The International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) together with the Centre for Supporters of Human Rights (CSHR) has released No Defence: A Report on the Status of Lawyers and the Bar Associations in Iran - Challenges and Recommendations (the report) - important new research documenting the escalating, state-driven erosion of the legal profession in Iran.
The report presents a comprehensive, evidence-based account of how restrictive laws, political prosecutions, security-agency interference, and gender-based discrimination have converged to strip lawyers of independence, endanger their lives, and weaken fair trial rights for all Iranians.
In the report's preface, Margaret Satterthwaite, UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, underscores both the gravity of the crisis and the courage of those resisting it. 'Lawyers in Iran continue to practise law, seeking to represent their clients fairly and independently,' she writes, even as they face 'threats, harassment, criminal sanctions and even imprisonment.' Her preface frames the findings as a clear call for principled, sustained international solidarity.
Drawing on legal analysis and documented patterns over recent years, No Defence finds that Iran's legal community is increasingly forced to operate under conditions incompatible with basic international standards. The report details how restrictive laws, political prosecutions, security-agency interference, and institutional capture of bar associations are systematically dismantling the right to defence and hollowing out fair-trial guarantees for all Iranians.
'The persecution of lawyers in Iran is not a side-effect of repression. It is one of its central tools,' said Dr Shabnam Moinipour, a human rights expert and Programme Director at CSHR. 'When independent lawyers are threatened, disbarred, or imprisoned for doing their jobs, the public is left without protection and the courts become instruments of coercion rather than justice. This report shows, in clear and documented terms, that the state is dismantling the last safeguards of accountability by attacking those who stand between citizens and arbitrary power.'
The report documents five interlocking pillars of repression:
- Institutional capture of bar associations. The report shows decades of judiciary interference in bar elections and governance, including the annulment of Central Bar Association elections, and the entrenchment of state oversight through new bylaws and vetting mechanisms. This has steadily eroded the bar's ability to self-govern and protect its members.
- Denial of the right to counsel of choice. The Note to Article 48 of Iran's Criminal Procedure Code compels defendants in political and national-security cases to choose from a judiciary-approved list, effectively eliminating independent representation in the most sensitive trials.
- Creation of a parallel, judiciary-controlled 'bar'. The expansion of the Judiciary Advisors/Centre for Lawyers has hollowed out the autonomy of the independent bar and entrenched state control over licensing, discipline, and legal practice.
- Escalating violence and repression. The report chronicles a sharp rise in threats, physical attacks, targeted killings, arbitrary arrests, and prosecutions against lawyers, especially those defending protesters, dissidents, or human rights cases.
- Gender-specific persecution. Female lawyers face compounded discrimination, including mandatory hijab enforcement in and beyond courts, restrictions on advancement, and a growing legal framework that polices women's professional presence.
Reflecting on the particular cost borne by women in the profession, Dr Leila Alikarami, a prominent lawyer and human rights advocate, said: 'Female lawyers carry a double burden: defending human rights while daring to confront discriminatory laws and practices. Over the years, restrictions and threats against lawyers in Iran have pushed many to avoid representing the people who need defence most. Yet this repression has not stopped dissent. Instead, it has only deepened a culture of lawlessness and contempt for the rule of law, fuelling greater tension and confrontation between the state and society.'
Responding to these findings, Francesca Restifo, senior human rights lawyer and United Nations Representative for IBAHRI, added: 'No Defence is more than a report. It is an alarm. It demonstrates that Iran's authorities are deliberately stripping people of the right to an independent lawyer precisely where it matters most: in political and national-security cases. Attacking the legal profession is a direct attack on fair-trial rights, on civic space, and on the possibility of lawful dissent. The international community must treat the protection of Iran's lawyers as an urgent rule-of-law imperative.'
Formal International Endorsement
No Defence is formally endorsed by leading legal and human rights bodies, reflecting broad global concern about the collapse of professional independence and fair-trial guarantees in Iran.
The report urges coordinated action by international legal institutions, UN mechanisms, and governments to end reprisals against lawyers, repeal laws that undermine independent defence, and restore bar self-governance in line with international standards, including the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers. It sets out practical short-term protection measures for at-risk lawyers and long-term recommendations to rebuild professional independence.
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