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| Public execution in Iran |
The United Nations agency charged with combating illicit drug trafficking should withdraw its support for counter-narcotics police operations in Iran until the death penalty for drug offenses is abolished, 6 rights groups said in a letter published today. The groups made the plea after Iran's judiciary hanged 18 alleged drug traffickers within 24 hours on December 3, 2014, bringing the number of drug offenders executed in the country during 2014 to at least 318.
Reprieve, Human Rights Watch, Iran Human Rights, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Harm Reduction International and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation said the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) should follow its own human rights guidance and impose "a temporary freeze or withdrawal of support" if "following requests for guarantees and high-level political intervention, executions for drug related offenses continue." The 6 organizations warned the UNODC of "the widening gulf between Iran's rhetoric and the realities of its justice system," and described the agency's decision to continue funding supply-side counter-narcotics efforts in the country as "ineffective if not counterproductive."
"As Iran executes alleged drug offenders in ever-greater numbers, it beggars belief that the UN sees fit to continue funding Iranian anti-drug operations," said Reprieve director Maya Foa. "How many more hangings will it take for the UN to open its eyes to the lethal consequences of its current approach, and make its counter-narcotics support conditional on an end to the death penalty for drug offenses?"
The UN agency's records show it has given more than $15 million to "supply control" operations by Iran's Anti-Narcotics Police, funding specialist training, intelligence, trucks, body scanners, night vision goggles, drug detection dogs, bases, and border patrol offices, the groups said. UNODC projects in Iran have come with performance indicators including "an increase in drug seizures and an improved capability of intercepting smugglers," and an "increase of drug-related sentences."
The United Kingdom, Ireland, and Denmark have all chosen to withdraw their support from Iranian counter-narcotics operations administered by the UNODC because of concerns that this funding was enabling the execution of alleged drug traffickers. When announcing its decision to do so, Denmark publically acknowledged that the donations are leading to executions.
The groups had previously written a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in May 2014 on the issue of UNODC counter-narcotics funding in Iran and Vietnam. In their letter, the groups expressed concern that UNODC continuing support of Iran's counter-narcotics operations was "lending legitimacy" to executions of drug offenders. In an August 2014 response, UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov responded that his agency sought progress through "engagement and dialogue," and that he was "gratified" by "potentially favourable developments regarding the application of the death penalty in relation to drug offenders in Iran."
Iran's anti-narcotics law imposes a mandatory death sentence for manufacturing, trafficking, possession, or trade of five or more kilograms of opium and other specified drugs, and 30 or more grams of heroin, morphine, or specified synthetic and non-medical psychotropic drugs, such as methamphetamines. International law requires countries like Iran that retain the death penalty to impose it for only the "most serious crimes," which does not include drug crimes.
Although international law says that all death sentences should be subject to appeal, Iran has apparently limited appeals in drug-related cases. Figures suggest Iran is executing those charged with drug offenses in increasing numbers, despite recent calls for reform by the chair of the country's Human Rights Council, Mohammad Javad Larijani, who said there were legislative efforts under way to end the death penalty for drug-related offenses.
The rights groups are not aware of any pending legislation in parliament that would end, or even reduce, the number of executions related to drug offenses. On December 16, the Iranian Students' News Agency reported that a high ranking official with the country's counter-narcotics agency opposed the elimination of the death penalty for drug traffickers, noting that any changes in the law would have to be made by the Expediency Council, an advisory body to the supreme leader, and not Iran's parliament.
Harm Reduction International and Human Rights Watch previously urged UNODC to freeze funding of drug enforcement programs to Iran, and said Iranian authorities should move quickly to end the death penalty for drug-related offenses. The 2 groups first met UNODC officials in Vienna in 2007 to discuss concerns regarding the execution of drug offenders in Iran.
Source: Human Rights Watch, December 17, 2014
Iran Criticized for Executing Drug Offenders
6 international human rights groups have petitioned the United Nations to freeze its counternarcotics aid to Iran until that country abolishes the death penalty for drug offenses.
In a jointly signed Dec. 12 letter released Wednesday by the groups, they argue that the freeze is justified because of "the widening gulf between Iran's rhetoric and the realities of the justice system."
Iran executes more prisoners than any other country except China, with 500 to 625 executed last year, according to United Nations estimates. At least 1/2 of the condemned were convicted of drug trafficking.
Yury Fedotov, chief executive of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, a Vienna-based agency that has provided millions of dollars to Iran's counternarcotics efforts, has been in discussions with Iranian officials about the executions, which are at odds with the agency's human rights guidelines.
Under international law, Iran and other countries with the death penalty are required to impose it only for the "most serious crimes," which do not include drug offenses.
Even though some senior Iranian officials have spoken out against capital punishment for drug crimes, there have been signs that the pace of executions has accelerated this year.
Iran, a conduit for opium trafficking from neighboring Afghanistan, has one of the world's harshest drug laws. It imposes mandatory death sentences for making, trafficking and possessing specified quantities of opium, opiates and other drugs, like methamphetamines.
On Dec. 4, Mohammad Javad Larijani, the secretary of Iran's Human Rights Council, said in an interview with the France 24 news channel that "nobody is happy" about the number of executions and that he would like to see Iran's drug punishment softened. "We are crusading to change this law," he said.
Rights groups say in their letter, which is addressed to Mr. Fedotov, that a few days before Mr. Larijani's interview, 18 convicted offenders had been hanged in Iran, and that this year at least 318 had been put to death, a pace that would surpass the 331 drug convicts executed in 2013.
"This increase in the execution rate belies Mr. Larijani's reassuring rhetoric and U.N.O.D.C.'s lauding of 'potentially favorable developments' on this issue," reads the letter by the groups.
The letter was signed by Human Rights Watch, Reprieve, Iran Human Rights, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Harm Reduction International and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation, named after an Iranian lawyer who was assassinated in Paris in 1991.
There was no immediate comment from Mr. Fedotov's office about the letter. Phone and email messages left with the agency's spokeswoman, Preeta Bannerjee, were not immediately returned.
Iran has given mixed messages on capital punishment. When the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, criticized Iran in March for what he called its failure to improve human rights - including the use of capital punishment - Mr. Larijani's brother, Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, the chief of the Iranian judiciary, chastised him for the remarks.
Source: New York Times, December 17, 2014
