A/RES/61/176 recognized safeguards, inter alia, with respect to persons belonging to religious, ethnic or national minorities, officially recognized or otherwise, the application of arbitrary prison sentences and the violation of the rights of detainees, including the systematic and arbitrary use of prolonged solitary confinement, the failure to provide proper medical care to those imprisoned, the arbitrary denial of contact between detainees and their family members, and the death of detainees in unclear circumstances or resulting from general mistreatment while in custody; (c) The continuing use of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment such as flogging and amputations; (d) The continuing of public executions, including multiple public executions, and, on a large scale, of other executions, in the absence of respect for internationally recognized safeguards, and the issuing of sentences of stoning; and, in particular, deplores the execution of persons who were under the age of 18 at the time their offence was committed, contrary to the obligations of the Islamic Republic of Iran under article 37 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child4 and article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights2 and in spite of the announcement of a moratorium on juvenile executions; (e) The continuing violence and discrimination against women and girls in law and in practice, the refusal of the Guardian Council to take steps to address this systemic discrimination and recent arrests of and violent crackdowns on women exercising their right of assembly; (f) The increasing discrimination and other human rights violations against persons belonging to ethnic and religious minorities, recognized or otherwise, including Arabs, Azeris, Baluchis, Kurds, Christians, Jews, Sufis and Sunni Muslims; the escalation and increased frequency of discrimination and other human rights violations against members of the Baha’i faith, including reports of plans by the State to identify and monitor Baha’is, as noted by the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief; an increase in cases of arbitrary arrest and detention; the denial of freedom of religion or of publicly carrying out communal affairs; the disregard for property rights, including through de facto expropriation, as noted in the report of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living; the destruction of sites of religious importance; the suspension of social, educational and community-related activities and the denial of access to higher education, employment, pensions, adequate housing and other benefits; and recent violent crackdowns on Arabs, Azeris, Baha’is, Kurds and Sufis; 3. Calls upon the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran: (a) To ensure full respect for the rights to freedom of assembly, opinion and expression and for the right to take part in the conduct of public affairs, in accordance with its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and, in particular, to end the harassment, intimidation and persecution of political opponents and human rights defenders, including by releasing persons imprisoned arbitrarily or on the basis of their political views; and to increase actions to promote and facilitate human rights education at all levels and to ensure that all those responsible for training lawyers, law enforcement officers, the personnel of the armed forces and public officials include appropriate elements of human rights teaching in their training programme; 3