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Britain raps Iran rights abuses |
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Sunday, 15 October 2006 |
Iran Focus
 London, Oct. 15 – Britain’s Foreign Office censured human rights violations by Iran’s theocratic government in its 2006 annual human rights report.
“The past 12 months have seen a continued deterioration in the human rights situation in Iran”, the Foreign Office said.
“There have been repeated serious violations of freedom of expression and association. Officials who were implicated in internal repression in the 1980s and 1990s have been appointed as government ministers”, the report charged.
“The future does not look positive. There appears to be a real reluctance on the part of the Iranian government to undertake the necessary human rights reforms. Talk of respect for human rights needs to be matched by a demonstrable commitment to improving the human rights situation”, it added.
“The early part of 2006 has seen an alarming increase in the number of reported executions compared to the same period in 2005. In particular, we object to the Iranian authorities’ failure to respect even the most basic of minimum standards regarding the application of capital punishment. Many death sentences are carried out in public.
“According to leading international human rights organisations, Iran was the only country to continue to execute children and juvenile offenders in 2005. The number of reported death sentences and executions of juvenile offenders in 2005 appears to have increased over preceding years”, it said.
The Foreign Office maintained that Britain’s concerns about criminal punishment in Iran were not limited to the death penalty. “Draconian punishments, such as floggings, stonings and amputations, remain on the statute books”, it said.
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