A/HRC/43/20 I. Introduction 1. The present report is submitted pursuant to General Assembly resolution 74/167, in which the Assembly requested the Secretary-General to submit an interim report on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Human Rights Council at its forty-third session. The present report contains information collected up to the time of its completion, on 12 November 2019, including from the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, non-governmental and media organizations and individuals interviewed by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), including victims of human rights violations and their families and lawyers. The report also draws on observations of the human rights treaty bodies and the special procedures of the Human Rights Council. 2. Since the issuance of the most recent report of the Secretary-General to the General Assembly, 1 the Government has continued to engage with OHCHR and United Nations human rights mechanisms. In November 2019, a delegation led by the Secretary of the High Council for Human Rights actively participated in the review of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the context of the third cycle of the universal periodic review process. 3. The death penalty continued to be applied, including for child offenders, despite an overall decline in executions following the amendment to the drug trafficking law in 2017. The authorities continued to impose national security-related charges and lengthy prison sentences on individuals who expressed dissent, such as human rights defenders, lawyers, labour rights activists, journalists and artists. A deterioration of fair trial guarantees was also observed. OHCHR continued to receive reports of torture and arbitrary detention and information on persistent discrimination against women and girls and members of minorities. 4. OHCHR has received reports on the impact of economic sanctions on the enjoyment of human rights. They appear to be affecting all sectors of society, with a disproportionate impact on women, children and those who are most vulnerable, including low-income families, victims of natural disasters, migrants and refugees. II. Overview of the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran A. Death penalty and right to a fair trial 1. Use of the death penalty 5. The Secretary-General remains concerned by the high rate of application of the death penalty in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Under article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, States parties that have not abolished the death penalty should only impose it for the most serious crimes, which the Human Rights Committee has consistently interpreted as crimes involving intentional killing.2 The death penalty continues to be applied in cases of adultery and consensual same-sex intercourse and for offences that are vague in scope, such as efsad-e fel-arz (spreading corruption on Earth), thereby granting judges wide-ranging interpretative powers. 6. Information received by OHCHR indicates that at least 211 executions were carried out between 1 January and 10 October 2019, including 12 publicly. The number of executions remained significantly lower in that period, compared with the period preceding the enforcement of the amendments made in 2017 to the drug-trafficking law. However, the overall number of executions remained high, with 20 more executions reportedly carried 1 2 2 A/74/273. Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 36 (2018) on the right to life, paras. 5 and 35.