Irán, República Islámica del - Right to organise heavily suppressed (2010, 2011)

The government relies on «security laws» to suppress any public expression of dissent. Many activists have been convicted of «propaganda against the state» and «jeopardising national security» by the Revolutionary Courts without any respect to international or Iranian fair-trial standards. While the government-backed Workers’ House or Islamic Councils consistently fail to address issues such as rights at work, privatisation, structural adjustments, low salaries and wage arrears, workers who try to organise independently are subjected to different forms of harassment, including violence, arrests, detention and potentially lengthy prison sentences, often in the notorious political detainees’ Section 209 of Evin prison. Security and intelligence forces are often at workplaces to intimidate workers, and reports of trade unionists’ mistreatment by prison authorities are common.