NGOs have reported a pattern of violations of the rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association disproportionately targeting members of minority or marginalized groups. 43 44 45 46 Women, notably human rights defenders campaigning against compulsory veiling, have been targeted with arbitrary arrests, detention and imprisonment. 47 48 In 2018, prison data shows that at least three quarters of Iran’s political prisoners were from ethnic minorities.49 Ethnic minorities, especially Kurds and Balochis, are over-represented in death penalty statistics. Many of the offenses carrying the death penalty, in particular national security offenses, are among the charges most commonly used to target and convict minorities. Kurdish political prisoners charged with national security offences represent almost half of the total number of political prisoners. Overall, half of those executed for affiliation with a political party or a banned group between 2010 and 2018 were Kurds, while a quarter were Balochis and over one-tenth Arabs. Executions targeting members of ethnic minorities continue, notably against Kurdish dissidents.50 Between midDecember 2020 and early February 2021, at least 21 Balochi prisoners have been executed in Iran.51 There have also been serious concerns over the secret executions of Ahwazi Arab prisoners in 2018, as Ahwazi Arab activists have reported that 22 men were executed in secret in 2018.52 Iranian authorities also engage in extensive censorship practices, mass surveillance, and repression of free speech and dissent online. For instance, the Criminal Cyber Law criminalizes the publication of information considered against Islamic tenets or the Constitution’s, to be 43 See more: Association for the human rights of the Azerbaijani people in Iran, http://www.ahraz.org/association-for-the-humanrights-of-the-azerbaijani-people-in-iran-ahrazs-repot-regarding-the-current-situation-of-the-azerbaijani-arrestees-that-arearrested-during-the-recent-protests-nove/ 44 See more: Kurdistan Human Rights Geneva, https://kmmk-ge.org/sd/annual-report-2020/ 45 “Aliresza Farshi has been released from Evin,” HRNA News Agency. 11 April 2020. https://www.hranews.org/2020/hranews/a-24375/ 46 “Iran arrests 29 linked to protests against compulsory hijab laws”, New York Times, 2 February 2018. https://tinyurl.com/ybmdozuy 47 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 48 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, January 2021, https://undocs.org/A/HRC/46/50 49 Minority Groups, https://minorityrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Rights-Denied-Violations-against-ethnic-andreligious-minorities-in-Iran.pdf 50 Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/07/iran-two-kurds-executed-amid-increasing-use-ofdeath-penalty-as-weapon-of-repression/ 51 OHCHR News, https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26716&LangID=E 52 Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/11/iran-fears-mounting-for-detained-ahwazi-arabs-amidreports-of-secret-executions/ 6