Impact Iran

He also encourages the Government to consider committing to a voluntary midterm review that may contribute to its ability to advance the pledges that it may undertake at the outcome of its second UPR in March 2015.

The Committee requests the State party to submit in a timely manner its third periodic report, prepared in accordance with the revised reporting guidelines of the Committee, adopted in 2008 (E/C.12/2008/2), by 31 May 2018.

The State party should adopt legislation criminalizing domestic violence and take steps to effectively combat domestic violence. It should ensure that victims have immediate access to means of redress and protection, including through the establishment of a sufficient number of safe houses for victims. The State party should ensure that acts of domestic violence are effectively investigated and that perpetrators are prosecuted and sanctioned. The State party should also ensure that a husband is not exempted from punishment for voluntary manslaughter, in the event that he murders his wife on suspicion of adultery.

The State party should widely disseminate the Covenant, the text of the third periodic report, the written responses it has provided in response to the list of issues drawn up by the Committee, and the present concluding observations so as to increase awareness among the judicial, legislative and administrative authorities, civil society and non-governmental organizations operating in the country, as well as the general public. The Committee also suggests that the report and the concluding observations be translated into the official language of the State party. The Committee further requests the State party, when preparing its fourth periodic report, to broadly consult with civil society and non- governmental organizations.

Ratify the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and protect women victims of trafficking, ensure accountability of the traffickers and provide compensation to the victims;

Institute proper investigation procedures for rape cases and ensure that rape victims are not subject to prosecution under adultery provisions where they are unable to prove rape;

Provide special programmes for women from minority groups who suffer multiple forms of discrimination;

Review all cases of women currently being detained for crimes related to sexual and moral conduct who did not have a fair trial or enjoy guarantees of due process with a view to retrying the case or releasing the accused woman.

The Committee calls on the State party to raise the minimum age of marriage to 18 years for both boys and girls, and to ensure that marriage can be entered into only with the free consent of the intending spouses.

On imprisonment for debt, the Working Group has noted that destitute individuals, in particular women without resources, are kept in prison for a period which can extend, according to information gathered in situ, for up to five years for non-payment of a fine or diyah. The Working Group recommends that the Government should accelerate the ongoing reform of alternatives to imprisonment to avoid destitute individuals being subjected to lengthy imprisonment in connection with their insolvency.

On the right to due proccess: The immunity of counsel in pleading cases must be reaffirmed and expressly guaranteed in a legislative instrument formulated in cooperation with representatives of the Bar;

Ensure that the right to a fair trial is fully respected and that all women detainees are brought to trial, with access to a lawyer and legal aid where necessary, without undue delay;

The Committee recommends that the State party should spell out a clear legislative, judicial and administrative basis for giving fullest possible effect to the provisions of the Covenant "with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of the rights recognized in the present Covenant by all appropriate means, including particularly the adoption of legislative measures." (art. 2 (1) of the Covenant).The Committee invites the Government of Iran to undertake necessary steps, both legislative and practical, in order to ensure that the rights enunciated in the Covenant are able to be exercised without discrimination of any kind as to race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, especially in the case of ethnic or religious minorities. The Committee notes that the obligation to ensure equal opportunity for women warrants particular attention, especially in relation to the right to work, family related rights and the right to education.

The State party should amend the Penal Code to abolish the imposition of corporal punishment by judicial and administrative authorities. The State party should also explicitly prohibit all forms of corporal punishment in child-rearing and education, including by repealing the legal defences for its use in article 1179 of the Civil Code, articles 49 and 59 of the Penal Code and article 7 of the Law on the Protection of Children.

The Committee encourages the State party to consider signing and ratifying the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

The Committee encourages the State party to sign and ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Conventionagainst Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, and withdraw its reservation to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Ensure adequate human, technical and financial resources to schools in rural areas.

She urges the Government to reform the judicial system with a view to ensuring its independence. Appropriate training for the members of the judiciary is also necessary to ensure that guarantees of a fair trial and due process are effectively respected.

The Government should take immediate steps to address the increasing incidence of early and forced child marriage, in particular by banning child marriage and raising the minimum age for marriage to 18 years, as specified in a number of laws identified in the country's submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child. He further appeals for efforts to define and criminalize domestic violence and to expand the definition of rape to encompass marital rape to be expedited. He asserts, however, that, while domestic violence is an egregious act, it does not constitute a lethal action required for the application of capital punishment under international law.

Appeals to the authorities to place a moratorium on the use of executions for all crimes not considered "most serious" under international law, and to consider working with international and national stakeholders to amend its laws in line with the international human rights conventions to which the Islamic Republic of Iran is a party.

Urges the authorities to strengthen aspects of the 1985 Press Law to ensure that persons are protected from acts that impair the free communication of information and ideas about public and political issues between citizens, which is essential to the protection of other rights. He also urges the Government to reconsider aspects of policies that undermine the rights of individuals to associate and assemble with like-minded persons for the purposes of promoting peaceful activities.

Consider the immediate and unconditional release of civil society actors and human rights defenders prosecuted for protected activities; including journalists, netizens, lawyers and student, cultural, environmental, and political activists that work to promote civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights currently detained for activities protected by national and international law.

Expedite its voluntary commitment to establish a National Human Rights Commission, in accordance with Paris Principles.

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 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;

Ensure furlough and family visitation rights to all prisoners

Immediately release all dual and foreign nationals arbitrarily detained

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

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.

Pending implementation of the aforementioned recommendations, and without prejudice to the binding obligation enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to not sentence children to death and to not execute child offenders, the Special Rapporteur recommends that the judiciary: (a) Require courts to comprehensively assess mental development in all cases in line with article 91 of the Penal Code, and to always seek expert advice from the relevant child development, psychology, psychiatry, and social service fields as well as from the Iranian Legal Medicine Organization, with a view to ensuring that the child is exempted from the death penalty;