced to death, after exhaustion of all legal avenues of appeal, has an effective opportunity to exercise the right to seek pardon or commutation of sentence from the relevant authorities. 35 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 36 National Report, UPR 2019, Islamic Republic of Iran, https://undocs.org/A/HRC/WG.6/34/IRN/1 37 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 38 HRANA https://www.en-hrana.org/political-prisoner-denied-access-to-an-attorney 39 HRANA https://www.en-hrana.org/arash-sadegh-golrokh-iraeis-lawyers-access-cases 40 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 41 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 42 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 43 Human Rights Watch https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/03/24/iran-detainees-denied-fair-legal-representation 5