Situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran A/RES/70/173 these rights, to consider rescinding unduly harsh sentences, including the death penalty and long-term exile, for exercising such fundamental freedoms and to end reprisals against individuals cooperating with the United Nations human rights mechanisms; 12. Strongly urges the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to eliminate, in law and in practice, all forms of discrimination and other human rights violations against women and girls, to take measures to ensure protection for women and girls against violence, to address the alarming incidence of child, early and forced marriage, to promote women’s participation in decision -making processes and, while recognizing the high enrolment of women in all levels of education in the Islamic Republic of Iran, to lift restrictions on women’s equal access to all aspects of education and women’s equal participation in the labour market and in all aspects of economic, cultural, social and political life; 13. Calls upon the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to eliminate, in law and in practice, all forms of discrimination and other human rights violations against persons belonging to ethnic, linguistic or other minorities, including but not limited to Arabs, Azeris, Balochis and Kurds and their defenders; 14. Expresses serious concern about ongoing severe limitations and restrictions on the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief and restrictions on the establishment of places of worship, as well as attacks against places of worship and burial, as well as other human rights violations, including but not limited to harassment, persecution and incitement to hatred that lead to violence against persons belonging to recognized and unrecognized religious minorities, including Christians, Jews, Sufi Muslims, Sunni Muslims, Zoroastrians and members of the Baha’i faith and their defenders, and calls upon the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to release the seven Baha’i leaders declared by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the Human Rights Council to have been arbitrarily detained since 2008 and to eliminate, in law and in practice, all forms of discrimination, including the closure of businesses, and other human rights violations against persons belonging to recognized and unrecognized religious minorities; 15. Urges the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to launch a comprehensive accountability process in response to cases of serious human rights violations, including those involving the Iranian judiciary and security agencies and those following the 2009 presidential elections, and calls upon the Government to end impunity for such violations; 16. Strongly urges the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to ensure credible, transparent and inclusive parliamentary elections in 2016 and to allow all candidates to stand in a manner consistent with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in order to guarantee the free expression of the will of the Iranian people, and to that end calls upon the Government to allow independent national and international observation; 17. Calls upon the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to implement its obligations under those human rights treaties to which it is already a party, to withdraw any reservations that it has made where such reservations are overly general, imprecise or could be considered incompatible with the object and purpose of the treaty, to consider acting upon the concluding observations concerning the Islamic Republic of Iran adopted by the bodies of the international human rights treaties to which it is a party and to consider ratifying or acceding to the international human rights treaties to which it is not already a party; 3/4