[JURIST] UN human rights experts on Friday condemned [press release] the growing number of executions in Iran in recent years. According to the Special Rapporteurs on the situation of human rights in Iran and on extrajudicial executions, Iran has executed about 350 people in 2015 and executed approximately six people per day [press release] between April 9 and April 26. This year, Iran has performed 15 public executions, which the experts say “have a dehumanizing effect on both the victim and those who witness the execution, reinforcing the already cruel, inhuman and degrading nature of the death penalty.” Iran also executed at least 852 people between July 2013 and June 2014. Many of the crimes for which prisoners were executed were not “most serious crimes,” such as drug offenses. The new Islamic Penal Code [text] enacted by Iran in 2013 still permits death sentences for juveniles and for crimes like adultery, and repeated alcohol use. The UN is urging Iran to institute a moratorium on the death penalty and consider abolishing the practice.

Much international pressure has been directed toward Iran in recent years for its use of the death penalty. In February Iran reportedly executed [JURIST report] Saman Naseem, a juvenile offender who was 17 years old when sentenced to death, despite international pressure to halt the execution. UN experts urged [JURIST report] Iran in April to immediately halt the execution of Reyhaneh Jabbari. Jabbari was executed [JURIST report] the following October despite international opposition. Last June former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay condemned [JURIST report] Iran’s use of the death penalty for juvenile offenders and called on authorities to halt the announced execution of Razieh Ebrahimi, who was 14 years old when sentenced to death. Also in June a group of independent UN human rights experts condemned Iran’s execution [JURIST report] of a political prisoner, calling for the country to end the death penalty.