The U.N. adopted a resolution that condemns human rights violations in Iran

The resolution was approved by the General Assembly’s human rights committee with a vote of 85 in favor, 35 against and 63 countries abstaining.

It urged Iran to implement pledges made by President Hassan Rouhani to eliminate discrimination against women and ethnic minorities, as well as to increase freedom of expression in Iran.

It also condemned the “alarmingly high frequency” with which Iran uses the death penalty, including “executions undertaken for crimes that do not qualify as the most serious crimes, on the basis of forced confessions or against minors and persons who at the time of their offence were under the age of 18”.

It also called on Iran to “abolish, in law and in practice, public executions,” and urged the regime “to ensure, in law and in practice, that no one is subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, which may include sexual violence, and punishments that are grossly disproportionate to the nature of the offense.”

Concerning prisoners’ rights, the resolution urged Tehran “to cease enforced disappearances” and “address the poor conditions of prisons, to eliminate the denial of access to adequate medical treatment and the consequent risk of death faced by prisoners.”

The resolution also demanded that Iran “end widespread and serious restrictions, in law and in practice, on the right to freedom of expression, opinion, association and peaceful assembly, both online and offline, including by ending the harassment, intimidation and persecution of political opponents, human rights defenders, women’s and minority rights activists”.

It further urged the regime “to end widespread and serious restrictions, in law and in practice, on the right to freedom of expression, opinion, association and peaceful assembly, both online and offline, including by ending the harassment, intimidation and persecution of political opponents, human rights defenders, women’s and minority rights activists”.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry immediately trashed the resolution, calling its claims “baseless”.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi called the resolution “unacceptable” and “politically motivated”, according to the state-affiliated IRNA news agency. Qasemi claimed that the resolution did not account for realities in Iran.

Maryam Rajavi, head of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), welcomed the resolution as a necessary step in bringing justice to Iran’s theocratic government.

“The time has come for the international community to end the barbaric and systematic violations of human rights in Iran, particularly the mass executions, and undertake practical and effective measures”, she said.

“Inaction vis-à-vis a regime that has 120,000 political executions on its record –including the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988– is a flagrant violation of the values and principles the United Nations Organization has been founded on”, she added.