Full pdf joint written statement | See the statement on the UN website
The Dismantling of Independent Legal Defense in the Islamic Republic of Iran: Lawyers Under Attack
Joint written statement submitted by Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada, Lawyers for Lawyers, The Law Society [of England and Wales], non-governmental organizations in special consultative status and endorsed by the Centre for Supporters of Human Rights (CSHR)
A/HRC/63/NGO/272, 15 August 2026
For many years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has targeted human rights lawyers to dismantle citizens’ legal protections. This practice accelerates whenever protests become widespread. After nationwide demonstrations began on 28 December 2025, pressure on lawyers intensified dramatically. The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) reported that political volatility, armed conflict starting early 2026, and harassment of lawyers have eroded trial guarantees to the point where detainees now face charges against them alone, without independent legal representation.[1]
A joint report on the first fifty days of the protests by the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) and Human Rights Activists (HRA) recorded 53,777 arrests and 7,007 fatalities in 203 cities across Iran.[2] Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) and Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) documented 1,639 executions in 2025, the highest recorded total since 1989.[3] IHRNGO recorded 444 executions between 1 January and 31 July 2026[4]. HRANA documented approximately 854 during the same period.[5] Persons executed in 2026 included protesters sentenced after proceedings in which access to independent counsel and other fair-trial guarantees were denied.
Escalating Persecution and Arbitrary Detentions
On 25 June 2026, Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada (LRWC), with the Centre for Supporters of Human Rights (CSHR) and others, reported 24 human rights lawyers detained and more than 30 facing heavy sentences.[6] CHRI documented 32 lawyers arrested, summoned, prosecuted, or convicted between 8 January and 11 June 2026.[7] These are conservative estimates; documentation efforts were impeded by an 88-day disruption of international internet access. Connectivity was partially restored on 26 May 2026[8], but restrictions remain.
Many lawyers were arbitrarily arrested and held in prolonged pre-trial detention, frequently in isolation, contrary to international standards on prisoner treatment.[9] Incommunicado detention without counsel removes the key safeguard against coerced confessions and execution. Custodial conditions and interrogation practices have subjected detainees to severe physical and psychological pressure. Detained lawyers have been subjected to prolonged solitary confinement, beatings during interrogation, and denial of medical treatment. [10]
Gendered Repression Against Women Lawyers
Women lawyers face both professional persecution and discrimination. Alongside security threats, they face discriminatory laws, mandatory dress requirements, and institutional bias. Compulsory veiling enforcement and judicial prejudice keep female lawyers out of courtrooms and expose them to discriminatory and disproportionate scrutiny.[11]
For example, Shima Ghoosheh was arrested in January 2026, reportedly after publicly offering to represent detained protesters; she was held in solitary confinement before her release on bail.[12] Woman lawyer Nazanin Salari was sentenced alongside male lawyers Mahmoud Taravat-Rui and Masoud Ahmadian to three years’ imprisonment each plus travel bans and passport revocations on charges of “assembly and collusion against national security” and “propaganda against the state,” stemming from advocacy on women’s and children’s rights and against domestic violence.[13] Astareh Ansari was arrested 3 May 2026 for representing persons detained during the nationwide protests, and charged with “propaganda against the state.” She was subjected to beatings during interrogation and ill-treatment, including denial of medical care, before being released on bail on 22 July 2026.[14]
Transnational Repression
Fleeing Iran does not guarantee safety. Iranians in exile face transnational repression across several countries.[15] Pressure against family members of exiled persons includes loss of employment, summonses, interrogation, detention, or raids on homes. Exiled lawyers reportedly self-censor or sever contact with families to shield them from retaliation.
International Law and Standards: Access to Lawyers Safeguards Protection of Rights
Principle 16 of the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers (Basic Principles)[16] provides that governments shall ensure that lawyers are able to perform all of their professional functions without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference. The Basic Principles are firmly grounded in international law binding on Iran, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).[17]
As a State Party to the ICCPR, Iran is bound by Article 7 (prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment), Article 9 (right to liberty, protection against arbitrary detention, and right to challenge detention), Article 10 (humane treatment for detainees), and Article 14 (fair trial rights, including the right of accused persons to legal assistance). Incommunicado detention, particularly when detainees are denied contact with their families and lawyers, gravely violates ICCPR Articles 7, 9, 10, and 14. When State agents deprive a person of liberty and then refuse to acknowledge the detention or conceal the person’s fate or whereabouts, placing that person outside the protection of the law, the conduct constitutes enforced disappearance.[18] The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, considers enforced disappearance to be a rule of customary international law, legally binding on all States.[19]
Recommendations
- We recommend that the Fact-Finding Mission urgently investigate all violations against lawyers and human rights defenders.
- We urge this Council to insist that Iranian authorities:
- Immediately release all lawyers detained for their professional work, and quash all related convictions and disbarment orders;
- Guarantee confidential access to independent lawyers from the moment of arrest, disclose all places of detention, end prolonged and indefinite solitary confinement pursuant to the Nelson Mandela Rules,[20] and provide immediate medical care to detainees;
- Immediately conduct independent, impartial investigations into all potentially unlawful deaths,[21], promptly investigate all allegations of torture and enforced disappearance, and hold accountable all those responsible in processes meeting international standards.[22]
- Repeal the Note to Article 48 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which restricts defendants’ choice of counsel during investigation of national-security and certain other cases to lawyers approved by the head of the judiciary;
- Immediately halt all protest-related executions;
- Cease surveillance, intimidation, and retaliation against exiled lawyers and their families inside Iran; and
- Grant independent legal bodies and rights organizations unhindered access to detention facilities to investigate custodial abuse and forced confessions.
- We urge the Council and observer States to actively monitor threats against exiled Iranian lawyers, ensure non-refoulement, provide emergency protective visas, and investigate and prosecute all substantiated offences of transnational repression within their jurisdictions.
The Centre for Supporters of Human Rights (CSHR), NGO(s) without consultative status, also share the views expressed in this statement.
