Iran

A prominent Iranian documentary film-maker and women's rights activist, whose work includes banned films about Iran's society, has been arrested by unidentified officials. Mahnaz Mohammadi, 37, was picked up from her home in the capital Tehran by security officers who refused to show a warrant for her arrest and was taken to Evin prison, where many activists are being held. Speaking by phone from Tehran, her lawyer told the Guardian that Mohammadi had been denied access to her family or proper legal representation and was being kept incommunicado.

Using a human rights based approach, this documents the reality of stoning in Iran in 2004. This was at a time when stoning was not widely reported, the Iranian regime denied the existence of stoning in the law, and many in the international community were unaware that stoning still occurred in Iran.  Thus the primary goal of the document is to expose the reality of stoning at the time and demonstrate that stoning still occurs in Iran.

On page 10 of this report, the UNGA denounces stoning as a method of execution, and mentions the work of civil society to suspend stoning verdicts (i.e. The Stop Stoning Forever Campaign.) The report also reminded us that when the last periodic report of the Islamic Republic of Iran under the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights was considered in 1993, the Human Rights Committee concluded that stoning was not compatible with the provisions of article 78 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a party. 

This report details the Stop Stoning Forever Campaign, an Iranian campaign that since 2006 has strived to outlaw stoning from the Iranian Penal Code. It outlines the goals, strategies, and outcomes associated with the Campaign as well as stoning more broadly in Iran.