A/RES/64/176
(d) Arrests, violent repression and sentencing of women exercising their
right to peaceful assembly, a campaign of intimidation against women’s human
rights defenders, and continuing discrimination against women and girls in law and
in practice;
(e) Increasing discrimination and other human rights violations against
persons belonging to religious, ethnic, linguistic or other minorities, recognized or
otherwise, including, inter alia, Arabs, Azeris, Baluchis, Kurds, Christians, Jews,
Sufis and Sunni Muslims and their defenders, and, in particular, attacks on Baha’is
and their faith in State-sponsored media, increasing evidence of efforts by the State
to identify, monitor and arbitrarily detain Baha’is, preventing members of the Baha’i
faith from attending university and from sustaining themselves economically, and
the continuing detention of seven Baha’i leaders who were arrested in March and
May 2008 and faced with serious charges without adequate or timely access to legal
representation;
(f) Ongoing, systemic and serious restrictions of freedom of peaceful
assembly and association and freedom of opinion and expression, including those
imposed on the media, Internet users and trade unions, and increasing harassment,
intimidation and persecution of political opponents and human rights defenders
from all sectors of Iranian society, including arrests and violent repression of labour
leaders, labour members peacefully assembling and students, noting in particular the
forced closure of the Defenders of Human Rights Centre and the subsequent arrest
and harassment of a number of its staff;
(g) Severe limitations and restrictions on freedom of religion and belief,
including arbitrary arrest, indefinite detention and lengthy jail sentences for those
exercising their right to freedom of religion or belief;
(h) Persistent failure to uphold due process of law rights, and violation of the
rights of detainees, including defendants held without charge or held
incommunicado, the systematic and arbitrary use of prolonged solitary confinement,
and lack of timely access to legal representation;
Also expresses particular concern at the response of the Government of
3.
the Islamic Republic of Iran following the presidential election of 12 June 2009 and
the concurrent rise in human rights violations including, inter alia:
(a) Harassment, intimidation and persecution, including by arbitrary arrest,
detention or disappearance, of opposition members, journalists and other media
representatives, bloggers, lawyers, clerics, human rights defenders, academics,
students and others exercising their rights to peaceful assembly and association and
freedom of opinion and expression, resulting in numerous deaths and injuries;
(b) Use of violence and intimidation by Government-directed militias to
forcibly disperse Iranian citizens engaged in the peaceful exercise of freedom of
association, also resulting in numerous deaths and injuries;
(c) Interfering in the right to a fair trial by, inter alia, holding mass trials and
denying defendants access to adequate legal representation, resulting in death
sentences and lengthy jail sentences for some individuals;
(d) Reported use of forced confessions and abuse of prisoners including,
inter alia, rape and torture;
(e)
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Escalation in the rate of executions in the months following the election;