HRC52 – Item 4: Interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the Islamic Republic of Iran
Geneva, 20 March 2023
 
National statement
delivered by
 
Ms. Amanda Vrana
First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of Albania in Geneva
 
 
Thank you, Mr. President,
 
Albania thanks the Special Rapporteur for his latest report on the situation of human rights in Iran.
 
Albania is concerned by the Special Rapporteur’s latest reporting on the brutal response by the Iranian authorities to the peaceful protests, which led to the deaths of at least 476 persons, including children and women, with hundreds of protesters being severely injured, and many protesters being arbitrarily arrested, detained, tortured, and ill-treated, including sexual and gender-based violence.
 
We are deeply concerned by the use of the death penalty in Iran against individuals arrested, while exercising their legitimate rights to freedom of expression and opinion and peaceful assembly and association.
 
Albania echoes the call of the Special Rapporteur to the Iranian authorities to respect the lives of its people, to impose an immediate moratorium on the death penalty and to restore full engagement and cooperation with the Special Rapporteur and fully cooperate with the international fact-finding mission.
 
Iran has a notorious long-standing record of systematic violations, which include a sharp increase in executions, where ethnic and national minorities are particularly affected. In this regard, Albania fully supports all the efforts to ensure accountability and justice for serious violation of human rights since the start of the protests in September 2022, for the summary and arbitrary executions of 1988 and the protests of November 2019.
 
Thank you.