EU: No progress made on human rights in Iran in 2014

NCRI - The European Union has criticized the state of human rights in Iran under Hassan Rouhani, in its annual report published this week.

The EU Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World in 2014, released on Monday, said that in Iran “no progress on human rights was made in 2014.”

“A lack of fundamental freedoms and violations of basic human rights including women's rights, in contravention of Iran’s international obligations, continued to be observed,”the report said.

“There is no political or human rights dialogue with Iran at the moment, which makes EU objectives on human rights and democracy particularly difficult to achieve.”

With more than 460 executions reported to have taken place in 2014, the application of the death penalty was a “major human rights” issue raised by the EU, the report said. “The EU issued statements and a declaration with the EU Member States on some individual cases and called upon the Iranian government to refrain from using the death penalty.”

“The European Parliament continued to take a keen interest in the human rights situation in Iran. In April 2014, the Parliament adopted a resolution on Iran in which it expressed its serious concern over the state of play of human rights in the country.”

“Iran underwent its Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The EU participated in the preparations and while Iran stated that it respects the UPR mechanism, it did not immediately accept any of the 291 recommendations, stating instead that it would respond to them in due course,” the report added.

In 2014, the EU also supported the UN General Assembly resolution tabled by Canada on human rights in Iran.