Witness rights in administrative investigations; A comparative study of Iranian law and international documents

Administrative investigations and inspections are among the mechanisms that administrative authorities usually carry out after violations occur in the administration.One of the ways to collect information is to obtain information from witnesses and informants.But it may be easy to provide information against the authorities.They will not be administrative or they will face risks.Therefore, it seems necessary to foresee some rights and guarantees for their safety.Due to the lack of protective provisions for witnesses and informants to participate in investigations and administrative inspections in the Criminal Procedure Law approved in 2012 and also the Statute of the International documents, provisions regarding the protection of witnesses and informants to participate in investigations have been provided.On the other hand, in the regulations related to quasi-judicial criminal authorities, the rights of witnesses have been paid sporadically.In this article, with an analytical-descriptive method and a comparative approach, while identifying some of the most important examples of these rights and guarantees, we have provided a legal framework for these rights for witnesses, informants and other citizens in the process of administrative proceedings in quasi-dedicated courts. can also be applied criminally.This is significant considering the absence of a single administrative procedure law. In the end, due to the legal vacuum regarding the rights of witnesses and informants in the process of investigations and administrative inspections, we suggested that the legislators, regulatory authorities, as well as administrative judges pay attention to this matter and provide a suitable legal framework and judicial procedure in this field.