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Fixed Broadband Subscriptions per 100 inhabitants in 2020

Iran needs to amend its laws and legislations to guarantee the right of freedom of expression for all Iranians and cease the censorship of the media and internet in line with international human rights standards.

Islamic Republic of Iran with a population of 83 million, is an Islamic theocracy. Although it has elected president every four years, the ultimate power remains with the ‘Supreme leader’, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. ​​ Iran has one of the worst rankings in the freedom of press list (174 out of 180) and is increasingly censoring online media, and using new methods of surveillance on its citizens.

With plans to cut off the country from the global internet completely, digital rights like freedom of expression online, data protection, access to information online are currently under attack in Iran. 

The Computer Crimes Law, the Islamic Penal Code, and the Press Law, need to be amended to ensure that the rights of journalists, human rights defenders, and all Iranians to freedom of expression and privacy is guaranteed.

Iran

We conduct advocacy during the pre-session through direct lobbying to UN member state representatives and support local advocacy events and workshops that amplify the UPR. During the reviews, we amplify the UPR process and the recommendations our partners have drafted through live- monitoring by our local partners and on social media. We then conduct advocacy during the post- UPR period with activities such as training for government officials and events that highlight the recommendations made during the UPR. 

The country clusters are a local working group in each Uproar target country made up of our partner organisations. The clusters are organised by local lead organisations, who then coordinate local civil society and human rights defenders with digital rights expertise to engage in national-level advocacy and campaigning.

A review cycle is a four-and-half-year period within which all UN Member states’ human rights records are reviewed.  Each 4.5-year period is called a UPR cycle. In this section, you can find all recommendations made organised by cycle.

Over a hundred local and international human rights organisations are part of the wider Uproar programme. You can find them listed here.

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Impact Iran

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On November 8 2019, Iran underwent its third review at the Universal Periodic Review. In it, only two recommendations were made to Iran to address issues relating to human rights online, despite its long track record of systematically censoring expression and surveilling its citizens online.

Less than a week later, on 14 November,[ protests broke out ](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/16/protests-erupt-in-iran-after-government-raises-price-of-gas-by-50)in Iran after the announcement of a dramatic hike in petrol prices. Then, on 16 November the government [imposed a total internet shutdown](https://medium.com/filterwatch/iran-shutdown-monitor-ccd4cad2a681), cutting Iran off almost-completely from the outside world.

In the days that followed, at least 304 protestors were killed, and thousands more were detained by security forces, according to [a report ](https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/12/iran-thousands-arbitrarily-detained-and-at-risk-of-torture-in-chilling-post-protest-crackdown/)by Amnesty International.

The internet shutdown allowed the Iranian government to do this without videos and images making their way to the international media, thereby ensuring that citizens’ voices were silenced in the face of brutal state violence.

Digital rights advocates had raised concerns about Iran internet policies during the pre-sessions of Iran’s UPR. UPROAR spoke with **Kaveh Azarhoosh**, Advocacy and Policy Lead at Small Media, who discussed Iran’s record on digital rights with diplomats in Geneva ahead of the UPR.

Here’s what he had to say about the shutdown, his efforts in Geneva, and the need to put digital rights more firmly on the international community’s human rights agenda.

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**UPROAR:** *Hi Kaveh.You participated in the pre-session of the third cycle of Iran UPR. How did you plan for it? What was the most challenging issue for you in speaking about digital rights with state delegates?*

**Kaveh:** Going into the meetings we had a clear set of issues that we wanted to raise. Our strategy was to be strengthened by collaborating with other international advocacy groups, and by adopting the global language of digital rights.

The problem with talking about the Internet in Iran has always been that we are often warning policymakers about a really dark and unexpected future. Often policymakers fail to take our warnings seriously, precisely because we are warning about the scale of human rights abuse that is often difficult to imagine.

I was actually not that familiar with the UPR process myself before the pre-session, but my impression was that many successful conversions end up being about issues that are easy to understand and communicate in only a few minutes.

The problem is that when we talk about digital rights in Iran, we are talking about a complex set of policies and infrastructures. So there were times that I felt that, although we planned to fully brief participants about the depth of the problem, our warnings were either not understood fully, or ignored.

**UPROAR:** *Iran had its review session for the third cycle on 8 November at the UN, where 111 states made their recommendations. Hardly any of them included digital rights in their recommendations.*

The focus of recommendations was instead mainly on violence and discrimination against women, juvenile executions, and child marriage, among other issues.

In this context, where there are so many competing challenges, how important is it to include digital rights concerns in states’ recommendations?

**Kaveh:** I am so incredibly grateful that the issues that you have mentioned are getting the attention that they deserve. In my opinion, this is the result of decades of campaigning by some brilliant advocates.

When we talk about digital rights and safe and secure access to the internet, in reality, we are often advocating for an open society and human rights offline and online. It would be meaningless if we talked about digital rights and the issues you were mentioned were ignored.

But I also think that digital rights and freedom of expression online need to be essential to our understanding of some of the other human rights abuses, as internet shutdowns, surveillance, and censorship often disproportionately affect the most marginalised in society.

That’s why I wished that states also highlighted the effects of Iran’s digital policies on marginalised groups. I cannot hide the fact that we are disappointed that the issue of digital rights was not raised more clearly in recommendations, especially where it intersects with the issues you mentioned.

**UPROAR:** *In your discussions with countries’ delegations, how could you gauge their positions on digital rights? Did you have any particularly effective dialogues around digital rights?*

**Kaveh:** Issues such as privacy or digital transparency in one country can no longer be discussed in isolation — in fact, I think they never could be discussed in isolation. But as we see issues of internet governance and digital rights become more mainstream issues in all societies (even the open and democratic ones), I think countries often try to reflect on their own practices, and connect with commonalities when they are talking about digital rights in other nations. At least this was definitely the case in my discussions.

However, the danger is that by always trying to refer back to one’s own domestic debates, we overlook local nuances. I think that’s a danger when representatives from open societies try and relate to, or understand the seriousness of the digital rights threats that exist in states where there are significant human rights abuses.

To some extent, this was the case for Iran. When we spoke about the localisation of data and promotion of domestic services in Iran, this was not immediately understandable, and not comparable to similar projects taking place in countries where the right to privacy and freedom of expression is being protected.

**UPROAR:** *Only two countries ended up making explicit digital rights-related recommendations to Iran. How can we be better at convincing states to take digital rights more seriously, and include these issues in their recommendations?*

**Kaveh:** I’m really disappointed that the countries that have been vocal globally around online privacy and digital rights issues failed to explicitly submit recommendations on the declining digital rights situation in Iran, or speak about the threat posed by the country’s National Information Network.

Moving forward, we have to keep identifying states that consider themselves global leaders on these issues, and communicate the urgency of the situation in Iran much more clearly to them.

In particular, we need to be more clear about how so many of the threats facing minority rights and freedom of expression in Iran are directly related to declining digital rights and the emerging National Information Network.

**UPROAR:** *One week after their third UPR, Iran ordered a total internet shutdown amidst widespread anti-government protests. In the period that followed, Iran’s security forces killed*

**Kaveh:** First of all, the tragic events of November shows us that the warnings from the digital rights community were accurate, and we had all seen this coming and we had warned states and companies about Iran’s National Information Network.

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The international community ignored the issue of digital rights during Iran’s UPR in November. UPROAR reflects on Iran’s UPR with Small Media’s Kaveh Azarhoosh.

A Deadly Silence on Digital Rights at Iran’s UPR

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Small Media

Iran Factsheet.pdf

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Iran.docx.pdf

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Torture and ill-treatment

Free expression

Justice and impunity

Due process

Death penalty and extrajudicial executions

Digital rights

Arrest and detention

Ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities

Equality and non-discrimination

Religion and belief

Journalists and media workers

Association and assembly

Human rights defenders

Protection from violence

Women and girls

Participation in public and political life

LGBT+

Children

Advox is a project of Global Voices. They are a global network of activists and journalists dedicated to protecting freedom of expression and free access to information online. They report on threats to online speech, share tactics for defending the work and words of netizens, and support efforts to improve Internet policy and practice worldwide.
 
Global Voices is an international, multilingual, primarily volunteer community of writers, translators, academics, and human rights activists. The non-profit reports, translates, defends and empowers freedom of expression.

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Global Voices

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A global network of activists and journalists dedicated to protecting freedom of expression and free access to information online.

In partnership with Advox Global Voices - a global network of activists and journalists dedicated to protecting freedom of expression and free access to information online.

Uproar Tools are interactive data-driven tools that aim to show you how you can use the Universal Periodic Review to improve the situation of human rights in your country. 

Uproar Tools aims to show you how you can use the Universal Periodic Review to improve the situation of human rights in your country. 

The Tools were made in partnership between Uproar and Data4Change, a non-profit organisation working at the intersection of data, design, journalism and technology, collaborating with organisations on social and policy change interventions to forge real change and lasting impact.

Uproar Tools

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Use our free interactive tools to build recommendations and tailor advocacy efforts at the Universal Periodic Review.

Uproar Tools 

Advocacy Assembly is a free multilingual e-learning platform set up in 2015 aimed at educating campaigners, activists, human rights defenders and journalists in digital rights and digital skills. 
In partnership with leading digital rights organisations and experts, Advocacy Assembly offers self-paced online courses in Arabic, English, Farsi and Spanish using a variety of videos, quizzes and slides. The courses cover topics like design, data science, investigative journalism, open source investigations, effective campaigning for social change and much more.

Advocacy Assembly

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A free multilingual platform to access courses with leading organisations such as Amnesty International, Witness and Greenpeace. 

Advocacy Assembly is a free multilingual e-learning platform to educate on digital rights and digital skills.

Iran

Upr cycle

Resources

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Partner organisations

Iran cluster