that ensure the prohibition of capital punishment. Officials tasked with carrying out inspections of detention centres, such as prison wardens and prosecutors, are all considered part of the same judicial structure. This could result in biased investigations into cases of mistreatment and arbitrary deprivation of life in detention facilities. Regarding Iran’s drug law, a reform restricting the use of capital punishment was made in 2017. The bill amends article 45 of the law of October 1988 on Combating drugs. This represents an improvement since it has reduced the number of executions for infractions not amounting to most serious crimes. The amendment, however, only reduces and does not entirely eliminate the number of drug convictions one can be sentenced to death for. On May 3, Iran Human Rights reported that during the first four months of 2021, 22 out of 82 executions were carried out as a result of drug-related charges - a 300% increase compared to the first trimesters of the two previous years. 15 Between 2000 and mid-2017, the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran has documented around 8,200 executions carried out by Iran’s judiciary.16 Between January 1, 2018 and December 20, 2018, 256 reports have been registered by the Department of Statistics and Publication of Human Rights Activists Association in Iran. This included 195 death sentences, and 236 people with death sentences were executed (including 13 public executions). Based on the announced identifications of some of the individuals executed, 232 were male and 4 were female. 6 of those executed were juvenile offenders who were under the age of 18 at the time of committing the crime. According to Iran Human Rights, at least 267 people were executed in 2020, including 4 juvenile offenders.17 The same year, a political prisoner named Hedayat Abdullahpour was secretly executed by firing squad, a method not used since the 1980s. 18 And while no stoning punishments have been reported since 2009, a recent directive issued by the Head of the Judiciary in June 2019 described in detail how death sentences by hanging, stoning and crucifixion should be implemented.19 No issuance of stoning sentences has been reported in the last few years.20 Photos show that children are frequently present at public executions.21 Recommendation Status: This recommendation has been PARTIALLY implemented.22 15 https://iranhr.net/en/articles/4721/ Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran 17 https://iranhr.net/en/articles/4727 18 https://iranhr.net/en/articles/4294 19 https://rc.majlis.ir/fa/law/show/1152670 20 Numbers based on articles submitted to HRANA statistics center. 21 Iran Human Rights and ECPM, Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran 2019 (2020), 38. 22 For more, please see: Iran Human Rights and ECPM, Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran 2019 (2020) 16 4