WarSclerotic

.

UN Chief blasts Iran for human rights violations

Ban Ki-moon report highlights high number of executions, corpral punishment and lack of media freedom

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday expressed deep concern over the human rights situation in Iran, and called on its president Hasan Rouhani to take action to reduce the number of violations, noting particularly the regime’s common practice of executing or maiming criminals.

In a report to the United Nation’s Human Rights Council, Ban expressed alarm at “the sharp rise in executions in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” noting that despite his reputation as a moderate, the Rouhani government elected into office in June “has not changed its approach regarding the application of the death penalty and seems to have followed the practice of previous administrations, which relied heavily on the death penalty to combat crime.”

“An escalation in executions, including of political prisoners and individuals belonging to ethnic minority groups such as Baloch, Ahwazi Arabs and Kurds, was notable in the second half of 2013. At least 500 persons are known to have been executed in 2013, including 57 in public,” noted ban. He added that according to some human rights group, the number of those executed was as high as 625. “Those executed reportedly included 27 women and two children . The majority of the executions were carried out in relation to drug-related offences,” said Ban.

The secretary general also blasted the “recurrence of cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment, such as amputation of limbs and flogging,” saying it remains a cause for concern.

“The judiciary has frequently applied punishments which are prohibited by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a State party,” Ban said.

Despite recent statements by Rouhani against the stifling of the media in Iran — last week he defended what he called “freedom of the press with responsibility” and criticised the practice of shutting down offending newspapers — Ban said not enough was being done to protect free speech.

“The new administration has not made any significant improvement in the promotion and protection of freedom of expression and opinion, despite pledges made by the president during his campaign and after his swearing-in,” said Ban. “Both offline and online outlets continue to face restrictions including closure. Individuals seeking to exercise or promote freedom of expression and opinion for dissenting views or beliefs continue to face arrest, prosecution and sanctions by the state.”

The UN Chief also lamented the “large number of political prisoners, including high-profile lawyers, human rights activists, women rights activists and journalists,” who continue to serve sentences for charges he claimed are linked to the exercise of their freedoms of expression.

“The Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, in his latest report to the Human Rights Council noted that the Government, similar to several other countries, repressed peaceful assemblies because the messages conveyed did not please them, and where organizers and participants were often charged with sedition and rioting,” he said.

Ban also blasted Iran for failing to improve the situation of religious and ethnic minorities, notably Christians and Bahai.

“Religious minorities such as Baha’is and Christians face violations entrenched in law and in practice. Harassment, home raids and incitement to hatred are reportedly commonly applied by the authorities to suppress the Baha’i community,” he stressed.

Ban concluded by calling on Iran to address the concerns of his and previous reports, establish an independent national human rights institution and admit the visit of a UN Special Rapporteur on human rights.

This entry was posted on September 13, 2014 at 10:33 PM and is filed under Iran / Israel War. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.