GENEVA– UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on Thursday called on Iran to halt executions for drug offences
Five men were hanged last weekend, three of them on charges of narcotics trafficking. In at least one of the cases, that of Rashid Kouhi, there were serious concerns about the fairness of the trial and the denial of his right to appeal. He was executed on Saturday, 9 April in Gilan province in northern Iran.
Last year, at least 966 people were executed in Iran – the highest rate in more than two decades – the majority for drug offences. At least four of those executed in 2015 were juveniles.
 It is unfortunate that executions for drug-related offences – crimes that clearly do not meet the threshold under international human rights law for application of the death penalty – continue to be carried out in the meantime,” High Commissioner Zeid said.
“I call on Iran to take the important first step of instituting a moratorium on the use of the death penalty.”
High Commissioner Zeid also expressed serious concerns about the large number of juvenile offenders reported to be on death row in Iran. He urged the authorities to ensure that no one is executed for offences committed under the age of 18, stressing that there is a strict prohibition against the execution of juvenile offenders in international human rights law, including in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Iran ratified in 1975 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which it ratified in 1994.

Source: OHCHR, April 14