Human Rights
In 2012, Iran put opposition leaders under house arrest, harassed and arrested civil society activists, and prevented opposition candidates from running for parliament, according to the new World Report by Human Rights Watch. The following are excerpts from the Iran chapter with a link…
On February 6, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed new sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran and other financial institutions to restrict Tehran’s ability to spend oil revenues. The Treasury Department also designated one individual and four entities for involvement in censorship…
Among 197 countries, Iran ranked sixth in restricting freedom of religion, according to a Pew Research Center survey. It even ranked below Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. The following are selected results from The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life survey published in September 2012…
On January 3, President Barack Obama signed a $633 billion defense bill for fiscal year 2013. The comprehensive appropriations bill will help “ensure the United States will continue to have the strongest military in the world,” Obama said. The legislation also contained…
On December 7, the State Department warned that U.S. citizens may be subject to “harassment or arrest while traveling or residing in Iran.” Dual national Iranian-Americans could face additional obstacles because Tehran does not recognize their American citizenship. The following is an…
On November 9, the United States condemned Iran's persecution of blogger Sattar Beheshti, who died in prison reportedly after being tortured. State Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland issued the following statement. We are appalled by reports that Iranian authorities…
On November 8, the U.S. Treasury announced “a set of targeted sanctions against 17 individuals and entities related to the Iranian government’s human rights abuses, its support of terrorism, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).” The actions were taken according to the…
On October 27, the Iran Tribunal charged that the Islamic Republic was responsible “for gross violations of human rights against its citizens under the International Covenant of Civil and Political rights” during the 1980s. The document is an interim report, with a full judgment…
The State Department’s annual International Religious Freedom report focused particular attention on Iran’s Baha’is, the country’s largest religious minority at between 300,000 and 350,000. In releasing the report for 2011, Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, Suzan Johnson…
On July 30, 2012, the U.S. Department of State released its annual International Religious Freedom Report, which highlighted serious human rights violations in Iran. The new report outlines persecution of religious minorities in the Islamic Republic.At a briefing on the 2011 report, Ambassador-at-…