review exempts women, children, and adolescents, who have been trafficked by their husbands
or legal guardian and illegally crossed borders, from criminal liability.4
The guidelines adopted by the Iranian judiciary entitled “How NGOs could engage and
collaborate with the judiciary", provide for the cooperation of public institutions with civil
society in “identifying and collecting evidence related to individuals, groups, and institutions
involved in trafficking in women and children.” 5 However, there is no readily available
information that would enable a comprehensive assessment of such cooperation, nor on the
institutions’ performance in implementing the law.
The current draft of the amendment to the law on human trafficking does not resolve the
conflation of the crimes of human trafficking and human smuggling under Iranian law. Instead, it
limits human smuggling for the purposes of exploitation listed in the law. It also excludes other
acts of human smuggling, as well as of human trafficking, such as organ trafficking.
Additionally, it does not solve the problem of the absence of an independent mechanism that is
able to monitor acts of human trafficking and receive complaints from victims in the Islamic
Republic of Iran.
There are no national procedures or measures to proactively identify victims of trafficking in the
Islamic Republic of Iran. Additionally, while the State Welfare Organisation of the Islamic Republic
of Iran provides some level of protection to victims of abuse, it does not offer specialised protection
services to victims of all forms of trafficking, including shelter and medical, psycho-social, and legal
assistance.
Women victims of human trafficking face serious difficulties accessing justice in the Islamic
Republic of Iran. One of the reasons for this is that a woman’s legal testimony is only given half the
weight of that of a man. Furthermore, women victims of sexual abuse, including victims of sex
trafficking, may face prosecution for act of adultery, which is defined as sexual relationships outside
of marriage under the Islamic Penal Code.
Despite the existence of several means and mechanisms with complaints procedures regarding
the violation of rights, such as the Judge’s Disciplinary Court, the Parliament’s Article 90
Commission and, any appeals court including the Supreme Court, there is little evidence to
suggest that complaints are properly analysed and adjudicated. There is no specific procedure to
report crimes of human trafficking in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Additionally, Iran does not
make comprehensive statistics, with regards to human trafficking, readily available. However,
reports suggest that it occurs and that women and children are one of the main victims. 6 Articles
published in the Iranian police’s magazine acknowledge this fact.7 There is no readily available
4
http://cabinetoffice.ir/fa/print/4997
Article 21 of the guidelines How NGOs could engage and collaborate with the judiciary",
https://rc.majlis.ir/fa/law/show/1459763
6
https://www.radiofarda.com/a/Trafficking-in-Persons-Report-2018-iran/29327230.html
7
http://shargh.jrl.police.ir/article_95328_95254e66a74f7c5ce3e74fe16f286e21.pdf
5
2