Washington, DC — Amnesty International recently published a 57-page report condemning the cultural discrimination and human rights abuses that the estimated 12 million ethnic Kurds living in Iran face. The report cites dozens of cases where alleged Kurdish criminals were subjected to flawed trials, inadequate defense, and excessive penalties including numerous cases where the defendants were sentenced to death. The report also highlights examples where public action by human rights organizations successfully resulted in the pardon of Saeed Jazee and one-month stays of execution for two others. Though these examples show the important role that International Human Rights organizations can play in bringing attention to the plight of ethnic minorities in Iran, the report paints a grim picture of the human rights violations that occur regularly among Iran’s Kurdish population. The Report on Iranian Kurds follows similar reports published regarding Iran’s Ahvazi Arab and Baluchi minorities. |
|