A/HRC/31/69 III. Civil and political rights A. Right to life 34. The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran received a total of 29 recommendations related to its use of capital punishment during the first cycle of the universal periodic review in 2010 (see A/HRC/14/12) and 41 during the second cycle, in 2014 (see A/HRC/28/12 and Corr.1). The recommendations included calls on the Government to abolish the death penalty for juvenile offenders; to establish a moratorium on the death penalty for crimes not considered “most serious” by international standards and declare a moratorium on the use of capital punishment; and to ban stoning and public executions. 35. Human rights organizations tracking executions in the Islamic Republic of Iran estimate that between 966 and 1,054 executions took place in 2015, the highest rate in over 10 years (see figure I).25 Executions reached especially alarming rates from April to June 2015, when there was an average of four executions per day (see figure II). Figure I Executions in the Islamic Republic of Iran, 2005 to 1 December 2015 1250 1000 750 500 91 250 0 2005 177 317 350 402 2006 2007 2008 2009 966 546 676 580 687 753 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 49 60 Source: Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre. Figure II Executions in the Islamic Republic of Iran by month, 2015 175 140 105 70 35 0 82 103 89 117 126 136 53 64 47 38 Source: Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre. 36. As in previous years, the majority of the executions in 2015 — approximately 65 per cent — were for drug-related offences. Twenty-two per cent of the remaining executions carried out in 2015 were for retribution-related crimes (homicide), 6 per cent were for rape, 25 10 See www.iranhrdc.org/english/publications/human-rights-data/chart-of-executions/1000000564ihrdc-chart-of-executions-by-the-islamic-republic-of-iran-2015.html; www.iranrights.org/; http://iranhr.net/en/ and www.amnesty.org/en/countries/middle-east-and-north-africa/iran/.