{"id":2070,"date":"2016-04-17T09:15:58","date_gmt":"2016-04-17T14:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/?p=2070"},"modified":"2016-04-17T09:16:26","modified_gmt":"2016-04-17T14:16:26","slug":"un-rights-chief-calls-for-an-end-to-executions-for-drug-offences-in-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/2016\/04\/17\/un-rights-chief-calls-for-an-end-to-executions-for-drug-offences-in-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"UN rights chief calls for an end to executions for drug offences in Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"UNHCR\"<\/a>
UNHCR<\/strong><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Iran Human Rights, April 14, 2016: According to a press release by the UNHCR the United Nations human rights chief today appealed to Iran to halt executions for drug offences until the new Parliament debates a proposed law that would remove the mandatory death penalty for drug crimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the broadening recognition in Iran that death penalty does not deter drug crime and that anti-narcotics laws need to be reformed, I call on Iran to take the important first step of instituting a moratorium on the use of death penalty,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra\u2019ad Al Hussein.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

According to Iran Human Rights’\u00a0annual report on the death penalty in 2015<\/a>\u00a0at least 969\u00a0people were executed in Iran \u2013 the highest rate in more than two decades. More than 638\u00a0of those executed (66%) were charged\u00a0for drug offences.<\/p>\n

In December last year, 70 parliamentarians presented a bill to amend the existing mandatory death penalty for drug offences. The bill provides for life imprisonment in such cases. It remains to be seen whether it will be taken forward in the new Parliament.<\/p>\n

Pointing at the on going debate inside Iran Mr. Zeid said:\u00a0\u201cThere have been encouraging signs from within Iran towards reform of the law, from the judiciary, the executive and the legislature and I hope the new Parliament will adopt these changes.\u00a0But it is unfortunate that executions for drug-related offences \u2013 crimes that clearly do not meet the threshold under international human rights law for application of the death penalty \u2013 continue to be carried out in the meantime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last weekend IHR reported about the execution of five people in the prison of Rasht<\/a>– three of them for drug charges. One of those executed,\u00a0Rashid Kouhi,\u00a0was sentenced to death in 2012 after he was found in possession of 800 grams of crystal meth. He was executed last Saturday in Gilan province in northern Iran.<\/p>\n

Earlier today OHR reported about the execution of one woman<\/a> charged with drug trafficking in eastern Iran.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iran Human Rights, April 14, 2016: According to a press release by the UNHCR the United Nations human rights chief today appealed to Iran to […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2071,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[44,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2070"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2070"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2074,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2070\/revisions\/2074"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}