Concluding observations Human Rights Committee CCPR/C/79/Add.25 para 19
Full recommendation:
Effective measures should be adopted to ensure the strictest observance of articles 7 and 10 of
the Covenant. All complaints of extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture and illtreatment should be duly investigated, the culprits should be punished and measures should be
taken to prevent any recurrence of such acts. Severe forms of punishment incompatible with the
Covenant should be removed from law and practice and the conditions of detention of persons
deprived of their liberty should be improved. The Committee also recommends that training
courses should be organized for members of the police, the armed forces and the security forces
as well as for other law enforcement officials, so as to better acquaint them with basic human
rights principles and norms.
Assessment using Impact Iran human rights indicators1
A. All complaints of extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture and ill-treatment
should be duly investigated, the culprits should be punished and measures should be
taken to prevent any recurrence of such acts.
Extrajudicial executions
Article 22 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran stipulates that “The dignity, life,
property, rights, residence, and occupation of the individual are inviolate, except in cases
sanctioned by law.”2
Article 578 of the Islamic Penal Code asserts “any civil servant or judicial or non-judicial agent
who corporally mistreats and abuses an accused person in order to force him to confess shall be
sentenced, in addition to qisas and [diyeh], to six months’ to three years’ imprisonment; […] if
the accused person dies as a result of the abuses, the principal to the murder shall be sentenced to
the punishment provided for a murderer, and the person who has issued the order shall be
sentenced to the punishment provided for a person who has ordered a murder.”3
The 1995 Law on the Use of Firearms by Armed Forces in Necessary Incidents regulates the use
of fire weapons in the context of “illegal” assemblies.4 Under the law, firearms can be used to
1
CCPR.6.1.S.2; CCPR.7.1.S.1; CCPR.10.1.S.1
CCPR.6.1.P.1; CCPR.7.1.P.1;
CCPR.6.1.O.2; CCPR.6.1.O.3; CCPR.7.O.1; CCPR.7.1.O.2; CCPR.10.1.O.2; CCPR.10.1.O.3
2
Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, English translation, https://irandataportal.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/constitutionenglish-1368.pdf
3
Islamic Penal Code, 2013, English translation, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, https://iranhrdc.org/islamic-penalcode-of-the-islamic-republic-of-iran-book-five/
4
Official Website of the Parliament of the Islamic Republic of Iran, https://rc.majlis.ir/fa/law/show/92500
1