(MENAFN- Swissinfo) A group of 54 countries, including Switzerland, has condemned the“deteriorating” human rights situation in Iran.
This content was published on March 19, 2024 - 09:36 2 minutes Keystone-SDA
On Monday in Geneva they called on the authorities to“put an end to impunity”. This demand was also echoed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi from her prison in Tehran.
In a joint statement to the Human Rights Council, ten days after a damning report against Iran, dozens of states said they were still“concerned about the situation of women's rights”. They called for the abandonment of a bill that would toughen penalties for women who refuse to wear the Islamic veil or wear it incorrectly. The bill provides for up to ten years' imprisonment, as well as lashes, travel restrictions, higher fines and internet bans.
+ Swiss government under pressure to toughen stance on Iran
Similarly, dozens of states, including most European countries and the United States, are calling for an end to discrimination against women and for an end to the persecution of dissidents and human rights activists. Also appearing before the Council, the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran said he had received information about Mohammadi's very poor health.
In a statement read out by an NGO, Mohammadi denounced the“systematic, widespread and institutionalised violations” of the rights of Iranians.“Repression has increased,” she added.
In addition to the joint statement, Switzerland expressed its personal concern to the UN body. It is“particularly worried by the lack of consideration shown by the Iranian authorities” with regard to discrimination against women, said Jürg Lauber, Swiss ambassador to the UN in Geneva. It is high time that Iran took concrete measures, he added.
Translated from French by DeepL/ts
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look
here ,
and if you have feedback on this news story please write to
... .
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at ... .
MENAFN24032024000210011054ID1108016134
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.