Statement by: Ms Yunei Kim, First Secretary, Australian Mission to the UN

As delivered

Thank you Special Rapporteur for your report.

We remain deeply concerned by Iran’s ongoing oppression of women and girls and persecution of women’s human rights advocates. We call on Iranian authorities to cease their mandatory hijab campaign and its violent enforcement.

Arbitrary arrests and detention continue to be employed by Iranian authorities to silence dissent. We are alarmed by reports that protestors, human rights defenders, lawyers, and journalists have been subjected to cruel and inhuman conditions in Iran’s prisons. We are concerned by reported violations of internationally acceptable standards of fair trial or due process in Iranian courts.

Iran’s extensive use of the death penalty, including against women and girls, juvenile offenders, political opponents, protestors and ethnic and religious minorities, is deeply concerning. We are alarmed that Iran continues to impose the death penalty for offences such as apostasy and for alleged corruption charges, in violation of the ICCPR. We condemn in the strongest terms the recent execution of Iranian-German Jamshid Sharmahd, and call on Iran to cease executions and establish a moratorium on the death penalty.

We share the concern of UN experts that ethnic and religious minorities in Iran, including Kurds, Baluch, Azerbaijani Turks, Ahwazi Arabs and members of the Baha’i faith, continue to face institutionalised discrimination and marginalisation.

Australia asks the Special Rapporteur: what challenges have you faced as you commence your mandate and how can we best support you to address these?