Compiled by the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center
June 29, 2011

A History of United Nations Special Representatives and Rapporteurs in Iran

IHRDC released this chart that collects and documents UN Special Representative and Rapporteur activity in Iran since 1980. To read the history and UN reports click here.

Witness Statement of Mohammad Shams

IHRDC published a witness statement by Mohammad Shams, a young political opposition supporter, describing his arrest, detention and torture after he participated in demonstrations protesting the June 2009 presidential elections results. Read his witness statement here.

Persian Translation of the Rome Statute Continued

IHRDC posted its Persian translation of Parts 4, 5 and 6 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The translation is available here.

Surviving Rape in Iran’s Prisons

IHRDC published this report that documents the ordeals of five former prisoners – two women and three men – who were raped, and witnessed and were threatened with rape while imprisoned in Iranian prisons. Read it here.

OTP Weekly Briefing_15-20 June 2011 #92

Report of the International Commission of Inquiry to investigate all alleged violations of international hu…

Impunity Watch Symposium Keynote Senator Romeo Dallaire (4/5) from Impunity Watch on Vimeo.

On Friday April 8, 2011, the Impunity Watch Law Journal of Syracuse University College of Law hosted its annual symposium entitled, Humans as Commodities: Child Soldiers. The symposium addressed the use of child soldiers in armed conflict. It looked at the chilling realities facing child soldiers, the root causes of the phenomena, and explored the persistent human rights dilemma facing the international community.

In 2000, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict to ensure that States do not use individuals under eighteen years of age in combat, and to explicitly forbid non-state and guerrilla forces from recruiting anyone under eighteen for any purpose. Other provisions of international law have banned the use of soldiers under age fifteen since the 1970s. In spite of these and other international efforts, there are an estimated 250,000-300,000 child soldiers across the globe, actively fighting in at least thirty countries. Almost half of all armed organizations in the world use child soldiers and almost all of those soldiers see combat.