UN OHCHR calls on Iran to stop using death penalty against peaceful protesters

Volker Turk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, yesterday called on Iran to stop using the death penalty against peaceful protesters.

He also called for stopping the use of “violence and harassment against peaceful protesters, release all those arrested for peacefully protesting and impose a moratorium on the death penalty.”

In a statement, Turk said: “The weaponisation of criminal procedures to punish people for exercising their basic rights — such as those participating in or organising demonstrations — amounts to state sanctioned killing.”

“The Government of Iran would better serve its interests and those of its people by listening to their grievances, and by undertaking the legal and policy reforms necessary to ensure respect for diversity of opinion, the rights to freedom of expression and assembly, and the full respect and protection of the rights of women in all areas of life.”

“I reiterate once more my call to the Government of Iran to respect the lives and voices of its people, to impose an immediate moratorium on the death penalty and to halt all executions,” the High Commissioner for Human Rights said.

In November, the UN estimated that some 300 protesters had been killed, including at least 40 children. Some 14,000 had been arrested, it added, including children.

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