Resolution adopted by a vote of 73-53-55 by the General Assembly on December 18, 2007. (See UN Press Release at http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2007/ga10678.doc.htm http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2007/ga10678.doc.htm) 

A/RES/62/168
Situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran


	The General Assembly,
	Guided by the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenants on Human Rights and other international human rights instruments,
	Mindful that the Islamic Republic of Iran is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,2 the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,2 the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Convention on the Rights of the Child,
	Recalling its previous resolutions on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the most recent of which is resolution 61/176 of 19 December 2006,
	Regretting that no special procedure has been permitted to visit the Islamic Republic of Iran since July 2005, despite the standing invitation extended by the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to all human rights thematic monitoring mechanisms in April 2002,
	1.	Expresses its deep concern at the ongoing systematic violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as described in the above-referenced resolutions, and at the failure of the Islamic Republic of Iran to implement the steps called for in these resolutions; 
	2.	Expresses its very serious concern that, since the adoption of resolution 61/176, there have been, inter alia, confirmed instances of:
	(a)	Torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, including flogging and amputations;
	(b)	Public executions, including multiple public executions, and other executions carried out in the absence of respect for internationally recognized safeguards;
	(c)	Stoning as a method of execution, and the continued issuing of sentences of execution by stoning;
	(d)	Execution of persons who were under the age of 18 at the time their offence was committed, contrary to the obligations of the Islamic Republic of Iran under article 37 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child4 and article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;2
	(e)	Arrests, violent repression, and sentencing of women exercising their right to peaceful assembly, a campaign of intimidation against women’s human rights defenders, and continuing discrimination against women and girls in law and in practice;
	(f)	Increasing discrimination and other human rights violations against persons belonging to religious, ethnic, linguistic or other minorities, recognized or otherwise, including, inter alia, Arabs, Azeris, Baluchis, Kurds, Christians, Jews, Sufis and Sunni Muslims and their defenders, and, in particular, attacks on Baha’is and their faith in State-sponsored media, increasing evidence of efforts by the State to identify and monitor Baha’is preventing members of the Baha’i faith from attending university and from sustaining themselves economically; and an increase in cases of arbitrary arrest and detention;
	(g)	Ongoing, systemic and serious restrictions of freedom of peaceful assembly and association, and freedom of opinion and expression, including those imposed on the media and trade unions, and increasing harassment, intimidation and persecution of political opponents and human rights defenders, from all sectors of Iranian society, including arrests and violent repression of labour leaders, labour members peacefully assembling and students;
	(h)	Persistent failure to uphold due process of law rights, and violation of the rights of detainees, including the systematic and arbitrary use of prolonged solitary confinement;
	3.	Calls upon the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to respect fully its human rights obligations and, in this regard, to implement fully the above-mentioned resolutions, and in particular:
	(a)	To eliminate, in law and in practice, amputations and flogging and other forms of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;
	(b)	To abolish, in law and in practice, public executions and other executions carried out in the absence of respect for internationally recognized safeguards;
	(c)	To abolish, in law and in practice, the use of stoning as a method of execution;
	(d)	To abolish, as called for by the Committee on the Rights of the Child in its report of January 2005, executions of persons who at the time of their offence were under the age of 18;
	(e)	To eliminate, in law and in practice, all forms of discrimination and other human rights violations against women and girls;
	(f)	To eliminate, in law and in practice, all forms of discrimination and other human rights violations against persons belonging to religious, ethnic, linguistic or other minorities, recognized or otherwise, to refrain from monitoring individuals on the basis of their religious beliefs, and to ensure that access of minorities to education and employment is on par with that of all Iranians;
	(g)	To implement, inter alia, the 1996 report of the Special Rapporteur on religious intolerance, which recommended ways in which the Islamic Republic of Iran could emancipate the Baha’i community;
	(h)	To end the harassment, intimidation and persecution of political opponents and human rights defenders, including by releasing persons imprisoned arbitrarily or on the basis of their political views;
	(i)	To uphold due process of law rights, and to end impunity for human rights violations;
	4.	Encourages the thematic special procedures of the Human Rights Council to visit the Islamic Republic of Iran and otherwise continue their work to improve the situation of human rights in the country, and urges the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to live up to the commitment it made when it issued a standing invitation to special procedures by cooperating with them, and to illustrate how their subsequent recommendations are being addressed; 
	5.	Decides to continue its examination of the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran at its sixty-third session under the item entitled “Promotion and protection of human rights”, and, to this end, requests the Secretary-General to submit to it at that session a comprehensive report on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran.


	 	Resolution 217 A (III).
	 	Resolution 2200 A (XXI), annex.
	 	United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 660, No. 9464.
	 	Ibid., vol. 1577, No. 27531.
	 	See CRC/C/146.
	 	See E/CN.4/1996/95/Add.2.