From the Report of the Third Committee: Promotion and protection of human rights: human rights situations and reports of special rapporteurs and representatives, A/65/456/Add.3

Draft resolution III
Situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran

The General Assembly,
Guided by the Charter of the United Nations, as well as the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights,1 the International Covenants on Human Rights2 and
other international human rights instruments,
Recalling its previous resolutions on the situation of human rights in the
Islamic Republic of Iran, the most recent of which is resolution 64/176 of
18 December 2009,
1. Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General submitted pursuant to
resolution 64/176,3 which highlights further negative developments in the human
rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran, including an intensified crackdown
on human rights defenders and reports of excessive use of force, arbitrary
detentions, unfair trials and allegations of torture;
2. Expresses deep concern at serious ongoing and recurring human rights
violations in the Islamic Republic of Iran relating to, inter alia:
(a) Torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,
including flogging and amputations;
(b) The continuing high incidence of and dramatic increase in death
sentences carried out in the absence of internationally recognized safeguards,
including public executions, notwithstanding a circular from the former head of the
judiciary prohibiting public executions;
(c) The continuing imposition and carrying out of the death penalty against
persons who at the time of their offence were under the age of 18, in violation of the
obligations of the Islamic Republic of Iran under the Convention on the Rights of
the Child4 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;5
(d) The imposition of the death penalty for crimes that lack a precise and
explicit definition, including moharabeh (enmity against God), or for crimes that do
not qualify as the most serious crimes, in violation of international law;
(e) Stoning and suspension strangulation as methods of execution, and the
fact that persons in prison continue to face sentences of execution by stoning,
notwithstanding a circular from the former head of the judiciary prohibiting stoning;
(f) Pervasive gender inequality and violence against women, a continued
crackdown on women’s human rights defenders, arrests, violent repression and
sentencing of women exercising their right to peaceful assembly and continuing
discrimination against women and girls in law and in practice;
(g) Continuing discrimination and other human rights violations, at times
amounting to persecution, against persons belonging to ethnic, linguistic, recognized
religious or other minorities, including, inter alia, Arabs, Azeris, Baluchis, Kurds,
Christians, Jews, Sufis and Sunni Muslims and their defenders;
(h) Increased incidents of persecution against unrecognized religious
minorities, particularly members of the Baha’i faith, including attacks on Baha’is,
including in State-sponsored media, increasing evidence of efforts by the State to
identify, monitor and arbitrarily detain Baha’is, preventing members of the Baha’i
faith from attending university and from sustaining themselves economically, the
confiscation and destruction of their property, the vandalizing of their cemeteries
and the sentencing of seven Baha’i leaders to ten years’ imprisonment despite being
repeatedly denied the due process of law that they are constitutionally guaranteed,
including the right to timely and adequate access to legal representation of their
choice and to a fair and open trial;
(i) Ongoing, systemic and serious restrictions of freedom of peaceful
assembly and association and freedom of opinion and expression, including those
imposed on the media, political opponents, human rights defenders, lawyers,
journalists, Internet providers, Internet users, bloggers, clerics, artists, academics,
students, labour leaders and trade unions, from all sectors of Iranian society;
(j) The continuing harassment, intimidation and persecution, including by
arbitrary arrest, detention or disappearance, as well as violent repression of, inter
alia, political opponents, human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists and other
media representatives, Internet providers, Internet users, bloggers, clerics,
academics, students and labour leaders from all sectors of Iranian society, noting in
particular the continuing harassment and detention of staff members of the
Defenders of Human Rights Centre;
(k) The continuing use of State security forces and Government-directed
militias to forcibly disperse Iranian citizens engaged in the peaceful exercise of
freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly and association;
(l) Severe limitations and restrictions on the right to freedom of thought,
conscience, religion or belief, including arbitrary arrest, indefinite detention and
lengthy jail sentences, for those exercising this right, and the arbitrary demolition of
places of worship;
(m) Persistent failure to uphold due process of law, and violations of the
rights of detainees, including defendants held without charge or held
incommunicado, the systematic and arbitrary use of prolonged solitary confinement,
the lack of access to legal representation of their choice, the refusal to consider
granting bail to detainees, as well as reports of detainees being subjected to torture,
harsh interrogation techniques and the use of pressure exerted upon their relatives
and dependants, including through arrest, to obtain false confessions that are then
used at trials;
(n) Continuing arbitrary or unlawful interference by State authorities with
the privacy of individuals in particular related to private homes, and with their
correspondence, including voicemail and e-mail communications, in violation of
international law;
3. Expresses particular concern at the failure of the Government of the
Islamic Republic of Iran to conduct any comprehensive investigation or to launch an
accountability process for alleged violations in the period following the presidential
elections of 12 June 2009, and reiterates its call upon the Government to launch a
process of credible, independent and impartial investigations into reports of human
rights violations and to end impunity for such violations;
4. Calls upon the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to address the
substantive concerns highlighted in the report of the Secretary-General and the
specific calls to action found in previous resolutions of the General Assembly, and
to respect fully its human rights obligations, in law and in practice, in particular:
(a) To eliminate, in law and in practice, amputations, 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, pursuant to its obligations under article 37 of the Convention
on the Rights of the Child4 and article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights,5 executions of persons who at the time of their offence were under
the age of 18;
(d) To abolish the use of stoning and suspension strangulation as methods of
execution;
(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 the access of minorities to
education and employment is on a par with that of all Iranians;
(g) To implement, inter alia, the 1996 report of the Special Rapporteur on
religious intolerance,6 which recommended ways in which the Islamic Republic of
Iran could emancipate the Baha’i community, and to accord the seven Baha’i leaders
held since 2008 the due process of law and rights that they are constitutionally
guaranteed, including the right to adequate legal representation and the right to
timely, fair and open legal proceedings;
(h) To end the harassment, intimidation and persecution of political
opponents, human rights defenders, labour leaders, students, academics, journalists,
other media representatives, bloggers, clerics, artists and lawyers, including by
releasing persons imprisoned arbitrarily or on the basis of their political views;
(i) To end restrictions placed on Internet users and Internet providers that
violate the rights of freedom of expression, association and privacy;
(j) To end restrictions on the press and media representatives, including the
selective jamming of satellite broadcasts;
(k) To end the use of State security forces and Government-directed militias
to forcibly disperse Iranian citizens engaged in the peaceful exercise of their rights
to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association;
 (l) To uphold, in law and in practice, procedural guarantees to ensure due
process of law;
5. Also calls upon the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to
strengthen its national human rights institutions in accordance with the principles
relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of
human rights (“the Paris Principles”);7
6. Further calls upon the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to
consider ratifying or acceding to the international human rights treaties to which it
is not already a party, to effectively implement those human rights treaties to which
it is already a party and to withdraw any reservations it may have made upon
signature or ratification of other international human rights instruments where such
reservations are overly general, imprecise or could be considered incompatible with
the object and purpose of the treaty;
7. Calls upon the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to cooperate
fully with all international human rights mechanisms, and encourages the
Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to continue exploring cooperation on
human rights and justice reform with the United Nations, including the Office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights;
8. Expresses deep concern that, despite the Islamic Republic of Iran’s
standing invitation to all thematic special procedures mandate holders, it has not
fulfilled any requests from those special mechanisms to visit the country in five
years and has left unanswered the vast majority of the numerous and repeated
communications from those special mechanisms, and strongly urges the Government
of the Islamic Republic of Iran to fully cooperate with the special mechanisms,
including facilitating their visits to its territory, so that credible and independent
investigations of all allegations of human rights violations can be conducted;
9. Strongly encourages the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to
seriously consider all of the recommendations put forward at its universal periodic
review, with the full and genuine participation of civil society and other
stakeholders;
10. Strongly encourages the thematic special procedures mandate holders to
pay particular attention to, with a view to investigating and reporting on, the human
rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran, in particular the Special Rapporteur
on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, the Special Rapporteur on torture
and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the Special
Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and
expression, the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly
and of association, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights
defenders, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, the Special
Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, the Special Rapporteur on
violence against women, its causes and consequences, the Independent Expert on
minority issues, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the Working Group on
Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances and the Working Group on Discrimination
against Women in Law and in Practice;

11. Requests the Secretary-General to report to it at its sixty-sixth session on
the progress made in the implementation of the present resolution, including options
and recommendations to improve its implementation, and to submit an interim
report to the Human Rights Council at its sixteenth session;
12. Decides to continue its examination of the situation of human rights in
the Islamic Republic of Iran at its sixty-sixth session under the item entitled
“Promotion and protection of human rights”.