7 Fall 2021 Nasrin Sotoudeh, for whom I – along with the RWCHR – have been acting as international legal counsel, is an iconic Iranian woman human rights lawyer who embodies the struggle for human rights in Iran, and whose persecution and prosecution is a looking glass into the assault on human rights in Iran. Nasrin Sotoudeh’s situation has deteriorated ever since her first imprisonment ten years ago, when I first began to represent her while she was a Member of Parliament. Since then, she has been repeatedly arrested for doing nothing other than fighting on behalf of the rights of women, for the rights of juveniles destined for execution, for the rights of journalists whose expression is silenced, for the rights of minorities like the Bahá’í targeted for persecution, for lawyers imprisoned for defending political prisoners, and on behalf of other political prisoners, until some three years ago, when she once again became a political prisoner herself. She was convicted and sentenced to 38 years in prison and 148 lashes – a virtual death sentence for a woman in her late 50s. In August 2020, Nasrin Sotoudeh launched a hunger strike, not on her own behalf, but on behalf of other political prisoners at risk of catching COVID-19 in the Iranian prisons. Suffering from heart complications and respiratory disease, she was transferred from Evin Prison to a hospital for medical treatment, but she was abused, detained, and shockingly returned to prison having been denied treatment. The UN Special Experts collectively called this action“unfathomable.” During her extensive time in prison, our advocacy was supported by Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada, who condemned her imprisonment and called for her release, as did President Macron of France, the then Presidential candidate, and now U.S. President Joseph Biden, the European Union, and others. She was then transferred from Evin Prison not to a hospital to receive urgent medical treatment, but rather to the infamous Qarchak Prison, a vermin-infested, almost uninhabitable prison. As a result of sustained advocacy, in November 2020, Nasrin was released on furlough, but after one month, she was sent back to prison. In an open letter to the Iranian leadership5 signed by the International Bar Association, by US Pen, by the Center for Human Rights in Iran, and by the RWCHR – we called for the quashing of her conviction and for her release. In addition, we stated that every day of her continuing imprisonment is an assault on the Iranian Islamic constitution, as well as on Iran’s international treaty obligations; and that only her release would demonstrate Iranian fidelity to the rule of law, to the Iranian Constitution, and to Iran’s own international treaty obligations. As I write, Nasrin Sotoudeh has been released on furlough for medical treatment, once again on the grounds of sustained advocacy, but is still threatened with return to prison. III. Case Study: Maduro’s Venezuela The third case study is President Maduro’sVenezuela. Some four years ago, I was appointed a member of a Panel of Independent Legal Experts by the Organization of American States, along with Justices Santiago Canton of Argentina and Manuel E. Ventura Robles of Costa Rica, to investigate whether there were reasonable grounds to believe that crimes against humanity are being committed in Venezuela. In May 2018, after a comprehensive inquiry, and after analyzing documentary evidence and witness testimony, we concluded that there exist reasonable grounds to believe that seven major crimes against humanity were being committed in Venezuela, including multiple murders and extrajudicial executions; some 12,000 cases of arbitrary detention and deprivation of liberty; some of the worst cases of torture that we have ever seen; wanton disappearances; political persecutions; sexual violence and rape in detention; and perhaps the worst of the crimes against humanity – state orchestrated humanitarian suffering – the weaponization of food and medicine targeting those either in the political opposition or believed to be in the opposition. During our investigation, we held public hearings in Washington, and heard astounding evidence with respect to assaults on the rule of law, on the independence of the judiciary and on the democratic opposition. Here, I present a looking glass into these assaults through the cases of two political prisoners, Leopoldo López and Judge Maria Lordes Afiuni. I have represented the leader of the democratic opposition, Leopoldo Lopez, who had been imprisoned on trumped up charges, since 2014. What we heard in the testimony before us was compelling, revealing, and, in fact, indicting, not of Lopez, but of the Maduro regime, both expressly and specifically. We heard testaments 5. International Bar Association, Pen America, Center for Human Rights in Iran, and Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights,“Open Letter to His Excellency, Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran,”IBANET, Dec. 2, 2020, available at https:// www.ibanet.org/MediaHandler?id=92722B13-8E65-4441BF8A-8104FE349DF6
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