On 2 October 2012, Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, visited the Netherlands. She attended the opening of the new Human Rights Institute, and afterwards she discussed the current status of human rights in the Netherlands with several Dutch NGOs.
Present at this conversation was also Adrie van de Streek, L4L’s executive director. During the conversation L4L showed its concern about the fact that in Iran very few human rights lawyers are able to exercise their profession. Many of these lawyers are in jail or have fled the country (see for example these biographies of Houtan Kian, Abdolfattah Soltani and Nasrin Sotoudeh). The situation of these lawyers was already brought up earlier in the conversation by Navi Pillay herself.
L4L is considering what actions to take for Iranian lawyers, and will stay in touch and exchange information with Navi Pillay.
