 On 15 March 2019, 42 human rights organizations, in a statement published in New York, called the United Nations Human Rights Council to extend the mandate of Javid Rahman, the special rapporteur to Iran.One observation made by non-governmental sources of the state of human rights in the Islamic Republic is that it is not so severe that the Iranian public is afraid to criticize its government publicly to strangers.In Syria "taxi driver[s] rarely talk politics; the Iranian[s] will talk of nothing else."