Prison Inefficiency in the Country; Interview with Dr. Najafi Tavana, Former Head of the Central Bar Association/Pedram Tahsini

Ali Najafi Tavana was born in 1953 in the Alamut region of Qazvin. He completed his primary education in Tonekabon and completed his secondary education at Hafeziyeh High School in the same city. In 1972, he entered the Faculty of Law of the University of Tehran and in 1975, he obtained a Bachelor of Laws […]...

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Investigating the situation of imprisoned women; Interview with Mohammad Hossein Aghasi, lawyer/Ali Kalaei

Reports over the years have revealed that some women prisoners are denied medical treatment and other legal rights. The continued publication of these reports highlights the gap between prison regulations and their practice, raising the question of to what extent human rights standards, including the Bangkok Rules, are being observed in Iran, and whether the […]...

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Prisoners’ rights in international law; from global standards to the reality of Iranian prisons/Sina Yousefi

The extent to which a legal system adheres to the rule of law cannot be measured solely through criminal laws or court decisions; one of the most accurate measures of its assessment is the way in which individuals who are deprived of their liberty for any reason are treated. Contrary to popular belief, prison is […]...

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Vakilabad, the Forgotten Prison/ Majid Shia’ali

Last July, events occurred in Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad that have had little precedent in the history of this prison. The detainees of the protests of last January are still present in this prison in large numbers. Although the number of detainees has decreased from more than a thousand to about four hundred during this […]...

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Solitary cell: A place to break a person/ Marziye Mohebbi

What is solitary confinement, what are its conditions, is it essentially torture or punishment, and how does it debilitate a prisoner and cause his psyche to go into turmoil? How does loneliness and disconnection from the world destroy humanity, and why does the Islamic Republic, in its unparalleled and advanced set of physical and mental […]...

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Fair trial from arrest to trial/ Lohrasb Kouhestani

The interval between the moment of arrest and the day of trial is the most sensitive, critical, and at the same time the most vulnerable part of the criminal justice process. It is during this period that the individual is directly confronted with the powerful and organized machine of state prosecution; while his guilt has […]...

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Law and Violence Behind Prison Walls/ Morteza Hamounian

It is no longer strange for officers to shoot at people in the streets and in the face of public protests. Of course, it was strange at one time; an air shot in the ceiling would scare everyone, wondering why the security officers had started shooting. But today, and especially after what happened in 2009, […]...

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Why is independent monitoring part of the minimum standards for the treatment of prisoners?/ Shabnam Moeinipour

When a prison door is closed, the government does not just restrict a person’s freedom. Water, food, medicine, sleep, light, contact with family, access to a lawyer, the ability to file a complaint, and even record what a prisoner has been through are all at the disposal of the institution that has detained him. This […]...

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Bangkok Rules and Women Prisoners in Iran/ Maryam Abedi

The protection of human dignity is a fundamental principle of international human rights law and the basis for the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty. Deprivation of liberty refers solely to the deprivation of freedom of movement, and states are still obliged to guarantee the fundamental rights of prisoners, including the right to health, […]...

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Death in Custody and State Responsibility/ Diako Moradi

Deaths in custody are among the most sensitive issues in international human rights law and one of the most significant indicators for assessing a state’s commitment to the rule of law. When an individual is deprived of liberty, the state assumes not only the authority to restrict that person’s freedom but also the direct responsibility […]...

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Individual and Family Care Measures in the Face of No News About Prisoners/ Mahtab Alinejad

Nights grow dark earlier than ever; not because of blackout, but because of the weight of something no one can quite name. When the siren sounds, the mother involuntarily places her hand on her chest, the very place where she last heard her son’s voice, over a crackling phone line that was cut off too […]...

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“Prisoners’ Transition: Hope or Torment? / Shahriar Shams”

Transfer in prison is considered one of the most distressing experiences for an inmate, and the longer an inmate stays in a prison, the more distressing the transfer becomes – regardless of the destination. In fact, it can be even more distressing than one of the systematic abuses that are planned for prisoners, such as […]...

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