Friday, March 20, 2015

Blog #5: U.N. Monitor Says Iran Is Worsening on Rights


A human rights monitor for the United Nations stated Monday that Iran’s use of the death penalty is rising and its repression of political critics is worsening. The United Nations monitor raised the possibility that the human rights situation could improve if progress is achieved in overall relations between Iran and Western governments. Since President Hassan Rouhani took office in 2013, human rights have deteriorated. Iran has one of the highest execution rates in the world. Last year Iran executed 753 people, at least 13 were juveniles. And in the first 10 weeks of this year, Iran has already executed 252 people. Of those executed, most were for drug-related offenses. Under the International Law, drug-related offenses are not considered sufficiently grave to warrant capital punishment. There are also several draft laws being considered in Iran that would only worsen the current rights problem.
            Capital punishment is a problem in many countries and it needs to be addressed. Iran is executing a high number of people, many of which were in violation of the international law. This has been a problem in Iran since 2009 and has continued to get worse. When lawyers try to go help prisoners, the Iranians prosecuted them for representing the prisoners. There have been at least 50 lawyers have been prosecuted since 2009. The Iranian government will also not allow journalists to come into the country to report on what is happening. They are also being prosecuted and sent to prison. More people need to be aware of what is happening in this country and try to prevent even more lives from being wrongly executed. 

Emily Burris 

1:41 PM

03/20/2015

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