Iranian media, usually in small towns and villages.10 However, information collected by human
rights organizations indicates 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
Despite the existence of several mechanisms that ostensibly accept complaints regarding
violations of citizens' rights, such as the Article 90 Commission of the parliament (established
based on Article 90 of the Constitution, offering a mechanism to citizens to file complaint
against any of the three branches of power) and the Oversight Bodies for the exercise of
Citizenship Rights in the country's provincial courts, there is no evidence to suggest that
complaints to these bodies are independently reviewed and investigated.16 Additionally, as
corporal punishments are enshrined into Iranian law, avenues for redress and rehabilitation are
severely limited.
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).17 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.18
Recommendation Status:
This recommendation has NOT been implemented
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
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
17
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
18
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
2