Amnesty International Iran: Successful action at Iran UN Mission NY and upcoming action for Narges Mohammadi in LA - NEWS UPDATE

Elise AuerbachIran country specialist
Amnesty International USA 
April 15, 2016
Dear Friends:
     For those in the LA area, Amnesty International group 22 in Pasadena is holding an action on behalf of Iranian prisoner of conscience and human rights defender Narges Mohammadi on April 21. This action is part of an international effort to highlight her case to be held on Ms Mohammadi’s birthday, April 21. Iran’s Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi has sent a statement of support for her friend and colleague Narges Mohammadi More information (and Dr. Ebadi’s statement) is below and attached.

      Amnesty International activists held a very successful annual Get on the Bus action in New York on April 9. This year the action included Iranian women’s rights activist Bahareh Hedayat. Hundreds of Amnesty activists held a rally outside the Iran UN Mission and delivered an astonishing 130,000 petition signatures calling for the release of Bahareh Hedayat to officials at the UN Mission. Mani Mostofi of Impact Iran spoke to participants about Bahareh Hedayat’s case and human rights violations in Iran. A special thanks to Amnesty groups 151 and 133 from Boston and Somerville, MA respectively for their hard work organizing this effort. For more information go to https://m.facebook.com/AIGroup151/ and see photos below.

      Also—last week Amnesty International issued its Death Sentences and Executions 2015 report. Executions in Iran have been increasing sharply in the past three years; there were at least 977 executions last year, including at least four juvenile offenders. Iran remains the number two executioner in the world (after China) even though a record number of countries have now abolished the death penalty. See the report and press release https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/act50/3487/2016/en/  and here https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/04/death-penalty-2015-facts-and-figures/

      Finally, thanks to all those who have been taking part in Amnesty International USA’s annual Nowruz Action (http://www.amnestyusa.org/pdfs/Nowruz_action_2016.pdf). We have heard from the families of prisoners of conscience in Iran how much it means to the POCs and their families to receive so many cards and messages of support.