Südwind urged the Iranian government to stop executions and to start cooperating with special mandate holders (GD Item 2) : www.iranhrc.org
Reyhaneh Jabbari, was only 19 years old when she was attacked to be raped by an ex-employee of the intelligent service of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The head of judiciary has confirmed Reyhaneh execution sentence due to her self defense attack that resulted in the rapist’s death. Reyhaneh is now 26, is sentenced to death and the execution could take place at any time. This is a self-explanatory image of the shocking situation of Human Rights in the Islamic republic of Iran. More than 600 individuals have been executed in Iran in 2013 including women, children offenders and drug addicts. In many of such cases the rule of law is violated or the law itself is in violation of international human rights norms. Mr. President, Although Iran is bounded by five core treaties, it does not fully cooperate with UN mechanisms. No special Rapporteur has been allowed to visit Iran for the past 9 years despite the various visit requests sent to it by different mandate holders. Only 4 out of 25 communications sent to Iran received a response. The UN Secretary General and Madam High Commissioner are both also highly concerned over the lack of cooperation of Iran with the UN mechanisms, treaty bodies and special procedures in particular. They have both requested time and again that Iran schedules visits for different mandate holders, at top of which the SR on Iran, and that it implements the recommendations made to it. We therefore reiterate our two main requests: Firstly, with regards to the impartiality and objectivity of the UN Secretary General and the High Commissioner and also their request for a country visit, we urge all member states to unanimously support the renewal of the mandate of the special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The SR must be able to continue his mandate as this is the only way that the voices of the Iranian people could reach the international community. Secondly, we urge the Iranian government to stop executions and to start cooperating with special mandate holders. This begins with an immediate visit of Dr. Shaheed followed by visits of the Special Rapporteurs on torture, on extrajudicial or arbitrary executions, on freedom of opinion, on freedom of assembly, on human rights defenders, and also working groups on enforced disappearances, and on arbitrary detention. Finally Mr. President, Sudwind thanks the UN secretary general for his statement condemning the killing of one of the five Iranian border guards abducted in early February. The family of this guard has not been contacted by any Iranian officials nor consoled in any way. We call upon both governments of Pakistan and Iran to cooperate for the release of the remaining border guards before another sad event takes place.
