right of detainees to communicate with and receive visits of family members is restricted under
Article 180 of the Prisons Regulations when judicial officials determine that correspondence is
not in the interest of a “good trial proceeding”, without clarifying what could contravene “good
proceedings” and without setting limitation as to the period of restriction.23 Competent judicial
authorities can allow correspondence and/or visit during the prohibition period, however such
decision does not appear to be subject to review by another official or body. Ultimately this
means that judges can, in practice, deprive detainees of their right to have access to the outside
world for an unlimited period of time. Such provisions facilitate the perpetration of enforced
disappearances by Iranian authorities.
Reports of enforced disappearances in the Islamic Republic of Iran are regular. The Working
Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances issued communications on alleged cases of
enforced disappearances as recently as 2019, mentioning the lack of investigation and follow-up
on unconfirmed reports of death.24 The Working Group also noted that the Government had not
given information concerning alleged lack of investigation into the disappearance and
extrajudicial execution of 5,000 political prisoners in the Islamic Republic of Iran in the 1980s.25
Amnesty International reported wide-scale patterns of enforced disappearances in the aftermath
of the November 2019 and the lack -if not absence- of accountability for perpetrators.26 The UN
Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran raised serious
concerns about the lack of investigation and accountability into the November 2019 protests.27
In light of the above, the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has not duly investigated
cases of enforced disappearances, therefore preventing accountability for perpetrators. The
current prison and detention center regulations may well provide an enabling environment for the
perpetration of enforced disappearances. There is no readily available information that might
indicate that the Government took measures to prevent the recurrence of enforced
disappearances.
Torture and ill-treatment
but only “to the extent that it does not infringe on the social and familial status of the detainees” without specifying
what constitute such infringement.
23
Executive Regulations of the Prisons Organization, 11 December 2005, www.prisons.ir/page-main/fa/0/form/pId77
24
Communications transmitted, cases examined, observations made and other activities conducted by the Working Group on
Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, July 2019,
https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Disappearances/A_HRC_WGEID_118_1_Advance.pdf
25
Communications, cases examined, observations and other activities conducted by the Working Group on Enforced or
Involuntary Disappearances, May 2019,
https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Disappearances/A_HRC_WGEID_117_1_ADVANCE.pdf
26
Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1328912020ENGLISH.PDF
27
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
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