Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi is urging the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to take whatever action is necessary to obtain access to a just trial for Iranian human rights defender Nasrin Sotoudeh.

In an open letter to the UN High Commissioner Navanethem Pillay, Ebadi wrote, “Mrs. Sotoudeh’s release will only be possible if she is given a just trial. Access to this inalienable right will not be possible without international support.”

Ebadi was referring to the recent eleven year prison sentence and twenty year ban on practicing law given to human rights lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh. In reaction to this harsh sentence Ebadi states, “They are under the impression that Mrs. Sotoudeh’s fate would serve as a lesson to those who show resistance to the illegal conduct of Intelligence Ministry interrogators.”

LEARN MORE

Iran’s Ebadi: Rights Crackdown Shows Govt ‘Fear’ – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, 14 January 2011.

Iran Jails Another Lawyer, Online Wall Street Journal, 12 January 2011.

Iran gives human rights defenders an 11-year jail sentence, Nobel Women’s Initiative, 10 January 2011.

TAKE ACTION

Send an e-letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.