The resolution “Expresses serious concern, …, at the alarmingly high frequency of the imposition and carrying-out of the death penalty by the Islamic Republic of Iran, in violation of its international obligations, including executions undertaken against persons on the basis of forced confessions or for crimes that do not qualify as the most serious crimes, including crimes that are overly broad or vaguely defined, in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,2 expresses concern at the continuing disregard for internationally recognized safeguards,
“Including executions undertaken without notification of the prisoner’s family members or legal counsel, and calls upon the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to abolish, in law and in practice, public executions,… It also expresses serious concern at the continued imposition of the death penalty by the Islamic Republic of Iran against minors… Calls upon the Islamic Republic of Iran to ensure, in law and in practice, that no one is subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment… cease the widespread and systematic use of arbitrary arrests and detention… release persons detained for the exercise of their human rights and fundamental freedoms,
“Including those who have been detained solely for taking part in peaceful protests, to consider rescinding unduly harsh sentences, including those involving the death penalty and long-term internal exile, and to end reprisals against individuals, including for cooperating or attempting to cooperate with the United Nations human rights mechanisms… It also calls upon the Islamic Republic of Iran to address the poor conditions of prisons, to end the practice of deliberately denying prisoners access to adequate medical treatment… eliminate,
“In law and in practice, all forms of discrimination and other human rights violations against women and girls… release women human rights defenders imprisoned for exercising their rights…eliminate, in law and in practice, all forms of discrimination and other human rights violations against persons belonging to ethnic, linguistic or other minorities…
Expresses serious concern about ongoing severe limitations and increasing restrictions on the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief, restrictions on the establishment of places of worship, undue restrictions on burials carried out in accordance with religious tenets, attacks against places of worship and burial and other human rights violations.”
The resolution reads in part.
It is worth noting that, the Iranian regime’s representative at the review session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva has claimed that the Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the largest democracies in Western Asia and needs no Special Rapporteur. Javad Larijani, the Iranian regime’s representative to the Human Rights Council, claimed that the opinion of UN Special Rapporteur Javaid Rehman reflects that of Iran’s main opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), otherwise known as the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), and that he receives his documents from the MEK.
Larijani represents a regime that is the world’s worst human rights violator and which has executed over 120,000 people and imprisoned and tortured many more. In the summer of 1988 alone, based on a religious decree by Khomeini, over 30,000 political prisoners, mainly members, and supporters of the MEK were executed in just a few months.
The third committee’s resolution is an explicit response to the claim of the Iranian regime’s representative who said Iran needs no Special Rapporteur:
It “calls upon the Islamic Republic of Iran to deepen its engagement with international human rights mechanisms by: Cooperating fully with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, including by accepting the repeated requests made by the Special Rapporteur to visit the country in order to carry out the mandate; Increasing cooperation with other special mechanisms, …Decides to continue its examination of the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran at its seventy-fifth session under the item entitled “Promotion and protection of human rights”.
