Impact Iran

Restrictions on the rights of religious minorities in the Islamic Republic of Iran remain deeply concerning. Adherents of recognized and unrecognized religions continue to report arrests and prosecution for worship and participation in religious community affairs, including in private. Measures that exclude religious minorities from legal protections for civil, political, social or economic rights, or that impose special restrictions on the practices or manifestations of religious beliefs continue to violate the obligations of the Islamic Republic of Iran under the Covenant and should be addressed.

He encourages the Government to amend laws that continue to undermine women’s full enjoyment of civil political, social, and economic rights, including rights in family law, the right to equal access to education and the right to work. Draft legislation currently under consideration that appears to infringe on these rights raises serious concern, and should be reconsidered.

Improve transparency on the impact of sanctions and report on measures it has taken to protect its inhabitants from the potential and actual negative impacts of such sanctions.

Consider a moratorium on capital punishment until the efficacy of judicial safeguards can be meaningfully demonstrated, and stay the execution of individuals who have alleged violations of their due process rights.

Ensure that deaths in custody and allegations of violations of due process and of ill-treatment are promptly, independently, impartially and effectively investigated by an independent competent authority with a view to holding perpetrators accountable and in compliance with the right to a fair trial.

Respect and fulfil the duty to conduct prompt, independent, impartial and effective investigations into all reports of torture or other ill-treatment, and hold perpetrators accountable;

Ensure furlough and family visitation rights to all prisoners

Ensure that prisoners are provided with food of appropriate nutritional value, quantity and quality and that drinking water is made readily available to all prisoners;

Make substantial investments in all prisons to reduce overcrowding, provide adequate sleeping facilities to prisoners and ensure that the essential personal hygiene of prisoners is maintained;

Pending its abolishment, ensure that solitary confinement is used only in exceptional cases, as a last resort and for as short a time as possible, following authorization by a competent authority and subject to independent review;

Pass the parliamentary bill introduced in September 2019 aimed at ending the recording and broadcasting of confessions on State-funded media prior to trial and ensure punishments for those involved in recording and broadcasting such confessions

Ensure that medical care for detainees is never made conditional upon their making confessions and that officials who deny medical care to prisoners and detainees or who withhold medication as a form of coercion, as punishment or to elicit confessions are punished;

adopt regulations restricting the use of restraints in accordance with international laws and standards, including by ensuring that restraints are never used in a degrading, humiliating or painful manner or as a form of punishment and that they are used only when strictly necessary;

Ensure that medical decisions that relate to ongoing care and observation of the prisoners outside prison and the necessity of their release on medical grounds are only taken by the relevant, responsible health-care professionals;

End the unlawful practice of requiring prisoners to pay for medical treatment, which violates both international and Iranian law;

Ensure that all prisoners requiring specialist or any other treatment not available within prison are transferred free of cost to specialized institutions or outside hospitals to receive such treatment and that they remain in those institutions or hospitals for as long as the treatment is deemed necessary by specialist doctors;

Ensure that all detained individuals receive adequate health care, without discrimination on grounds of political or legal situation, ethnicity, religion, political opinion, gender, sexual orientation or other status

Ensure that medical care is urgently provided to those individuals in detention who need it, in light of the imminent threat to life or serious deterioration of their health, and that all individuals in custody receive adequate, prompt and regular health care, including specialist care as needed, on the basis of their informed consent

Immediately release all dual and foreign nationals arbitrarily detained

End the policy of prohibiting or severely limiting women's attendance at public sporting events, and bring both laws and policies protecting women's rights into compliance with international standards;

Ensure that lethal force is used only when strictly unavoidable to protect life, in accordance with principle 9 of the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, and that everyone is allowed to participate in lawful and peaceful assemblies, in accordance with article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;

Ensure that human rights defenders, including women human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists, are not threatened with or subjected to intimidation, harassment, arbitrary arrest, deprivation of liberty or other arbitrary sanction, and release all those detained in connection with their work;

Protect the rights of all persons belonging to religious and ethnic minorities, address all forms of discrimination against them and release all those imprisoned for having exercised their right to freedom of religion or belief

Ensure that all persons accused of any crime have access to a lawyer of their choosing during all stages of the judicial process, including during the initial investigation and interrogation stage, and are provided with legal aid as needed;

Amend the Islamic Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure to ensure that confessions alone are not sufficient for establishing guilt;

Ensure that prisoners and detainees are protected from all forms of torture and ill-treatment and that confessions obtained through torture or ill-treatment are never admitted as evidence against the accused

Pending its abolishment, remove the death penalty as punishment for all offences other than the most serious crimes, which involve intentional killing, and ensure that all individuals sentenced to death for offences other than intentional killing have their sentences commuted;

Take all measures necessary to mitigate the effects of economic sanctions, meet the obligations of the Islamic Republic of Iran under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, including on the protection of vulnerable groups, and establish transparent financial mechanisms to ensure that trade in medicines and other essential humanitarian items continues;

Ensure that all those arrested, including those arrested during the November 2019 protests, for the peaceful exercise of their rights to freedom of opinion, expression, assembly and association are released, and ensure also that the detaining authorities promptly report the whereabouts and situation of detainees to their families;

Undertake prompt, independent and impartial investigations into all acts of violence that have taken place in the context of the November 2019 protests, including deaths of protesters and reported deaths in custody, and into reports of ill-treatment, and to hold those responsible accountable