Kurdistan Human Rights Network

By Awat Pouri Introduction According to the Open Data Website of Iran, an average of 21,000 hectares of forests and pastures in Iran burn annually. Based on the statistics of the Green Association of Chiya of Marivan, in the latest fire that occurred from August 12 to 16 in the forests around Marivan, two thousand and thirty-five hectares were burnt. This is while government authorities...

Fatemeh Karimi (Source: bidarzani.com) On 3 October, a physician at Kowsar Hospital in Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, named Iman Navabi, drew attention to a femicide case on his personal Instagram account. In this post, which was removed sometime later from his account due to pressures, he said: “They brought a 22-year-old girl whose father burned 85% of her body with gasoline. And it was because she had...

Kurdish political inmates detained in the prisons of Orumiyeh, Khoy, Tabriz, and Kashmar published a statement and warned about "ethnic cleansing" in northern Syria in condemnation of the Turkish military's incursion into the north and east of Syria, known as Rojava. "The Kurds and other ethnic-religious minorities in Rojava, north and east of Syria have formed a democratic system in recent years, based on which they are cohabiting....

Kurdistan Human Rights Network - A strong earthquake (measuring 7.2 magnitudes on Richter scale) hit Kermanshah province on 12 November 2017. This earthquake was so severe that it was felt in almost all of the western provinces of Iran although it’s main source was a city known as Sar-e-Pul Zahab, located in Kermanshah province, adjacent to the Iraqi border. According to official statistics, the...

Kurdistan Human Rights Network- Association of Iranian Journalists (AOIJ) joined the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in 1997, but in 2009, two months after the presidential election, the former Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi shut down the entity. Despite various attempts to reopen the center, to this day the association remains officially inactive. Its elected head Rajabali Mazrooei currently lives outside of Iran. In...

Kurdish writers and cultural activists, as well as PEN International, have voiced concerns over the fate of two Iranian Kurdish writers that the Turkish police have held in pre-trial detention for several months in Mardin area. They call for their immediate release and urge support from both the international human rights organizations and the Iranian ministry of foreign affairs. Find below the petition that demands the...

By Issa Bazyar, a specialist in mine clearance and unexploded ordnances. The Islamic Republic of Iran has been trying to clear itself from responsibility of the increase of deadly mine explosions that keeps claiming lives of innocent civilians in the country’s Kurdistan region. In the latest of such incidents a mine blast stolen the life of an innocent child in the Kurdish region, which exposed the...

Extrajudicial Executions of Kurdish Back Carriers (Kolbers) by Iranian Security Forces Written By: Noory Fakhry Theme Crime: Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, Crimes against Humanity Places: Iranian Kurdistan Introduction Every year, dozens of unarmed Kurdish border couriers (Kolberan in Kurdish language) who engage in smuggling small amounts of goods to Iran to earn their livelihood are killed or injured by Iranian security forces near the western borders of Iran...