U.N. Monitor Says Iran Is Worsening on Rights, Despite Pledges

GENEVA — Iran’s use of the death penalty is rising and its repression of political critics is worsening despite promises by President Hassan Rouhani of a less restrictive society, a United Nations human rights monitor said on Monday.

The monitor, Ahmed Shaheed, also raised the possibility that the human rights situation in Iran could improve if progress is achieved in overall relations between Iran and Western governments, a possibility at the current talks on Iran’s disputed nuclear program.

Iran has one of the highest execution rates in the world and continues “to harass, arrest, prosecute and imprison members of civil society who express criticism of the government or who publicly deviate from officially sanctioned narratives,” Mr. Shaheed told reporters in Geneva.

He spoke before delivering one of his periodic reports on Iran to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
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There was no immediate comment from Iran. But the Iranian authorities have always rejected Mr. Shaheed’s reports as biased and politically motivated, and have refused to allow him to visit the country.

Mr. Shaheed compiles his reports based on telephone interviews and other forms of communication with contacts inside Iran.

His critique came as Secretary of State John Kerry resumed negotiations on a possible nuclear accord with his Iranian counterpart, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in the Swiss lakeside town of Lausanne.

Mr. Shaheed said that Iranian rights activists had expressed fear that the nuclear negotiations “cast a shadow” over the rights situation inside Iran. However, Mr. Shaheed said, in his view, “if there is improvement in terms of engagement on security issues, there is potential for improvement in other areas as engagement widens.”

Over all, he said, human rights in Iran have deteriorated since Mr. Rouhani took office in 2013, either because of hard-liners who have sought to undermine him, or because of his insufficient attention to such issues.

Mr. Shaheed pointed to an accelerating pace of executions, tighter constraints on political freedoms and the treatment of ethnic and religious minorities.

Iran executed 753 people in 2014, including at least 13 juveniles, and 252 people in the first 10 weeks of this year, Mr. Shaheed said. Most were sentenced for drug-related offenses, which under international law are not considered sufficiently grave to warrant capital punishment.

Some of those who received the death penalty appeared linked to political offenses, Mr. Shaheed said, including an individual executed for contributing financially to a television station the government deemed hostile.

Several draft laws under consideration in Iran would only add to the constraints on rights, Mr. Shaheed said, referring to measures that would tighten control of media, lawyers and nongovernmental organizations, and limit employment opportunities for women.