The UN Human Rights Council denounces the increasing number of executions

The United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday denounced the growing number of executions in Iran, including those linked to protests that have rocked the country for months.

The UN organization approved a resolution expressing its “deep concern at the increasing number of executions, including those of individuals sentenced to death for their alleged involvement in recent protests“.

“Weapon of Foreign Policy”

The text also extends the mandate of the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Javaid Rehman, for an additional year. It was approved by 23 of the 47 members of this council. Sixteen members abstained and eight voted against, including Cuba, China, Pakistan and Vietnam. Iranian Ambassador Ali Bahraini, for his part, rejected this text, deeming it inadmissible to “make human rights a weapon of foreign policy“.

This resolution echoes the growing concern over the high number of executions in Iran and reiterates the international community’s strong condemnation of the harsh crackdown launched by the Iranian regime after the massive protests that began last September. . Tehran executed four people after the protests sparked by the September 16 death of a 22-year-old Iranian girl, Mahsa Amini, who died after being arrested on the pretext that she was not wearing her veil correctly. According to the Norway-based Organization for Human Rights in Iran, at least 144 people have been executed in that country this year.

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The resolution passed on Tuesday calls on Iran to take “all necessary legislative, administrative and other measuresso that no one is executed foralleged offenses that are not at the level of the most serious crimes“. Iran must also ensure that no executions concern “alleged offenses committed before the age of 18“and that the sentences be pronounced only by these courts”competent, independent and impartial“, adds the text. The Council also deploredsystematic discrimination and violence based on gender, ethnic origin, religion or political opinionin Iran.