under the Islamic Penal Code (2013).8 The practice reportedly continued despite the issuance of
the ban.9
Iranian authorities do not systematically or thoroughly release information on corporal
punishment sentences or their implementation. Reports of flogging cases rarely appear in the
Iranian media, usually occurring in small towns and villages.10 However, reports indicate that
Iranian authorities have regularly resorted to corporal punishments, in particular flogging. Over
100 flogging sentences and 19 sentences of amputation were issued over the course of 2017.11 12
13 14
In 2020 the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center documented 160 flogging sentences. 15
The Human Rights Committee has explicitly stated that flogging, amputation and stoning are not
compatible with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).16 The text of
Article 7 of the ICCPR allows for no limitation. Violation of jus cogens norms, such as the
prohibition of torture or other ill-treatment, cannot be justified on the basis of inconsistent
domestic laws.17
B. The Special Rapporteur urges the Government to address as a matter of priority the
state of despair of its prisons
Article 39 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran stipulates that “All affronts to the
dignity and repute of persons arrested, detained, imprisoned, or banished in accordance with the
law, whatever form they may take, are forbidden and liable to punishment.”18
Iran’s Prison Regulations provide for the management and supervision of all prisons and
detention centers in the country including supervision of the conditions of detentions such as
access to adequate food, water and medical care for detainees, as well as visits and
8
Article 225, Islamic Penal Code (2013), English translation, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center,
https://iranhrdc.org/english-translation-of-books-i-ii-of-the-new-islamic-penal-code/
9
Iran Human Rights, https://iranhr.net/en/articles/603/
10
Joint submission to the Human Rights Committee, Abdorrahman Center, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC),
Impact Iran and Human Rights Activists in Iran, 2020,
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=INT%2fCCPR%2fICS%2fIRN%2f42313
&Lang=en
11
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran, 12 March 2018,
https://undocs.org/A/HRC/37/68
12
Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, https://www.iranrights.org/library/document/3126 ; See also Abdorrahman Boroumand
Center, https://www.iranrights.org/library/document/3270
13
See Amnesty International urgent action: https://www.iranrights.org/library/document/3587
14
See Arya News Service, translated by the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, https://www.iranrights.org/library/document/3190
15
Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, https://www.iranrights.org/projects/flogging
16
UN Human Rights Committee (HRC), CCPR/C/79/Add.85,
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CCPR/C/79/Add.85&Lang=en
17
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, 27 September 2018,
https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N18/300/93/PDF/N1830093.pdf?OpenElement
18
Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, English Translation, Iran Data Portal, https://irandataportal.syr.edu/wpcontent/uploads/constitution-english-1368.pdf
2