A/HRC/28/70 10. Unfortunately, the Special Rapporteur’s requests for visits to the country to deepen dialogue with government officials and to further ascertain the veracity of complaints forwarded to the special procedures remain unaddressed. Many requests to visit made by various other special procedures remain pending, despite several statements the Government has made since 2011 regarding its intent to strengthen this aspect of its cooperation with the human rights mechanisms. IV. Reprisals against activists 11. The Special Rapporteur renews his concerns about incidents that appear to be reprisals against individuals for contact with international human rights organizations and United Nations human rights mechanisms. Since August 2014, five cases have been reported (see annex I). They include the prosecution of Atena Daemi, Saeed Shirzad, Mohammad Ali Taheri, Behnam Ebrahimzadeh and Mohammad Reza Pourjashari. At least 15 individuals have reportedly been detained, charged or prosecuted or have faced intimidation for contact with the special procedures since 2011. V. Overview of civil and political rights A. Right to life 12. During its first universal periodic review in 2010, the Government received 29 recommendations related to the use of the death penalty; 41 such recommendations were made during its second review in 2014. 13. At least 753 individuals, among them 25 women, were reportedly executed in 2014 (the highest annual total recorded in the past 12 years); 53 executions were public. A total of 362 of the executions — nearly half — were for drug-related crimes (not including drug-related offences that were committed in conjunction with homicide),2 which do not meet the internationally accepted threshold of “most serious crimes” required for use of the death penalty. In at least four cases the families of homicide victims provided pardons only after authorities had initiated the implementation of the death penalty by hanging. In those instances, authorities stopped the execution and lowered individuals after a period of suspension. 2 Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre, chart of executions 2014, updated on 1 January 2015, www.iranhrdc.org/english/publications/1000000425-ihrdc-chart-of-executions-by-the-islamicrepublic-of-iran-2014.htm. 5