�Pune: Dr Abraham Mathai, former Vice-Chairman of Maharashtra State Minorities Commission, has urged Omar Zniber, President of United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to intervene and secure immediate release of jailed Iranian Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Ms Narges Mohammadi on humanitarian grounds.
“Mohammadi, who has been imprisoned by Iran for the last 10 years is in a precarious state of health and urgently needs comprehensive medical treatment and care,” Mathai, also founder chairman of Mumbai-based Harmony Foundation, said in a statement.
He said the very raison d'être of UNHRC is to promote and protect human rights globally and therefore has appealed to the Council to secure her release.
“Since the UNHRC is the primary independent intergovernmental body of the UN responsible for human rights, as a minority rights activist in my own country, I am morally and legally bound to approach your office in response to recent media reports on the deteriorating health of jailed Narges Mohammadi,” Mathai wrote to UNHRC president.
He said ahead of Iran’s review under the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism, which will take place over the next two months in Geneva, Harmony Foundation has joined the global human rights fraternity in urging UNHRC to compel the Iranian authorities to release Mohammadi so that she could receive comprehensive and essential care for a range of serious medical conditions.
Mohammadi, a human rights defender, journalist, author, and spokesperson for the Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC) in Iran, has spent more than 10 years in prison.
She was rearrested on 16 November 2021 while attending a memorial for Ebrahim Ketabdar, a victim of the 2019 protests in Iran.
Convicted for her fearless opposition to the death penalty and the forced hijab, Mohammadi fights for women’s fundamental right to choose their own attire.
“Mohammadi’s courage in defying oppressive laws is a powerful stand for freedom, exposing the brutal control over women’s lives in Iran by the radical Islamic regime,” Mathai said.
He said campaigning against the hijab, unjustly imposed on women by the repressive Iranian regime, does not warrant placing her in restrictive detention under inhumane and insalubrious conditions which has jeopardized her health.
Aa staunch advocate for women's rights, Mohammadi received numerous international awards, including the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, the 2023 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, the 2023 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award, and the 2022 Reporters Without Borders Prize for Courage.
Harmony Foundation, an NGO, founded a year before the UNHRC, also awarded Mohammadi the international Mother Teresa Memorial Award for Social Justice in 2023.
“In solidarity with the international human rights fraternity worldwide, I join in petitioning UN Human Rights Council to ensure that the Iranian government commits to implementing without delay a recommendation that it accepted during the last UPR(Universal Periodic Review) cycle five years ago, namely to ensure that “all individuals in custody receive adequate health care and treatment, including preventive measures, such as screening for medical conditions, free of charge and without discrimination,” Mathai said.
He said since December 10 is Human Rights Day, and in line with this year’s theme, "Our Rights, Our Future, Right Now," the United Nations Human Rights Council should immediately secure Mohammadi’s release from prison.
“Failing to act appropriately with decisive action against the tyrannical, repressive and fundamentalist Islamic regime of Iran totally defeats the purpose and aims of the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights by making a ridiculous mockery of even observing it annually with grand festivities commemorating meaningless milestones,” Mathia noted.
