In a 12 December 2001 correspondence, a representative of the Tehran-based Organization for Defending the Victims of Violence (ODVV) provided the following statement of the ODVV Legal Committee:

There is no legal prohibition for issuing any medical certificate certifying that an Iranian citizen in Iran or abroad had been treated in a specific hospital or medical clinic in Iran.

The conditions depends on hospitals and the regulations they have. For example, one hospital may need a written request by the patient in which enough reasons for issuing such certificate should be mentioned. Or another hospital may request for a file number which shows the record of the patient in the hospital. It depends on the procedures which are used in a hospital.

Of course, not always, sometimes these are the staff who can cooperate or decide not to cooperate in issuing a certificate; One can say that it can be a personal taste in rare cases (not always).

At the present time, there is a procedure in certain hospitals in issuing certificate for social insurance companies. There is also certain procedure to issue certificate for the government staff who have been hospitalized or have been treated in a hospital and they need the certificate to show that they have had a legitimized absence from work. Also such certificate are issued for students and pregnant mothers (who work).

The ODVV Website provides the following information on this organization:

The Organization for Defending Victims of Violence (ODVV) is a non-governmental (NGO), non-profit Organization based in Iran (Tehran) since 1988, in Special Consultative Status to the ECOSOC, active in the field of human rights and humanitarian activities. The Organization is an associate NGO to the United Nations Department of Public Information (UNDPI), and cooperates, in a variety of issues with the local and international NGOs. During the last eleven years, we have been, mainly informative in regards with human rights violations, and supportive in regards with the victims of violence.

Our objectives are "limiting and eliminating all kinds of violence", "promoting a nonviolent culture", and "defending and supporting the victims of violence". The Organization also pays attention to the research fields and conducts different project about the human rights, culture, civilizations, roots of violence, etc. (Nov. 1999)

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

Organization for Defending Victims of Violence (ODVV). 12 December 2001. Correpondence.

_____. November 1999. About ODVV. http://www.odvv.org/about_odvv.htm [Accessed 12 Dec. 2001]