Professor Javaid Rehman and Pete Weatherby KC: A Conversation on Human Rights in Iran
29 May 2025
Professor Javaid Rehman (pictured) served as United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran from 2018 to 2024. Credit: UN.
“The Iranian regime organised a smear campaign against me with completely false, fabricated and malicious allegations of bias, fraud, corruption and being complicit in terrorism. The regime and it proxies also threatened to harm me personally.”
As the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran for six years finishing in 2024, there is no expert better informed on the topic than Professor Javaid Rehman.
In an exclusive conversation with Garden Court North’s Pete Weatherby KC, Javaid candidly discussed his landmark UN reports on human rights violations in Iran, and the Iranian regime’s personal threats and smear campaign against him.
“While the regime and its proxies were not able to challenge me on the accuracy and substance of this report, the entire purpose of the smear campaign was to put me under enormous pressure to discredit me, my integrity and my commitment to seek justice for the victims”, Javaid said.
Six years as UN Special Rapporteur on Iran
Javaid also offered previously unheard insight on the UN’s response to the Iranian regime’s widely documented killing of 22-year-old Jina Mahsa Amini in September 2022, which sparked the ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ movement across Iran and internationally.
“This was a time when we had to raise our voice and say enough is enough, in terms of the violation and brutalisation of women which had been going on since 1979 [the Iranian Revolution],” Javaid said. “The violation of using force against girls and women who do not adhere to this draconian law of hijab.”
As Special Rapporteur, Javaid’s response to Amini’s killing in September 2022 was, by international body standards, remarkably prompt.
By October, Javaid had addressed the UN General Assembly on Amini’s death, the wider brutalisation of women in Iran, and the authorities’ violent crackdown on protests, and spoke to the press subsequent to addressing the UNGA.
“We offered the Iranian regime international observers and monitors to go and investigate why Jina Mahsa Amini died in the way that she did, and they refused it,” Javaid added. “I had no choice but to say we must now have an international accountability mechanism, and I must say I was the first voice in the General Assembly to raise this issue”.
During the conversation, Javaid and Pete also discussed:
- Javaid’s calling to the mandate after his former colleague and mentor Asma Jahangir tragically died in her second year as UN Special Rapporteur on Iran
- The Iranian regime’s religious persecution of non-Shia Muslims, Baha’is, Balochis, Kurds, Christians, Zoroastrians, Sufis and Jews
- The process behind Javaid’s special reports and addresses to the UN Human Rights Council, Security Council, and General Assembly
- Pete’s answer to the Interior Minister of Bahrain when he was asked to train its security forces in ‘human rights compliance’
- What the Iran mandate holds for Javaid’s successor in her efforts to change the human rights situation
Javaid is also a Professor of Law at Brunel University, voice of global authority on Muslim constitutionalism, and an Associate Member of Garden Court North.
Pete is a leading silk on inquests and public inquiries, a founding member of Garden Court North, and an expert on international humanitarian and human rights law, pursuing cases to the UN Human Rights Committee and more.
The interview was hosted by Alex Blair, Communications Manager at Garden Court North Chambers. For further information or questions for Javaid and Pete, contact him: ablair@gcnchambers.co.uk
Additional media
Garden Court North Chambers – A Conversation on Human Rights in Iran with Former United Nations Special Rapporteur Javaid Rehman
UNOCHR – Iran: ‘Atrocity crimes’ must be investigated and perpetrators prosecuted, says Special Rapporteur
UN Human Rights Council – Javaid Rehman, Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, speaks at the Human Rights Council
Garden Court North Chambers – Professor Javaid Rehman’s findings endorsed in US House of Representatives’ resolution on Iran
