Iran: Journalists hit by a new wave of pressure

From 23 January 2025, Iran’s intelligence agencies summoned journalists and media activists Zhila Bani-Yaghoub, Pejman Mousavi, Omid Faraghat, Maryam Shokrani and Alieh Motaleb Zadeh to appear at the Evin prosecutor’s office. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the Iranian […]

CODIR joins calls for the release of incarcerated opposition leaders in Iran

CODIR has been closely following, with growing concern, the developments underway inside Iran pertaining to protests and rallies planned for Friday 14 February.  This date marks the 14th anniversary of the incarceration under house arrest of three of the country’s […]

Iran: Urgent global action needed to halt imminent execution of Kurdish humanitarian worker

Responding to reports that Iran’s Supreme Court rejected the request for judicial review of the conviction and death sentence of humanitarian aid worker Pakhshan Azizi, 40, from Iran’s oppressed Kurdish ethnic minority, Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the […]

CODIR Bulletin February 2025 is published!

CODIR has published a bulletin. The bulletin covers the following:

1000 Days After Hostage-Taking French Citizens; 

What is the Islamic Republic Seeking? Two French trade unionists are languishing in Iran’s notorious Evin prison in Tehran!   January 31, 2025 marked the thousandth day of the detention and imprisonment of Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, two French teachers’ union activists. This […]

 

International Campaign for the Release of Esmail Abdi, Iran’a Teacher Trade Union Leader

CAUT seeks release of Esmail Abdi The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) has written to Iranian leader Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei to ask for immediate release of Mr. Esmail Abdi, General Secretary of the Tehran Teacher Trade Association. “The […]

Solidarity group expresses concern for imprisoned teacher

30th May 2017 Press Release For Immediate Use Solidarity organisation, the Committee for the Defence of the Iranian People’s Rights (CODIR), has expressed concern for jailed trade unionist,Esmail Abdi, whose health has deteriorated following a hunger strike he started on […]

CODIR calls for real change in Iran

CODIR says:  We need to maximise our solidarity with the struggle of Iranian people for peace, and human and democratic rights! Iran’s recent Presidential election was a sham. This statement may seem odd, even disrespectful of the vote cast by […]

Iran released prominent human rights defender after a decade in prison

On Friday 12 May the Iranian regime released human rights campaigner and journalist, Mohammad Sadiq Kabudvand from prison after more than ten years of captivity. In response to today’s release of Iranian Kurdish human rights defender and journalist Mohammad Sadiq […]

Urgent Action Update: Jailed Human Rights Defender In Poor Health

Following 31 days of hunger strike in Tehran’s Evin prison, Iranian human rights defender Atena Daemi is in poor health, and requires immediate hospitalization. She has been unjustly imprisoned for her human rights activities since November 2016. On 8 April, […]

Iranian elections – no chance for change

With presidential elections in Iran scheduled for 19th May the manoeuvring for position within the Iranian regime is well underway.  Jane Green considers the implications for the ordinary working people in the Islamic Republic of the political chess being played […]

Urgent Action Update: Iranian Human Rights Defender on Hunger Strike (Iran: UA 127.15)

URGENT ACTION APRIL 20, 2017 Iranian human rights defender Atena Daemi has been on hunger strike in Tehran’s Evin prison since 8 April. She is protesting the suspended prison sentences imposed on two of her sisters, Hanieh and Ensieh, for […]

Iran’s Fake Election

A spokesperson for the Executive Council of CODIR summarizes the Council’s assessment of the forthcoming presidential election in Iran – that, as things stand, it offers no hope of democracy and serves only to confirm and strengthen the theocratic dictatorship’s stranglehold […]

Iran: Fears grow for health of jailed journalist on hunger strike

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE 7 April 2017   Fears are growing for a jailed journalist and political activist whose health has deteriorated sharply after 30 days on hunger strike, said Amnesty International. Hengameh Shahidi, 41, who has a pre-existing heart […]

CODIR calls for solidarity with the 17-year-old asylum-seeker viciously beaten in a racist attack in South London

This weekend just gone – coinciding with the closing days of Norouz, the Iranian New Year festival – saw headline news that sent a shudder down the backs of those paying attention… the vicious, unprovoked attack on a seventeen-year-old Kurdish […]