15th session of Human Rights Council commences as calls against rights violations in Iran grow

NCRI, 14 September 2010- The UN Human Rights Council opened its 15th session in Geneva on Monday, planning to meet for the next three weeks until October 1.
In her opening remarks, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, stressed the “pressing need” for human rights protection “both in emergencies and chronic human rights situations,” according to the UN body’s official website.
Ms. Pillay singled out the deteriorating human rights situation in Iran, saying that peaceful demonstrators, human rights advocates, lawyers and journalists are subjected to violent attacks and their lives are in danger for the work that they do.
The UN High Commissioner presented a report to the session on the number of hangings in the world, paying particular attention to the Iranian regime’s executions. She stressed that the regime does not disclose the true number of hangings in Iran considering it a danger to its security.
The UN Secretary General has also said in another report citing statistics by non-government organizations that in 2009, Iran had 388 declared executions out of 714 executions in the world. The numbers indicate that even regardless of population, the regime has had the highest number of hangings in the world in 2009.
The UN Secretary General’s report also states that in 2009 the Iranian regime sentenced a person to death by stoning and issued death sentences to persons who were juveniles at the time of committing their alleged crimes.
The UN Secretary General’s report reiterates that the real figures of hangings in Iran are much higher than the officially disclosed numbers.