Human Rights Defenders in Iran

Since early 2000, human rights defenders and advocates of political reform have faced sustained repression in Iran. Some have been forced into exile, others imprisoned and all of them blocked in their activities by the closure of independent newspapers and magazines and threats against nascent independent nongovernmental organizations and internet activists.

Concern over Iran's development of nuclear weapons capability has generated increasing dialogue on a range of issues between the European Union and Iran. Human rights issues are not being given a prominent place in these exchanges at present while the persecution of reformists and human rights defenders in Iran continues. Iranian activists are alarmed that the West may be willing to grant economic concessions to an increasingly authoritarian and repressive Iranian leadership in exchange for guarantees on proliferation issues. Such a development could entrench repressive government in Iran for many years to come and extinguish the battered and demoralized reform movement.

The West's dialogue with Iran, which is being driven by the nuclear issue, is an opportunity to elevate human rights concerns, starting with the situation of imprisoned human rights defenders.

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