In an announcement posted on its website, Amnesty said it was greatly concerned by continuing human rights violations in Iran, including new arrests of human rights defenders and the high rate of executions.
Sixteen people were arrested on 9 July — 18 Tir in the Iranian calendar — the eighth anniversary of student demonstrations in 1999 which were violently suppressed by security forces, Amnesty said.
It added that trade unionists were also being targeted.
Women’s rights activists also continue to face reprisals for their activities demanding an end to laws which discriminate against women. At least three more women have recently been sentenced for participating in a June 2006 demonstration calling for reform of Iran’s discriminatory legislation.
Iran continues to have one of the highest rates of executions in the world. Amnesty International has recorded at least 120 executions since the beginning of 2007, suggesting that by the end of this year the total number of executions could exceed the total of 177 executions that Amnesty International recorded in 2006.
Two recent victims of the Iranian authorities’ use of the death penalty were child offenders, whose alleged crimes were committed before the age of 18, and a third was a man who was stoned to death. The two child offenders — Mohammad Mousavi and Sa’id Qanbar Zahi — were executed in April and May respectively, in direct contravention of international law, which requires that no-one should be executed for crimes committed while under the age of 18, it added.
