Introduction
The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC) is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit organization located in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.A. Its mission is to (1) establish a comprehensive and objective historical record of the human rights situation in Iran since the 1979 revolution, and on the basis of that record, establish responsibility for patterns of human rights abuses; (2) make the record available in an archive that is accessible to the public for research and educational purposes; (3) promote accountability, respect for human rights and the rule of law in Iran; and (4) encourage an informed dialogue on the human rights situation in Iran among scholars and the general public in Iran and abroad.
IHRDC has two basic programs: (1) a human rights investigation, analysis and reporting program, and (2) a large document database (the Aadel Collection) that is available to persons in Iran and worldwide on the Center’s website at www.iranhrdc.org. The human rights reports, published in English and Persian, are the result of extensive primary research, including interviews of witnesses located worldwide. The Aadel Collection includes documentary evidence, Iranian source materials, and Iranian and international laws and legal articles, United Nations materials, and lengthy written and video witness statements.
In this report filed in September 2011, IHRDC responds to some of the issues in the Committee’s List of Issues. It is an update to the reports IHRDC filed with the Committee in December 2010 and February 2011, and provides new information from IHRDC’s human rights reports, legal commentaries, witness statements, press releases and other research in English and Persian.