Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran
A/HRC/40/67 para 70(g)
Full recommendation:
Ensure that all prisoners with health conditions for whom staying in prison would mean an
exacerbation of their condition are not detained in prison, and issue alternative sentences if
there is no prospect of recovery through the full implementation of article 502 of the Code of
Criminal Procedure.
Assessment using Impact Iran human rights indicators1
Iran’s Executive Regulations for the Organization of State Prisons (the Prison Regulations)
oblige the Associate Prosecutor of the Prison to examine the situation of prisoners with an
incurable disease and take appropriate action based on the Code of Criminal Procedure (Note to
Article 103).
Article 502 of Iran’s Criminal Code of Procedure (2015) provides that “whenever the convicted
individual suffers from physical or mental illnesses and the implementation of the sentence
would exacerbate the illness or delay the recovery, the Judge Overseeing Implementation of
Sentences shall, after obtaining the opinion of the Legal Medicine Organization of Iran, postpone
the implementation until the time of the recovery.” The Code further adds that, if there is no
prospect of recovery and the judge is satisfied that the convicted person is unfit to serve the
sentence, the judge will refer the case to the court that originally issued the sentence to issue an
alternative sentence.2
Such provision is not in full compliance with international standards, notably Rule 27(c) of the
Mandela Rules which states: “Clinical decisions may only be taken by the responsible healthcare professionals and may not be overruled or ignored by non-medical prison staff.”3
In its 2019 National Report to the Universal Periodic Review, the Government of the Islamic
Republic of Iran reported that the Citizenship Rights Watch Board carries periodic inspections
within prisons and detention centers. According to the Government the body has “received and
handled 3,275 complaints and reports, through the complaint system, in relation with civil rights
violations. Between 2015 and 2018, a number of 28,504 inspections were carried out to
prosecutors' offices, prisons and detention centers.”4 There is no readily available information
1
CCPR.10.1.S.1
CCPR.10.3.P.2 ; CCPR.10.3.P.3
CCPR.10.1.O.2;
2
Code of Criminal Procedure of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 2015, http://dotic.ir/print/5584
3
The Mandela Rules, Rule 27(2), available at https://cdn.penalreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/MANDELA-RULES.pdf
4
National Report, UPR 2019, Islamic Republic of Iran, https://undocs.org/A/HRC/WG.6/34/IRN/1
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