Posted on 03/12/2012 2:43:13 PM PDT by Olog-hai
Iran executed some 670 people last year, most of them for drug crimes that do not merit capital punishment under international law and more than 20 for offenses against Islam, a United Nations investigator said on Monday.
The investigator, former Maldives foreign minister Ahmed Shaheed, also reported what he said were a wide range of violations by Iran of U.N. human rights accords, from abuse of minorities to persecution of homosexuals and labor unions.
Shaheed was delivering his first report to the U.N.'s 47-nation Human Rights Council on the rights situation in the country since being appointed last year. It was dismissed by Iran as a "compilation of baseless allegations".
Shaheed, a long-time diplomat and founder of a human rights institute in the Maldives, said he had received videotaped testimony from witnesses to torture by security police and from relatives of young people who had been held in jail.
He told a news conference that even among those officially executed for drug offenses, there were strong indications that many had originally been arrested for resisting the regime or similar offenses and had the narcotics charges added later.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Drug laws are created by sovereign nations. They have nothing to do with "international law". A fact this Reuters boob doesn't grasp.
The United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988 is one of three major drug control treaties currently in force. It provides additional legal mechanisms for enforcing the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances. The Convention entered into force on November 11, 1990. As of January 1, 2012, there were 185 Parties to the Convention.[2] These include 182 out of 192 United Nations member states not Equatorial Guinea, Kiribati, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Timor-Leste and Tuvalu, and the European Union and the Cook Islands.
...most of them for drug crimes that do not merit capital punishment under international law and more than 20 for offenses against Islam... United Nations investigator... former Maldives foreign minister Ahmed Shaheed, also reported what he said were a wide range of violations by Iran of U.N. human rights accords, from abuse of minorities to persecution of homosexuals and labor unions.
I wish we had. Starting with everyone convicted of first degree murder.
The treaties you refer to are not self-executing. That means that the provisions of the treaties are enforced by individual nations, in accordance with their own national laws. Iran is within its rights to execute drug traffickers, despite the apparent disapproval of the Reuters writer and the clown at the U.N.
That’s 670 less muslims we have to deal with. I say “good job” and keep up the good work.
We think that’s bad? Hell, in 2011 there were 1277 executions in the U.S. Plus, there were over 1.2 abortions conducted. You can’t say our country is NOT a culture of death. We’ve got the market cornered on extermination. Not that Iran is an “angel” but let’s be realistic here.
Most of our major problems could be eliminated with a smaller number....................
Darn right!! One heck of a good start imho!!
We don’t execute political prisoners on trumped-up charges, though. (Yet, as some here would say.)
well, such a treaty as you describe would suggest a loss of sovereignty. unless I were Greece begging for money I would not picture a modern state doing that.
Dang, Texas has some catching up to do.
In terms of executing political prisoners? I certainly hope not.
Well, just the Democrats...... (Just Kidding!)
I guess islam just isn’t perfect enough. Would 12,000 executions make islam peaceful & tolerant?
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