On Tuesday, November 8, 2019, 111 countries participated in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the human rights situation in Iran. The UPR is a peer-review mechanism whereby the United Nations member states can make recommendations to governments that are under review.

The Working Group in Geneva on Tuesday had a lot to say about the regime’s treatment of women, the execution of minors, the use of torture, and overall human rights abuses, making a total of 329 recommendations to the Iranian regime.

The recommendations made by the Working Group of the UPR were adopted on November 12th at a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council. The MEK has reported previously that the U.N. has condemned the Iranian regime 65 times over the last four decades for its human rights abuses.

#AmnestyInternational calls on publicly condemn the deterioration in #Iran’s #HumanRights recordhttps://t.co/hkRSDj4NrN#MEK #FreeIran @USAdarFarsi pic.twitter.com/VUlhQ6Unpn

— MEK Iran (Mujahedin-e Khalq) (@MEK_Iran) November 9, 2019

Recommendations Made

A number of countries called on Iran to ratify the

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

Denmark, Estonia, and Moldova recommended that the regime ratify the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Germany called on Iran to “[r]atify core international human rights conventions, in particular, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.”

Germany also called on the regime to “establish a formal moratorium on the death penalty. In particular, cease all planned executions of juvenile offenders and prohibit the imposition of the death penalty for crimes committed by minors.”

Albania called on the Iranian regime to cooperate with all U.N. Special Rapporteurs who wish to visit the country.

Sweden agreed, saying that Iran must “fully cooperate with and grant immediate and unfettered access for the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Belgium recommended that Iran should “abolish the death penalty at least for crimes committed by persons under 18 years of age, in accordance with its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and commute all death sentences for juvenile offenders.”

The United States called on the Iranian regime to immediately end the use of torture and to credibly investigate and prosecute all allegations of torture.

Ukraine called on Iran to “remove all national law provisions that allow for punishments that amount to torture or cruel and degrading treatment.”

Australia said Iran must “[i]mmediately investigate all allegations involving the torture and other ill-treatment of those arrested or detained during the demonstrations in December 2017 and hold those responsible to account.”

Australia also called on the regime to “[g]uarantee the rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly, and release political prisoners, including women’s rights activists, labor rights activists, environmentalists, scholars, lawyers and journalists, detained for exercising these rights.”

The United Kingdom called on Iran to “[i]mmediately demonstrate that all detainees in prison are neither tortured nor subject to cruel or inhumane treatment or punishment.”

Switzerland called on the Iranian regime to “[r]elease all persons detained for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly, and repeal or amend laws and other provisions criminalizing or restricting the exercise of those rights.”

Argentina said Iran must “[g]uarantee freedom of expression, particularly of men and women human rights defenders and journalists, and repeal legal provisions that affect these rights.”

The 10^th of October was the 16^th World Day Against the Death Penalty. To mark the occasion, Friends of a Free Iran issued a press statement expressing their concern over the current use of capital punishment in Iran.

10th October #European & #WorldDayAgainstTheDeathPenalty #Iran holds highest number in global executions
Statement by Friends of a Free Iran in the European Parliament#HumanRights #DeathPenalty @Europarl_EN @FedericaMog @davidmcallister @EP_President @Maryam_Rajavi @eu_eeas pic.twitter.com/wcOLJS7QFo

— Firouz Mahvi (@FirouzMahvi) October 10, 2018

A Violent and Barbaric Regime

The clerical regime carries out more executions per capita than any other regime or government on earth. The mullahs’ regime accounted for more than half of all the executions in the world in 2017.

In 2018 so far, the regime has executed more than 230 Iranian citizens, among them, were political prisoners, women, and juvenile offenders.

In just a month of September alone, Friends of a Free Iran report, 33 Iranians were hanged, including nine political prisoners, whose only crime was disagreeing with the hard-line, dogmatic ideology of the clerical regime.

Remembering 1988 Massacre of MEK Activists

2018’s World Day Against the Death Penalty holds a special significance. It marks the 30^th anniversary of one of the darkest chapters of Iran’s history.

In the summer of 1988, the regime rounded up more than 30,000 members of the Iranian opposition, the majority of which came from the People’s Mujahedin Organisation of Iran (MEK). The men and women were detained, then executed on the orders of the regime’s leadership.

The most difficult part for the families of the victims, as well as MEK members today, is that those responsible for the crimes have escaped punishment. Many hold senior positions in Rouhani’s cabinet today.

The Friends of a Free Iran press release mentions Rouhani’s Justice Minister, Alireza Avaei. Avaei played a central role in the 1988 massacre. He was a member of the “death squad” that ordered and carried out many of the arrests and executions that summer.

State-Sponsored Terrorism

Friends of a Free Iran also took the opportunity to denounce the Iranian regime’s engagement in state-sponsored terrorism. 2018 has seen the clerical regime plot two plots on European soil against the MEK, both of which were foiled in the late stages.

In June, an Iranian diplomat working at the Iranian embassy in Vienna provided a Belgian-Iranian couple with explosive material. The pair were going to attack the MEK’s Grand Gathering event in Paris with an explosive-laden vehicle.

The terrorist plots, according to Friends of a Free Iran, represent the violent nature of the clerical regime. Its statement condemned the regime for “attacking its own people inside Iran and… planning terrorism on the [sic] European soil”.

Friends of a Free Iran lamented the silence from the European community. It urged the European heads of state to take a harder approach towards Iran.

The statement read, “we must tell Iran that any acts of terror in Europe is absolutely unacceptable and will have serious consequences”, adding, “we are disappointed that our European governments and the EU [are] still trying to be nice with this brutal regime”.

Finally, the statement implored the international community to “be on the side of the people of Iran and not with the mullahs”. Only then can Iran make progress on human rights.

Staff Writer