A/HRC/31/69 alleges that the judiciary converted the stoning sentence in Gilan to another punishment, and that in recent years no stoning sentences have been carried out in the country. 16. Other articles of the Islamic Penal Code that restrict the peaceful exercise of a range of other civil and political rights integral to the facilitation of democratic processes in the country often fall under the category of ta’zir crimes. These acts are considered to be in conflict with religious or State interests, but have no specific penalties under sharia. The articles include article 513, which criminalizes “insults” against the “Islamic sanctities”, article 514, which criminalizes “insults” directed at the first Supreme Leader, and article 609, which criminalizes insulting other government officials. In its response, the Government asserts that decriminalization of insults to sanctities is a secular interpretation which should not be imposed on other cultures and countries. 17. Ta’zir provisions also criminalize so-called national security offences, for which political dissidents are often tried and convicted. Article 498 of the Islamic Penal Code, for example, criminalizes the establishment of groups that aim to “disrupt national security”; article 500 calls for up to one year of imprisonment for anyone found guilty of “propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran or in support of opposition groups or associations”; and article 610 punishes two or more persons who “collude and conspire to commit crimes against the domestic or international security of the nation” with two to five years of imprisonment. These provisions are often so vague and broadly worded that they allow the Government to severely limit speech and punish peaceful assembly and association. In its response, the Government notes that more than 230 political parties, 400 professional and trade associations and 60 societies affiliated with religious minorities have received permits to operate and that the right to organize trade unions and associations is fully recognized. 18. Provisions of the Islamic Penal Code also continue to discriminate against women, girls and non-Muslims, and explicitly stipulate that the value of a woman’s life is equal to half that of a man (art. 550). If a Muslim man murders a Muslim woman, for example, the victim’s family must first pay half his “blood money” before seeking retributive execution (art. 382). The code also stipulates that while the family of a Muslim murder victim may seek retribution in kind against a non-Muslim perpetrator, the opposite cannot occur; in such cases the judge can sentence the Muslim perpetrator only to prison, monetary damages or another form of punishment (art. 310). In its response, the Government justifies the difference in “blood money” for men and women by asserting that children who lose their father and women who lose their husband actually lose their financial and moral support and backbone, while losing a mother or a wife “only causes moral harm”. 19. The Special Rapporteur notes with concern that the Islamic Penal Code retains the death penalty for boys of at least 15 lunar years of age and girls of at least 9 lunar years for qisas (“retribution in kind”) or hudud crimes, such as homicide, adultery or sodomy (arts. 146-147). At least 73 juvenile offenders were reportedly executed between 2005 and 2015, and the number of juvenile offenders reportedly executed in 2014/15 was actually higher than at any time during the past five years. The vast majority of these executions were never officially reported by the Government.5 Human rights organizations documented the executions of at least four juveniles in 2015, with at least 160 others awaiting the same fate on death row, and it has been reported that at least one Afghan national awaiting execution for a drug-related offence was under 18 years of age at the time of his arrest. 6 20. In its review of the Islamic Republic of Iran (CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4), the Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed great concern about the ongoing execution of juveniles 5 6 See www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde13/3112/2016/en/. Ibid. 5