restriction.13 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.
With regards to the protests which took place in December 2017 and continued throughout
January 2018,14 Iranian authorities killed at least 21 individuals and arrested over 3,700
individuals.15 As of today, most of the families of the detainees are aware of their situation,
although many could not see their family or did not have access to a lawyer during and long after
the protests. 16 17
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 that there was a lack of investigation
and follow-up on unconfirmed reports of death.18 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.19 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.20 The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in
the Islamic Republic of Iran raised serious concerns about the lack of investigation into the
November 2019 protests and the lack of accountability for those who violated human rights
during and as a consequences of said protests.21
In light of the above, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has not reported to the
families the name, location, and other relevant information of all individuals taken into custody,
including in the context of the December 2017 - January 2018 protests.
13
Executive Regulations of the Prisons Organization, 11 December 2005, www.prisons.ir/page-main/fa/0/form/pId77
Center for Human Rights in Iran, https://www.iranhumanrights.org/2017/12/hardline-officials-blame-wave-of-protests-in-iranon-rouhani-government-and-foreign-powers/
15
Article 19, https://www.article19.org/resources/iran-protests-confirm-need-push-transparency-iran-now/
16
See these reports: https://www.dw.com/fa-ir/iran/a-46898593 ; https://www.gozaar.net/a/6557 ; https://www.hranews.org/periodical/a-37/
17
Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/01/iran-stop-increasingly-ruthless-crackdown-andinvestigate-deaths-of-protesters/
18
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
19
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
20
Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1328912020ENGLISH.PDF
21
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
14
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