The latest session of deliberating the human rights situation in Iran was held on 8 November during the “Universal Periodic Review” with representatives of Iran and representatives of 33 other countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, and South Korea at the UN headquarters in Geneva.

According to Amnesty International, the participants in the meeting criticized the human rights situation in Iran.

A group of countries participating in the session, including the US, called for the release of prisoners of conscience, journalists, lawyers, opponents of the mandatory veil, and civil and human rights activists in Iran.

The US envoy said the Iranian government should release prisoners of conscience, including Narges Mohammadi and Nasrin Sotoudeh, saying Iran should repeal the “compulsory hijab” law, according to the report of this human rights organization.

The representative from Canada, along with 30 others, called for the “abolition of the death penalty, especially for children.” Representatives of Canada, the United Kingdom, and several other countries also called on the Iranian government to join the Convention Against Torture and ensure that no one is subjected to torture.

On the other hand, representatives of 26 countries, including Spain, Austria, and Germany, supported women’s rights in Iran and called on the Iranian authorities to take the necessary measures to promote and protect women’s rights and to join the “Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women”. The Portuguese representative also called on the authorities of Iran to condemn gender-based violence.

Representatives of some countries have also urged Iran to join the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and to strengthen its efforts to eradicate child marriage and forced marriage.

Some representatives were also concerned about the status of dual nationals in Iranian prisons and called on the Islamic Republic to release them unconditionally.

Following the meeting, representatives of countries such as Norway, Japan, and Bahrain called for respect for the rights of ethnic and religious minorities, including Baha’i citizens in Iran.

The participating countries also demanded freedom of expression and social freedom, respect for the rights of immigrants, including the registration of foreign children in Iranian schools.

According to Amnesty International, at a regular human rights review meeting in Iran, representatives of some countries, such as Canada, called on the Iranian government to cooperate with the Special Rapporteur and allow UN Special Rapporteur Javaid Rehman to enter Iran.

This human rights organization said in a mocking post on Twitter that Iran had also presented “human rights” achievements, including “violence against children”.

https://twitter.com/AmnestyIran/status/1192718559144755201

Since the last periodic investigation in 2014, at least 19 people who were under the age of 18 at the time of their alleged crime were executed in Iran.

US State Department spokesman Morgan Ortegas on 7 November, tweeted about Iran’s exhibition in the UN European headquarters in Geneva titled “The Islamic Republic’s Achievements in Human Rights”:

A new human rights exhibition from the folks who brought you repression of women, execution of children, religious intolerance, and crimes against humanity too long to list. Astonishingly, this shameless hypocrisy by one of the world’s worst human rights abusers is not a joke. pic.twitter.com/LsIhZ3vWFr

Morgan Ortagus (@statedeptspox) November 8, 2019