treatments conditional upon confession.16 Additionally, numerous reports have documented
deaths and cases of ill-treatment of persons detained during the November 2019 protests.17 18
A report published by the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center in partnership with the Human
Rights Activists News Agency found that conditions of detentions have further deteriorated since
the COVID-19 pandemic started. Prisons’ overcrowding facilitated the proliferation of COVID19 cases in several prisons.19 Such concerns have been echoed by the Special Rapporteur on the
situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran in his report published in July 2020.20
Documents recently leaked to Amnesty International indicate that Iran’s Ministry of Health has
repeatedly ignored urgent appeals from the Prisons Organization to remedy the widespread
shortages of the protective equipment, disinfectant products, and medical supplies needed to
fight the pandemic.21
In its 2019 National Report to the Universal Periodic Review, the Government of the Islamic
Republic of Iran reported that the Citizenship Rights Watch Board carries periodic inspections
within prisons and detention centers. According to the Government the body has “received and
handled 3,275 complaints and reports, through the complaint system, in relation with civil rights
violations. Between 2015 and 2018, a number of 28,504 inspections were carried out to
prosecutors' offices, prisons and detention centers.”22 There is no readily available information
about the outcome of such inspections and whether they led to the improvements of detention
conditions.
Reports of individuals in detention being denied of medical care in Iranian prisons are frequent.23
24
The Government and Parliament of the Islamic Republic of Iran has not ensured that all
individuals in custody receive adequate, prompt and regular health care, including specialist care
as needed, on the basis of their informed consent.
16
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
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
Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde13/2891/2020/en/
19
HRANA, https://www.en-hrana.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/COVID19_FEAR_IN_IRANS_PRISONS_.pdf
20
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
21
Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/07/iran-leaked-letters-reveal-state-denial-of-covid19crisis-in-prisons/
22
National Report, UPR 2019, Islamic Republic of Iran, https://undocs.org/A/HRC/WG.6/34/IRN/1
23
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, January,
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
24
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
4