Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 124: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the degree to which human rights and other issues in Iran continue to be the focus at EU and UN level; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2609/12]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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1As I have previously stated, the human rights situation in Iran is profoundly disturbing, and the period since the Presidential election of 2009 has been characterised by an intensification of human rights abuses on many fronts. I am particularly disturbed by the increase in the number of executions in Iran last year. Hundreds of individuals were executed in 2011 after unfair trials, without the right of appeal and for offences which according to international standards should not result in capital punishment. I strongly condemn the continuing imposition of the death penalty against minors in violation of Iran's obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, such as the public execution by hanging of Alireza Molla Soltani in September last year.

A further disturbing trend is the practice of secret executions in Iran which has been highlighted by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran. In his most recent report to the General Assembly, the Special Rapporteur expressed his concern that the death penalty is regularly used in cases where due process rights were denied to the accused and that secret group executions inside prisons reportedly occur in alarmingly high numbers without the knowledge and presence of families and lawyers. I share his concerns regarding secret executions and also the widespread use of the death penalty for drug related offences in Iran.

EU High Representative Ashton, in a statement issued on 5 January, expressed her concern regarding the worrying increase in executions in Iran last year contrary to the worldwide trend towards the abolition of the death penalty. I fully support her call on Iran to halt the execution of Sakineh Ashtiani and Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani and all pending executions and introduce a moratorium on the death penalty.

I reiterate my call upon the government of Iran to respect fully its obligations under international human rights instruments. We have seen the continued repression of civil and political rights in Iran, including in relation to freedom of expression and assembly, arbitrary arrest and torture in detention. This highly targeted repression has been particularly stringent against not only academics but also members of Iran's religious and ethnic minorities, political activists, journalists and bloggers, human rights defenders and members of the legal profession in Iran who represent clients detained by the authorities. These actions are in clear violation of Iran's international obligations under the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights, of which Iran is a signatory.

I fully support the strong Conclusions on human rights in Iran issued by the Foreign Affairs Council on 10 October last year. The EU has repeatedly raised human rights issues in Iran with the Iranian authorities and adopted a travel ban and asset freeze against those responsible for grave human rights violations in April last year, further extended to additional persons last October. This sends an important political signal to those in the judicial system and elsewhere in the Iranian regime who perpetrate human rights abuses. Ireland will continue to be active at EU level in pressing for stronger EU action in relation to the human rights situation in Iran.

At UN level, Ireland co-sponsored a General Assembly resolution in October last year expressing the international community's deep concern at the human rights situation in Iran, and calling upon the Government of Iran to take a number of specific and urgent steps to improve the situation, including providing unfettered access to the Special Rapporteur appointed last year to examine Iran's human rights situation.

At a bilateral level, my Department engages in ongoing dialogue with the Iranian Ambassador and his Embassy on these issues. My officials regularly hold meetings with the Ambassador to convey our grave concerns at the human rights situation in Iran. Ireland will continue to raise human rights in Iran, bilaterally and at the EU and UN, at all appropriate occasions.