Iran Must Respect Defenders' Right to Travel

Alert Issued: December 16, 2008

On December 10, women's rights activist and attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh and her family went to the Imam Khomeini Airport. They planned to travel to Italy, where Sotoudeh was to receive an international human rights award.

Sotoudeh heard her name announced over the airport intercom system. Security officials approached her, seized her passport, and informed her that she was not permitted to travel.

Sotoudeh is not alone. At least four other women's rights activists have gone through the same experience: Parvin Ardalan, Mansoureh Shojaee, Talat Taghinia, and Sussan Tahmasebi. Furthermore, Esha Momeni, member of the One Million Signatures Campaign for gender equality, is still unable to leave Iran, as the Ministry of Intelligence continues to hold her passport.

Governments must grant all persons the right to travel. Human rights defenders in particular rely on the exercise of this right in order to participate in meetings with their colleagues around the world and to have access to international human rights bodies.
Please join us in calling on the Iranian authorities to end their harassment of women's rights activists and to respect the right of human rights defenders to travel.

Background

Nasrin Sotoudeh is a prominent human rights defender in Iran who has not only been active in the women's movement, but also has advocated for children's rights as one of the leading voices against the execution of juveniles in Iran.

Sotoudeh has authored many articles on women and children's rights in Iran. As an attorney, she has represented a number of members of the One Million Signatures Campaign, a grass-roots campaign to collect signatures in support of a petition to end gender discrimination in Iranian laws. On June 12, 2008, Sotoudeh was one of nine women arrested at a gathering to commemorate the second anniversary of a women's rights protest violently suppressed by the authorities.

On June 15, 2008, the Human Rights International Committee announced that it would award its first annual Human Rights International Prize to Nasrin Sotoudeh in December 2008 in Merano, Italy. However, on attempting to leave the country to receive this award, Sotoudeh was prevented from traveling.

Previously, in March 2008, when Sotoudeh and a fellow activist and Signatures Campaign member Mansoureh Shojaee were planning a trip to Dubai, security officials contacted Sotoudeh to warn her against traveling. On March 9, 2008, Shojaee was stopped at the airport and prevented from traveling. Though Sotoudeh was informed that she was not subject to a travel ban, she decided to forgo travel at that time. In July 2008, both Sotoudeh and Shojaee were summoned to the Revolutionary Court but were not presented with official reasons for the travel ban on Shojaee.

Other activists who have been prevented from traveling include:
* Parvin Ardalan was en route to Stockholm to receive the Olof Palme Award when she was pulled off a plane and told that she could not travel. Ardalan has since received a six month sentence for articles she has written on women's rights.
* On October 26, 2008, security officials at the Imam Khomeini Airport confiscated the passport of Sussan Tahmasebi, one of the founding members of the One Million Signatures Campaign, and prevented her from travel. Tahmasebi was later interrogated for five hours at the security office of the Revolutionary Court. This is the fourth time she has been prevented from traveling.
* On January 10, 2008, Talat Taghinia was barred from travel while on her way to Morocco.
* Esha Momeni, a member of the Signatures Campaign who was arrested on October 15, 2008, and detained for over three weeks, is still unable to leave Iran despite receiving assurances that she would be free to do so.

Sample Letter

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei
The Presidency
Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran

CC.

His Excellency Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President
The Presidency
Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran

Your Excellency:

I am writing to express my concern about the decision to arbitrarily prevent travel by Nasrin Sotoudeh, a leading women's rights activist and human rights defender. Ms. Sotoudeh's passport was confiscated by security officials at the Imam Khomeini Airport as she was about to leave for Italy, where she was to receive the 2008 Human Rights International Prize.

Ms. Sotoudeh's travel ban is a continuation of a policy of sustained repression directed at human rights defenders. In addition, a number of other women's rights activists who are members and supporters of the One Million Signatures Campaign have been prevented from travel, including Parvin Ardalan, Esha Momeni, Mansoureh Shojaee, Talat Taghinia, and Sussan Tahmasebi.

Iran is a State Party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 12 (2) of the Covenant provides that: "Everyone shall be free to leave any country, including his own."

Furthermore, Article 9 of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly ten years ago this month, specifies that human rights defenders be given unhindered access to and communication with international bodies on matters of human rights.

Civil society activists and human rights defenders must be allowed to associate freely, travel, and participate in meetings and conferences if the Iranian government is to abide by its commitment to the international human rights instruments to which it is party. In fact, by allowing some of the country's leading lawyers and activists to travel, Iran will only enhance its standing in the international community.

Accordingly, I respectfully urge you to restore Nasrin Sotoudeh's passport to her and permit her to travel freely. Similarly, I urge you to lift the travel bans on all other women's rights activists, to cease the harassment directed against women's rights activists in Iran, and to respect their rights to basic freedoms of expression, association and assembly.