UN Condemns 'Severe Increase' in Executions in Iran

United Nations human rights experts have condemned the 'severe increase' in the number of executions in Iran in recent weeks and urged the Iranian government to abolish the death penalty. According to a report published on Friday, May 18, on the official UN website, at least 852 people were executed in Iran between July 2013 and June 2014, indicating a 'warning increase' in the number of executions in the country. Additionally, over 340 people, including at least six political prisoners and seven women, have been executed in Iran since January 2015. Ahmed Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, stated in a press release that 'when the Iranian government does not even acknowledge the extent of the executions that occur, it reflects their complete disregard for both human dignity and international human rights law.' The UN human rights report published last year indicated that references to 'apostasy, witchcraft, and heresy' were removed from the new penal code of the Islamic Republic, which has been in effect since 2013. However, it still allows for the execution of individuals under the legal age and permits executions for 'adultery, repeated consumption of alcohol, and possession or trafficking of drugs.' Ahmed Shaheed and Christoph Heyns, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, recently reported that at least 15 executions in Iran in 2015 were carried out in public. Both experts stated that public executions have a negative impact on human dignity, affecting both the victims and the witnesses of these executions. They called on the Iranian government to immediately suspend the death penalty across Iran and move towards the complete abolition of death sentences in the country.