The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006. It was a subsidiary body of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and was also assisted in its work by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOHCHR).
Hina Jilani is a lawyer on the Supreme Court of Pakistan and a human rights activist from Lahore, Punjab. She is the co-founder of Pakistan's first all-women law firm, Pakistan's first legal aid centre, and the Women's Action Forum.
Asma Jilani Jahangir was a Pakistani Muhajir human rights lawyer and social activist who co-founded and chaired the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and AGHS Legal Aid Cell. Jahangir was known for playing a prominent role in the Lawyers' Movement and served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief and as a trustee at the International Crisis Group.
Special rapporteur is the title given to independent human rights experts whose expertise is called upon by the United Nations (UN) to report or advise on human rights from a thematic or country-specific perspective.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) is an independent, democratic non-profit organisation. Founded in 1987, it is one of the oldest human rights organisations in the country.
The Special Rapporteur on the Sale and Sexual Exploitation of Children works on behalf of the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate the exploitation of children around the world and make recommendations to governments on how to end such practices.
The state of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran has been regarded as very poor. The United Nations General Assembly and the Human Rights Commission have condemned prior and ongoing abuses in Iran in published critiques and several resolutions. The government is criticized both for restrictions and punishments that follow the Islamic Republic's constitution and law, and for "extrajudicial" actions by state actors, such as the torture, rape, and killing of political prisoners, and the beatings and killings of dissidents and other civilians. Capital punishment in Iran remains a matter of international concern.
Baháʼís are persecuted in various countries, especially in Iran, where the Baháʼí Faith originated and where one of the largest Baháʼí populations in the world is located. The origins of the persecution stem from a variety of Baháʼí teachings which are inconsistent with traditional Islamic beliefs, including the finality of Muhammad's prophethood, and the placement of Baháʼís outside the Islamic religion. Thus, Baháʼís are seen as apostates from Islam.
Christopher John Robert Dugard is a South African professor of international law. His main academic specializations are in Roman-Dutch law, public international law, jurisprudence, human rights, criminal procedure and international criminal law. He has served on the International Law Commission, the primary UN institution for the development of international law, and has been active in reporting on human-rights violations by Israel in the Palestinian territories.
Ahmed Shaheed is a Maldivian diplomat, politician and professor. On 24 March 2016, he was appointed for the sixth year running as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Shaheed is also the Chairperson of the Geneva-based international human rights think-tank, Universal Rights Group, which was launched in January 2014. He now lives in England as a Professor of Human Rights Practice at the University of Essex. Shaheed is also a Senior Fellow at Raoul Wallenberg Human Rights Centre and a Fellow at the Bonavero Institute of Human rights at the University of Oxford.
Members of the Baháʼí Faith have been persecuted in various countries, especially in Iran, the location of one of the largest Baháʼí populations in the world. The Baháʼí Faith originated in Iran, and represents the largest religious minority in that country. Since the later part of the 20th century many third party organizations such as the United Nations, Amnesty International, the European Union, and the United States have made statements denouncing the persecution of Baháʼís asking that human rights be maintained. Members of the Baháʼí community in Iran have been subjected to unwarranted arrests, false imprisonment, beatings, torture, unjustified executions, confiscation and destruction of property owned by individuals and the Baháʼí community, denial of employment, denial of government benefits, denial of civil rights and liberties, and denial of access to higher education.
The Baháʼí Faith in Moldova began during the policy of oppression of religion in the former Soviet Union. Before that time, Moldova, as part of the Russian Empire, would have had indirect contact with the Baháʼí Faith as far back as 1847. In 1974 the first Baháʼí arrived in Moldova. and following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in late 1991, communities of Baháʼís, and respective National Spiritual Assemblies, developed across the nations of the former Soviet Union. In 1996 Moldova elected its own National Spiritual Assembly. Baháʼí sources said there were about 400 adherents in Moldova in 2004. The Association of Religion Data Archives estimated some 527 Baháʼís in 2005.
Samia Sarwar was a Pakistani woman who was shot dead in her lawyers' office in Lahore in an honour killing arranged by her parents.
The Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief was established in 1986 by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
Mothers of Khavaran or "Mothers and Families of Khavaran" is a group of mothers and families of the victims of the state atrocities in the 80s in Iran devoted to seeking truth and justice for the victims of mass executions carried out by authorities of the Islamic Republic starting around 1981 and peaking during the 1988 summary mass executions of political prisoners in Iranian prisons. The organization comprises mothers and other family members of victims. Despite pressure by state authorities to remain silent, the Mothers of Khavaran have worked for over thirty years to seek justice and accountability for their loved ones.
Reynaldo Galindo Pohl was a Salvadoran lawyer and diplomat. He actively participated in the military movement which led to overthrew of Salvador Castaneda Castro in 1948. Galindo Pohl was a member of Revolutionary Government Junta of El Salvador and presided over the Constituent Assembly that drafted the Constitution of 1950. He was the minister of education in the first half of 1950s and after that begun working for United Nations in 1960s.
High Council for Human Rights is the governmental national human rights institution of Iran, subdivision to the Judiciary of Iran.
Javaid Rehman is a British-Pakistani legal scholar and Professor of Islamic Law and International Law at Brunel University London.
Abbas Hajari was an Iranian communist and military officer.
The Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, formally the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, is a Special Rapporteur who works for the United Nations and reports on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories. The mandate was established in 1993 by the former Commission on Human Rights. Francesca Albanese was appointed in 2022 to take up the post of Special Rapporteur as the first woman ever in the role.
