Situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran A/RES/80/222 executions, of all individuals, including but not limited to political opponents, human rights defenders and their families, whether they be Iranians, dual nationals or foreign nationals, and wherever it may occur, expresses concern at instances of repress ion of journalists, media workers and their families in the Islamic Republic of Iran who face harassment, arbitrary detention and lengthy prison sentences, and urges the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to halt threats and intimidation against journalists and media workers who are critical of the Government, either inside or outside of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and to investigate and prosecute those responsible for reprisals; 24. Calls upon the Islamic Republic of Iran to release women human rights defenders imprisoned for exercising their rights, including the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of association and freedom of opinion and expression, and to recognize the risks, violence and persecution experienced by women human rights defenders and take appropriate, robust and practical steps to protect women human rights defenders and guarantee their full enjoyment of all their human rights; 25. Recalls the positive, important and legitimate role of human rights defenders in all sectors, including women human rights defenders, in addition to lawyers, journalists, media workers, writers, artists and cultural practitioners in promoting and protecting human rights and strengthening understanding, tolerance and peace, and strongly urges the Islamic Republic of Iran to create and support a safe, enabling, accessible and inclusive environment online and offline for their participation in all relevant activities; 26. Calls upon the Islamic Republic of Iran to eliminate, in law and in practice, all forms of discrimination and other human rights violations against persons belonging to ethnic, linguistic or other minorities, including but not limited to Ahwazi Arabs, Azerbaijani Turks, Baluchis and Kurds, and their defenders, and expresses particular concern at the higher proportion of casualties among protesters in minority populated cities and provinces, and at the disproportionate imposition of the death penalty on persons belonging to minorities, in particular the Baluchi, Kurdish and Arab minorities, as well as a concerning rise in the number of Afghans executed; 27. Expresses serious concern about ongoing severe limitations and increasing restrictions on the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief, restrictions on the establishment of places of worship, undue restrictions on burials carried out in accordance with religious tenets, attacks against places of worship and burial, as well as any other restrictions or attacks involving human rights violations or abuses, including but not limited to those involving the increased harassment, intimidation, persecution, arbitrary arrest and detention of, and incitement to hatred that can lead to violence against, persons belonging to recognized and unrecognized religious minorities, including Christians (particularly converts from Islam), Gonabadi Dervishes, Jews, Sufi Muslims, Sunni Muslims, Yarsanis, Zoroastrians and, in particular, Baha’is, who have been subjected to a continued increase in and the cumulative impacts of long-standing persecution, including attacks, harassment and targeting, with women and girls in these communities facing particular risk, and who face increasing restrictions and systemic persecution by the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran on account of their faith and have been reportedly subjected to enforced disappearances, mass and arbitrary arrests without due process and fair trial guarantees, as well as the disproportionate or discriminatory imposition of the death penalty and lengthy prison sentences, as well as the arrest of prominent and elderly members and the increased confiscation and destruction of property, and calls upon the Government to cease monitoring individuals on account of their religious identity, to release all religious practitioners imprisoned for their membership in or activities on behalf of a minority religious group, to cease the desecration of 25-20984 7/10