Iran Shuts Down Oldest NGO Supporting Vulnerable Children, Detains Founder

NGO Leader Held Without Charge, Whereabouts Unknown, Denied Access to Family and Lawyer

State’s Intensifying Assault on Civil Society Will Worsen Crisis Facing Iran’s Children

November 3, 2025 — The Iranian authorities have intensified their assault on civil society with the arbitrary arrest of child rights defender Hossein Mirbahari and the forcible closure of the Society for the Protection of Child Laborers and Street Children—one of the country’s oldest and most respected NGOs supporting vulnerable children.

Mirbahari, a founding member of the organization, was arrested by security forces at his sister’s home in Tehran on October 15, 2025, and detained without charge. His whereabouts remain unknown, as does the status of his case, and he is being denied access to his family and lawyer. There are serious concerns about his state of health.

Security agents also sealed the organization’s office and confiscated equipment and communication devices, effectively halting its operations.

“It also showcases the lawless thuggery of the regime; it can arrest people without cause or charge, drag them into undisclosed detainment, and hold them there incommunicado—because it fears any independent societal activities, no matter how vital a role they play,” Ghaemi added.

In a pattern of increasing judicial harassment, Mirbahari was previously arbitrarily arrested on June 20, 2025, and released after 30 days in solitary confinement upon posting bail, again without lawful cause or disclosed charge.

• CHRI urges the UN, including the UN Human Rights Council, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Special Rapporteur on Iran, to call upon the Iranian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Hossein Mirbahari.

• CHRI urgently calls on the Iranian authorities to respect Mirbahari’s right to health in detention and to immediately provide any necessary medical care he may require.

• CHRI also calls upon UNICEF head Catherine Russell—as well as other international organizations charged with protecting children—to demand Mirbahari’s release and the unshuttering of the Society for the Protection of Child Laborers and Street Children, recognizing the vital role it plays in protecting Iran’s most vulnerable children.

• CHRI urges the EU, which has donated humanitarian assistance for Iranian children’s welfare programs, and Member States to directly communicate to the Iranian authorities the unacceptability of their shuttering of lawful civil society organizations and to call for the immediate release of Hossein Mirbahari.

This latest act of repression comes amid an escalating campaign by Iranian authorities to criminalize humanitarian work and silence independent voices advocating for social justice and the rights of children, women, and marginalized groups.

The closure of the Society for the Protection of Child Laborers and Street Children also comes despite an increasing number of child laborers and street children in Iran and an ongoing grim state of children’s rights in the country.

Detained in Fragile Physical Condition, Denied Access to Lawyer and Family 

A knowledgeable source told CHRI that Mirbahari’s physical condition is fragile, following chemotherapy, and his whereabouts and charges against him remain unknown. His family and lawyer have had no contact with him since his arrest.

“Mr. Mirbahari’s physical and medical condition is very poor, and we are extremely worried about him. He underwent a difficult course of chemotherapy last year and remains in fragile health. On the day of his arrest, he was ill with a severe cold. It is vital that he receives proper medical care. His family and colleagues are deeply concerned about his situation.

“When he was arrested, he was at his sister’s home. Security forces who later raided the organization’s office confiscated laptops, hard drives, and cell phones belonging to several other members (four or five people).

Although these individuals were not arrested, they have since been unreachable. We fear the confiscated devices could be used to fabricate cases against them or that they were threatened by security forces.”

The source confirmed that the Society for the Protection of Working and Street Children had not received any warnings from security or judicial bodies prior to its shutdown. 

“Years ago, after a long and difficult process, the organization obtained official registration from the Ministry of Interior and had always operated legally and transparently.”

The organization’s closure and the security harassment of its members have had a severe impact, especially at the start of the new school year.

With the office sealed and members intimidated, no one is left to follow up on their cases.”

“Many of the children supported by the organization will now be left without assistance. Some had not yet managed to enroll in school, and the staff were in the process of helping them.

The source emphasized that all of the organization’s activities had been completely transparent and lawful, focusing on advocacy, education, and support for vulnerable children. Occasional poetry and storytelling sessions were held in the past, but even those had become rare in recent years due to increasing government sensitivity.

Two Decades of Children’s Rights Advocacy

Since its founding in 2002, the Society for the Protection of Child Laborers and Street Children has been a lifeline for working and street children across Iran, advocating for the eradication of child labor and all forms of exploitation, and promoting equal rights and humane living conditions for every child, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or religion.

Its activities included providing educational programs, health services, psychological support, and advocacy for social protections such as child and family insurance coverage. The organization also sought to raise public awareness about the plight of working children in Iran and to encourage community participation in child protection.

Operating through eight specialized units—public relations, health, arts, library, education, social work, finance, and research—the society was one of the few NGOs in Iran maintaining a consistent focus on children’s welfare amid tightening restrictions on civil society.

Child Labor and Street Children in Iran: A Growing Crisis

The closure of the Society for the Protection of Child Laborers and Street Children must also be seen against the backdrop of a national crisis of child labor in Iran, where millions of children are being forced to work in hazardous and exploitative conditions due to poverty and the absence of effective government protection.

There are no official comprehensive figures on the number of child laborers in Iran, with estimates ranging from 1.5 to 7 million working children. Iran’s Parliamentary Research Center reported in July 2023 that 15% of the country’s children are engaged in labor, with minority children accounting for a disproportionate number of child laborers. In 2023, a member of the Tehran City Council said there are 70,000 child laborers in Tehran alone.

Any numbers are underestimates due to the high number of undocumented child laborers and the lack of government transparency. Many of these children work long hours in unsafe sectors, including waste collection, street vending, workshops, and brick kilns.

Iran also has a long-standing issue of street children, who are estimated to number as high as 200,000, mostly in Iran’s urban centers. Deputy Justice Minister Ali Kazemi said in February 2024 that 20,000 child laborers slept in Tehran’s metro during winter. In October 2025, the Deputy for Social Health at the Khorasan Razavi Welfare in northeastern Iran stated there are 1,500 active cases of street children in the educational support centers in the province this year.

In smaller cities, such as Yasuj, in southwestern Iran, with an estimated 135,000 population, 337 child laborers and street children were identified this year, according to the Deputy for Social Health at the Welfare Organization of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province.

Reza Shafakhah, a prominent human rights lawyer, in an interview with Shargh newspaper on October 13, 2024, said: 

“It is not possible for you to open a curtain and look out the window in the farthest reaches of Iran and not see a child going through a trash can. The fact that nearly 120,000 street children are active in Iran is a form of child abuse.”

Pattern of Repression Against Civil Society

The targeting of the Society for the Protection of Child Laborers and Street Children mirrors the Iranian authorities’ systematic dismantling of civil society organizations in recent years. 

To name just a few, in March 2021, the government forcibly dissolved the Imam Ali Popular Student Relief Society (IAPSRS), which had worked for 21 years on poverty and child protection. In March 2022, the Khaneh Khorshid (“House of the Sun”), a drug addiction treatment center for women and one of the few women’s shelters in Iran, was also forced to shut down. Mehre Shams Afarid safe house, which supported vulnerable women and children in Urmia, was also closed in 2024.

Iran’s Treatment of Children Violates International and Iranian law

The Islamic Republic’s unwillingness to effectively address its child labor crisis or its large number of street children, as well as its many other abuses of children’s rights and protections, directly violates its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which it is a signatory.

According to Article 79 of Iran’s Labor Law, a child cannot legally work under the age of 15. However, this is routinely ignored in Iran, with loopholes in Iranian law that allow small workplaces to be exempt from most state labor regulations, and little state enforcement of labor laws overall.

Iran is also in direct violation of its obligations under the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Fundamental Principles, which strictly forbid child labor under any circumstances.

In addition, the shuttering without lawful cause of independent civil society organizations violates numerous articles protecting freedom of assembly, association, and expression that are in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Iran is a State Party.

“Any kind of independent civil society organization is seen as a threat by the Islamic Republic, which seeks to control the citizenry even as it cannot provide the most basic services to them,” said Ghaemi.

He added, “Regarding street children in Iran, UNICEF has stated that it ‘intends to work with various other partners, including…civil society organizations.’ How can it not speak out when these very civil society organizations are under attack by the Iranian government?

“The EU, which has helped fund UNICEF’s work in Iran, should also speak out against these unlawful actions that endanger children’s advocates and the children they seek to protect,” Ghaemi said.