UN Human Rights Committee Meeting on Iran; Islamic Republic Delegation Defends 'Amputation'

The UN Human Rights Committee began its fourth session on Monday, October 9, in Geneva, Switzerland, examining human rights violations by the Islamic Republic government. Members of the thirty-person Islamic Republic delegation, while denying the use of torture, defended 'corporal punishments' such as 'flogging and amputation.' This comes as Amnesty International reminded the UN Human Rights Committee of the 'widespread violations of Iran's commitments under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights over the past decade' in an oral report. Amnesty International detailed the tortures inflicted by the Islamic Republic government on Iranian citizens, including flogging, physical abuse, solitary confinement, deliberate denial of medical services, electric shocks, hanging, forced medication, waterboarding, extrajudicial executions, and sexual violence. According to this human rights organization, the Islamic Republic delegation, in response to questions regarding human rights violations through torture, repeatedly claimed that 'torture is prohibited within the framework of the Islamic Republic's legal system.' However, Mehdi Hadi, a member of this delegation and head of the Judicial Research Institute of the Islamic Republic, defended 'flogging and amputation.' According to Amnesty International, Mehdi Hadi 'incorrectly claimed that these punishments should not be considered torture and are not prohibited under international law.' Amnesty International assessed these statements as an emphasis on 'legalizing torture' by the Iranian government and a sign of the 'inhumane nature of the Islamic Republic's penal system.' The Iranian government has executed hundreds of flogging sentences and amputations of fingers or toes of at least 41 men over the past eleven and a half years, and some defendants have also been sentenced to blindness. In another part of the UN Human Rights Committee session, representatives of the Islamic Republic stated that to minimize the death penalty for children, they have recently prepared drafts of two guidelines regarding Article 91 of the Civil Code for forensic doctors and judges. In response, Amnesty International called for the amendment of Article 91 and emphasized that the execution of all individuals who were under 18 years old at the time of committing a crime should be prohibited. According to this organization, the Iranian government has executed five thousand people, including at least 57 juvenile offenders, from the beginning of 2012 until mid this year (January 1, 2012, to July 30, 2023). In part of this session, Somayeh Karimdoost, a member of the Islamic Republic delegation, claimed regarding child marriage that 'marriage for girls under 13 years old is conditional on court permission.' This comes as Amnesty International has described child marriage as a human rights violation and called for the guarantee of children's rights by raising the marriage age to 18. The UN Human Rights Committee expressed 'astonishment and regret' at the membership of Zahra Elhian, a member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly and a supporter of the suppression and execution of protesters, in the Islamic Republic delegation. Zahra Elhian is on the European Union's sanctions list. During part of the session, the Human Rights Committee asked members of the Islamic Republic delegation to explain how they investigate those accused of human rights violations and punish them. The UN Human Rights Committee's session to examine human rights violations by the Islamic Republic government is set to continue on Tuesday, October 10. A joint statement from a group of countries in the UN Human Rights Council called for respect for the rights of Iranian women and girls. Amnesty International called for independent international investigations into the situation of Armita Garavand. The Iranian government's pressure on Baha'is; Iman Rashidi was arrested in the presence of his '18-month-old child.' A senior US official reacted to reports of the 'brutal attack' by a hijab officer on Armita Garavand: 'We are horrified.'