Impact Iran

Listen to the voices of women.

Support research on the linkages between discrimination and violence against women and family and societal well-being;

Ensure that women enjoy full freedom and rights to become equal partners in decision-making in the home, at work and in society at large;

Ensure that women have equal rights to enter into marriage and during the marriage relationship, as well as at its dissolution;

Provide special programmes for women from minority groups who suffer multiple forms of discrimination;

Institute special measures to increase women's political participation and appoint more women to high-level government positions;

Promote women's participation in the formal labour market by ensuring equality of opportunity and eliminating discriminatory laws and practices related to women's work;

Strengthen the capacity of the Centre for Women's Participation (financially and politically) to develop policies and projects to address violence against women, to support research on the causes and consequences of violence against women, including suicides, and to effectively undertake its important advisory role in directing State policy and action concerning violence against women.

Investigate publicly all allegations of arbitrary detention and to ensure that victims of arbitrary detention receive compensation;

Vigorously enforce the prohibition on torture, to investigate fully and publicly all allegations of torture, including the case of Zahra Kazemi, to hold perpetrators accountable and to ensure that victims of torture receive compensation and rehabilitation;

Ensure that all institutions and individuals engaged in law enforcement activities are accountable to the Government and that they respect all human rights and fundamental freedoms as laid out in international human rights instruments;

Conduct a full investigation into suicides of young women and their relationship to diverse forms of violence against women, to design preventive and protective measures to address these suicides, and to prevent the development of prejudice in public opinion that would revictimize survivors of suicide attempts and/or their families;

Conduct research on violence against women and to collect data concerning its prevalence;

Establish and support more shelters for women who have been subjected to violence and to ensure that women are able to access information about these shelters through the police, judicial personnel and medical staff as well as women's non-governmental organizations;

Provide effective protection to women who have experienced violence by ensuring that they are able to approach the police, to secure alternative housing and to access medical care;

Review all cases of women currently being detained for crimes related to sexual and moral conduct who did not have a fair trial or enjoy guarantees of due process with a view to retrying the case or releasing the accused woman.

Establish procedures whereby custody rights are determined by a judicial process in accordance with the principle of the best interests of the child;

Abolish requirements that women present eyewitnesses in order to prove that they have been subjected to violence and allow women to prove violence through medical or police reports and other credible evidence;

Institute proper investigation procedures for rape cases and ensure that rape victims are not subject to prosecution under adultery provisions where they are unable to prove rape;

Ensure that punishments do not discriminate against women, that they are proportionate to the offence, and that they are determined by a court of law in accordance with the principles of equality and non-discrimination;

Ensure that the right to a fair trial is fully respected and that all women detainees are brought to trial, with access to a lawyer and legal aid where necessary, without undue delay;

Prohibit by law cruel corporal punishments such as stoning and flogging;

Eliminate all obstruction to justice on the grounds of sex, class and religion emanating from the practice of diyah;

Raise the age of majority for girls and boys to 18 in conformity with the Convention on the Rights of the Child;

Remove obstacles to women's rights with regard to child custody, divorce, inheritance and freedom of movement

Prevent early and forced marriages

Implement the provisions of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders in order to ensure that women human rights defenders are able to carry out their work with full autonomy and without being subjected to retaliation by the State or other actors.

Fully implement the recommendations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC/C/15/Add.254) and of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, contained in the report on his mission to Iran (E/CN.4/2006/41/Add.2);

Ratify the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and protect women victims of trafficking, ensure accountability of the traffickers and provide compensation to the victims;

Ensure full respect for all human rights, as guaranteed in international human rights treaties ratified by Iran, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which, inter alia, guarantee the right to non-discrimination based on sex

Ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women without reservations as soon as possible, and bring national laws into conformity with the Convention

Implement the provisions of the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women