Progress on human rights in Iran this year has been overshadowed, notably by attacks on press freedom and a high number of executions, according to a UN report released on Tuesday.
"The most dramatic and far-reaching event" of the period January 1 to August 15 was "the accelerating attack on the freedom of the press, which led to the virtual closing down of the entire reformist press," it said.
"The promised reform of the judiciary has not got off the ground," special rapporteur Maurice Copithorne said, adding that "prisons are vastly overcrowded and executions remain suspiciously high."
But, he said, "electoral democracy continues to grow" and, although the status of women was unchanged, there were signs that the new parliament would tackle questions such as divorce and the minimum age for marriage.
Copithorne noted that he was still unable to visit Iran, but said he had corresponded with the government, notably over the fate of two members of the Baha'i faith who were sentenced to death, and 13 Jews who were tried on charges of spying for Israel.
It remained unclear whether the death sentences against Hidayat Kashifi Najafabadi and Sirus Dhabihi-Muqaddam had been upheld, Copithorne said.
An annex to his report quoted the government as saying that the Supreme Court had sent the cases back to lower courts for "rectification".
On the positive side, the report noted that questions about a spouse's religion were no longer asked when a marriage was registered.
"This opens the possibility of registering Baha'i marriages, a development which will have positive implications for the rights of Baha'i women and children, who have until now been exposed to charges of prostitution and denied the right to inherit," it said.
Another annex to the report challenged the legality of several aspects of the trial of 13 Jews, 10 of whom were given sentences ranging from four to 13 years by a revolutionary court in July. The sentences were reduced on appeal last month.
The report quoted press reports saying that 185,000 people were in jail in Iran, "perhaps two-thirds of them for drug-related offences."
It also said there were about 130 executions between January 1 and the end of July, eleven of which were carried out in public. One woman was executed in front of her two children, it said.
The report said there had been a public debate in Iran about the death penalty in 1999 "before strong official opposition extinguished it" and the newspaper editor who started it was jailed for three and a half years.
Stoning appeared to be declining as a punishment in Iran, the report said. Only one sentence was reported this year, and it was overturned on review.
The report said the Iranian press had quoted a justice ministry spokesman as saying "stoning may not be in the country's interests" and could taint its image.
"Amputations continue unabated," the report said -- UNITED NATIONS (AFP)
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