In his official report on the human rights situation in Iran, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres presented an extensive list of concerns, urging the Islamic Republic, among other things, to join the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
The 21-page annual report was submitted September 24, pursuant to General Assembly resolution 73/181, by which the Assembly requested the Secretary-General to report to it at its seventy-fourth session.
The report reflects information compiled from the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, state media, non-governmental organizations, open sources, and individual interviews with known and alleged victims and their families and lawyers.
The report also voices concern about the high level of executions in Iran. Based on the latest report filed by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Islamic Republic hanged at least 253 people in 2018. The UN is also concerned about executions of child offenders. Although the number decreased substantially from the previous year, the decline was due to fewer executions of drug smugglers.
"The Secretary-General continues to be deeply concerned by the continued sentencing to death of children and alleged child offenders in Iran. OHCHR received information that at least 85 child offenders were on death row as of May 2019, with some at risk of imminent execution", the report says.
Serious problems with holding fair trials and offering detainees adequate access to a lawyer, especially for those charges with political offenses are another area of deep concern.
The Secretary General called upon Iran to join the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women is presented at a time that many experts believe the Islamic Republic's laws are the main sources of a myriad of discriminations against women in the country.
Based on the so-called Islamic Codes, Iranian women's rights are violated in at least twelve areas, including their shares in inheritance, blood money, and the rights to divorce, travel, and dress.
In a recent case, 29-year-old Shahar Khodayari killed herself by self-immolation after finding out a six-month jail was waiting for her for attempting to enter a stadium and watch her favorite team match play soccer.
Article one of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women stipulates, "Any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field."
Only four countries in the world, including the Islamic Republic of Iran, have decided to not join the Convention.
The religious jurists of the Islamic Republic Guardian Council (G.C.) have repeatedly rejected the Convention's Articles as anti-Islamic.
The Islamic Republic's high number of executions, as well as its mistreatment of religious and ethnic minorities, have also been criticized by the U.N. Secretary-General.
