The Kurdistan Human Rights Association (KMMK) has released its ‘Kurdish Human Rights Situation Report 2020’ which focuses on the human rights situation in Iran and summarizes key concerns, including executions, detentions, homicides and police shootings in the country.
KMMK stated in its report that it “encourages Kurdish people in eastern Kurdistan to practice their basic human rights and to report – to international institutions and to the world – the discrimination and violations of human rights by the Iranian regime that are taking place”.
At least 44 executions in Iran in 2020
According to the KMMK’s report, at least 44 people were executed in Iran in 2020, including political prisoners, those sentenced for the crime of retaliation (premeditated murder) and those convicted of drug offences.
Detentions and arrests
According to statistics collected by the KMMK, 263 people were arrested in 2020 in Iran. Most of those arrested were reportedly civil, political and environmental activists and journalists.
“It is worth noting that most of the detainees have been illegally detained without an arrest warrant or court approval. The detainees were arrested without charge only on the decision of the security and secret services. The detainees were initially denied the right to a lawyer and were interrogated with beatings, torture and disrespect. The courts and judges did not grant prisoners the right to defend themselves during the trial and only upheld the decision of the intelligence and security services”, the report concluded.
70 Kolbars killed
The KMMK report also stated that: “In 2020, a total of 70 kolbars and merchants were killed and 176 kolbars and merchants were injured. Most of these people were killed and wounded by direct fire from the Iranian forces. In all of these cases, the military was responsible for the death of these kolbars and merchants”. A kolbar is a worker who is employed to carry goods on his/her back across the borders of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey as the Kurdish word ‘kolbar’ literally means ‘one who carries a load’.
46 women committed suicide
The KMMK report also stated that a total of 84 people (46 women and 38 men) committed suicide and self-immolation, whilst a total of twelve people were injured and eight people were killed in land mine explosions.
