A/RES/65/226 (d) The imposition of the death penalty for crimes that lack a precise and explicit definition, including moharabeh (enmity against God), or for crimes that do not qualify as the most serious crimes, in violation of international law; (e) Stoning and suspension strangulation as methods of execution, and the fact that persons in prison continue to face sentences of execution by stoning, notwithstanding a circular from the former head of the judiciary prohibiting stoning; (f) Pervasive gender inequality and violence against women, a continued crackdown on women’s human rights defenders, arrests, violent repression and sentencing of women exercising their right to peaceful assembly and continuing discrimination against women and girls in law and in practice; (g) Continuing discrimination and other human rights violations, at times amounting to persecution, against persons belonging to ethnic, linguistic, recognized religious or other minorities, including, inter alia, Arabs, Azeris, Baluchis, Kurds, Christians, Jews, Sufis and Sunni Muslims and their defenders; (h) Increased incidents of persecution against unrecognized religious minorities, particularly members of the Baha’i faith, including attacks on Baha’is, including in State-sponsored media, increasing evidence of efforts by the State to identify, monitor and arbitrarily detain Baha’is, preventing members of the Baha’i faith from attending university and from sustaining themselves economically, the confiscation and destruction of their property, the vandalizing of their cemeteries and the sentencing of seven Baha’i leaders to ten years’ imprisonment despite being repeatedly denied the due process of law that they are constitutionally guaranteed, including the right to timely and adequate access to legal representation of their choice and to a fair and open trial; (i) Ongoing, systemic and serious restrictions of freedom of peaceful assembly and association and freedom of opinion and expression, including those imposed on the media, political opponents, human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, Internet providers, Internet users, bloggers, clerics, artists, academics, students, labour leaders and trade unions from all sectors of Iranian society; (j) The continuing harassment, intimidation and persecution, including by arbitrary arrest, detention or disappearance, as well as violent repression of, inter alia, political opponents, human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists and other media representatives, Internet providers, Internet users, bloggers, clerics, academics, students and labour leaders from all sectors of Iranian society, noting in particular the continuing harassment and detention of staff members of the Defenders of Human Rights Centre; (k) The continuing use of State security forces and Government-directed militias to forcibly disperse Iranian citizens engaged in the peaceful exercise of freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly and association; (l) Severe limitations and restrictions on the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief, including arbitrary arrest, indefinite detention and lengthy jail sentences, for those exercising this right, and the arbitrary demolition of places of worship; (m) Persistent failure to uphold due process of law, and violations of the rights of detainees, including defendants held without charge or held incommunicado, the systematic and arbitrary use of prolonged solitary confinement, the lack of access of detainees to legal representation of their choice, the refusal to consider granting bail to detainees, as well as reports of detainees being subjected to torture, 2

Select target paragraph3