The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center documents human rights violations in accordance with international standards and legal instruments. The IHRDC determines what constitutes a violation in accordance with long-standing declarations and treaties such as the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

These contain fundamental norms - such as the prohibition of arbitrary executions, torture, and discrimination – that are binding on all members of the international community, including Iran. When violations such as murder, torture, rape, unlawful imprisonment, disappearances, or persecutions on religious, ethnic, or political grounds, are committed on a widespread or systematic basis, or as part of governmental policy, they may constitute crimes against humanity, as defined under article 6 of the 1945 Nuremberg Charter for the prosecution of the Nazi leaders after the Second World War, and more recently under Article 7 of the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

International law requires that those responsible for crimes against humanity, whether as perpetrators or accomplices, must be investigated and prosecuted for their conduct irrespective of their status as government officials. Human rights instruments used by IHRDC may include the following: (Please click on each link to open up a PDF document)

• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

• Convention Against Torture and and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights

• Crimes Against Humanity under customary international law; e.g. Article 7 of the Rome Statute

• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

• Convention on the Rights of the Child