Defenders of Human Rights Center

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Defenders of Human Rights Center (also known as the Centre for the Defence of Human Rights, Persian: کانون مدافعان حقوق بشر ) is Iran's leading human rights organization.

Contents 1 Organization 2 Accomplishments 3 Honours and Awards 4 See also

[edit] Organization

Based in Tehran, the organization has been active in defending rights of women, political prisoners and minorities in Iran. Several of most prominent Iranian lawyers founded the organization and have been acting as its members. Shirin Ebadi, 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is the current president of DHRC. Ms. Ebadi along with four other notable Iranian lawyers, Abdolfattah Soltani, Mohammad Seifzadeh, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah and Mohammad Sharif, are the founding members of the organization.

The Center is a member of the International Federation for Human Rights and was the recipient of the 2003 Human Rights Award from the French National Commission of Human Rights.

Neither during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami nor during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the NGO succeeded in official registration and receiving approval. [1]

[edit] Accomplishments

DHRC has been involved in defending many cases such as "chain murders of intellectuals", "bloggers", as well as defending Akbar Ganji and family of Zahra Kazemi, among many others.

[edit] Honours and Awards

• 2003 Human Rights Award from the French National Commission of Human Rights.
• 2003 Nobel Prize, for the president of DHRC.

[edit] See also

• Human rights in Islamic Republic of Iran
• Shirin Ebadi
• Human rights
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights