UNHRC urged to intervene for Jailed Iranian Activist Narges Mohammadi
The Free Narges Coalition and 40 other advocacy organizations have called on the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to intervene urgently for the medical furlough and immediate release of detained Iranian activist and Nobel Laureate Narges Mohammadi.
She is reportedly in critical need of medical care.
This appeal comes ahead of Iran’s review under the UNHRC’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism, scheduled to take place in Geneva over the next two months.
In recent months, Mohammadi’s health has dramatically deteriorated due to her prolonged incarceration. On Saturday, she was returned to Evin Prison just two days after undergoing a complex surgery to remove a suspected cancerous lesion in her leg. The operation, which involved a bone graft, was carried out despite her doctor’s advice and requests from her legal team for a medical furlough and sentence suspension to allow her to receive comprehensive and sustained medical care.
Mohammadi suffered multiple heart attacks in 2022 before being transferred to a hospital for emergency heart surgery. In early October 2024, her family raised serious concerns about the repeated refusals by Evin prison officials to facilitate her hospital visits for an angiography, prescribed by her cardiologist in March. She was finally allowed to attend an appointment on October 27, 2024.
Despite severe health challenges, including heart complications and the suspected cancerous bone lesion, Mohammadi continues to face systemic medical neglect in Evin Prison.
Mohammadi has spent over a decade in prison. Her current 13-year sentence is based on politically motivated charges.
The Free Narges Coalition and its partner organizations in a letter urged the international community to hold Iran accountable for its treatment of political prisoners and to ensure the safeguarding of basic human rights for all Iranians.
Letter signed by
Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran
All Human Rights for All in Iran
Association for the Human Rights of the Azerbaijani people in Iran (AHRAZ)
Baloch Activists Campaign
Balochistan Human Rights Group
Center for Human Rights in Iran
Chilean PEN Center
Coalition For Women In Journalism
Croatian PEN
Danish PEN
ECPM (Together against the death penalty)
English PEN
Femena
Freedom House
Free Nazanin Campaign
Front Line Defenders
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
Iran Human Rights
Iran Justice
Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann
HÁWAR.help
Kurdistan Human Rights Association-Geneva (KMMK-G)
Kurdistan Human Rights Network
Kurdpa Human Rights Organization
League for the Defence of Human Rights in Iran (LDDHI)
Middle East Matters
Narges Foundation
PEN America
PEN Austria
PEN Canada
PEN Català
PEN Flanders Belgium
PEN International
PEN Melbourne
PEN Netherlands
PEN Norway
PEN Sweden
PEN Sydney
Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights
Reporters Sans Frontières
San Miguel PEN
Shirin Ebadi, 2003 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
United for Iran
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)
