European Parliament censures Iran rights abuses

Iran Focus:

The European Parliament adopted a resolution yesterday, calling on Iran to end its increasing human rights violations.

The EP resolution said that it was “very concerned that the human rights situation has deteriorated in the last two years and calls on the Iranian authorities to make a serious commitment to reversing this trend”.

It condemned “the serious increase in human rights violations, particularly the increasing number of reports of public executions, and floggings.” READ MORE

The EP called “on the Council (of Europe) and the Commission to closely monitor the implementation of commitments made by Iran to moratoriums in the three key areas of stoning, execution of minors and amputations”.

It added that is was “concerned at the large number of arrests, particularly of women and young people, on the basis of unclear or minor charges” and expressed “its deepest concern, that a minor was recently executed for sexual misconduct”.

The European Parliament condemned “Iran’s abject policy of arrests and imprisonment of journalists and cyber-dissidents and the stifling of press and media freedom”, and called on the Iranian regime “to cease support for terrorist organisations”.

The EP also expressed alarm at “the high number of executions in Iran, in particular of minors, and Iran's refusal to release official statistics on the death penalty”.

In February the EP passed a similar resolution condemning Iran's human rights violations, calling on the European Union to sponsor a separate resolution, censuring Iran in the United Nations and demanding that a special representative be re-appointed to monitor the human rights situation in Iran.

The EP condemned "the serious increase in human rights violations, notably the growing number of reports about executions, including executions of juvenile offenders, amputations, flogging in public, a generalised crackdown on the press and media, widespread arrests – especially of women and young people – on unclear or minor charges".