By unanimous consent, on motion of Irwin Cotler, it was agreed, — Whereas, the Subcommittee has heard timely and compelling testimony regarding the deteriorating human rights situation in Iran in the run-up to the June 14th presidential elections, including that:
Iran has engaged in widespread and systematic assaults on the human rights of its own people, including a state-orchestrated wave of arrests, detentions, beatings, torture, disappearances, and executions;
Executions in Iran continue unabated and where Iran has executed more juveniles per capita than any other country in the world;
Iran has imprisoned more journalists and bloggers than any other country in the world;
Iran continues to target and imprison both lawyers and human rights defenders; and
The intensified persecution and prosecution of the Baha’i community is part and parcel of Iran’s culture of violence and impunity targeting this particular religious minority.
Whereas the Subcommittee finds the recent report of 2,600 political prisoners in Iran – many of whom face execution – a particular cause for concern and alarm.
Be it resolved that the Subcommittee:
Condemn the systematic and widespread state-sanctioned assaults on the human rights of the Iranian people – and particularly the leaders of civil society – as constitutive of crimes against humanity;
Call upon Iran to cease and desist from its state-orchestrated policy of wanton executions;
Urge Iran to release its political prisoners, particularly the seven imprisoned Baha’i leaders, whose twenty year sentence at their advanced age is a virtual death sentence;
Call upon Iran to cease and desist from its arrest and imprisonment of lawyers for no other reason than that they have defended victims of human rights violations;
Urge Iran to cease and desist from its persistent and pervasive assaults on the rights of women, including also cruel and inhumane treatment and punishment such as stoning and flogging;
Support targeted sanctions against the major human rights violators responsible for the ordering of, and complicity in, the wanton executions and massive assaults on human rights, and put them on notice that they will be held accountable before the law.In particular, be it resolved that the Subcommittee refers the situation of human rights violations in Iran to the Foreign Affairs Committee and recommends that it endorse this resolution.