A/HRC/28/70 been educated about landmines and their risks. 59 In April 2011, a member of the military said that about 85 per cent of the contaminated areas had been cleared and millions of undetonated landmines had been destroyed, but that landmines buried in lower soil strata and later uncovered by rain and erosion continued to pose a threat.60 64. Since 2013, 89 civilians have reportedly been injured by landmine explosions, 12 of them allegedly under the age of 15.61 Eleven individuals in 2013 and nine in 2014 lost their lives owing to detonations of landmines and unexploded munitions.62 In October 2013, the Governor of Marivan, in Kurdistan Province, reported that seven children from the Neshkash village had been injured as a result of a landmine explosion in a demined area that continued to face threats from landmines exposed by rain and landslides. 65. There have been complaints of insufficient risk education, particularly among children, and about the shortcomings of State support programmes for landmine victims. Some victims have characterized their experiences with support programmes as prolonged and arbitrary, and maintained that some victims were deprived of support measures, owing to the vague criteria that governed the process for granting services. 63 66. In October 2014, a lawyer representing the child victims of landmines in the Neshkash case informed the Office of the President about the failure of former local authorities to address the concerns of landmine victims and called for appropriate measures to address remaining threats and for support and treatment for the injured.64 In November 2014, Omid Karimian, a Parliamentarian from Kurdistan Province, one of the five provinces reportedly affected by landmines from the war between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Iraq, expressed concern over the landmine victims’ access to medical care and pensions.65 In its response to the present report, the Government maintained that Parliament had ratified a law providing protection and support to the family of those returning to the country’s war-affected areas who “lose their lives or suffer injury” due to landmine explosions or other unexploded ordinances. VII. Gender equality and women’s rights 67. Fifty-three recommendations related to the rights of women and girls were raised during the universal periodic review of 2014. The recommendations touched on gender discrimination, early marriage, access to health and education, political and economic participation and domestic violence. Several States called on the Islamic Republic of Iran to improve the status of women more generally in social, cultural, economic and political affairs. Concerns previously expressed over gender inequality in law and practice persist. Recent legislative attempts made by Parliament appear to further restrict the right of women to their full and equal enjoyment of internationally recognized rights. 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 Mehr News Agency, 2 November 2014, http://mehrnews.com/news/2414195/. Jamejam Online (semi-official news), 17 April 2014, http://www1.jamejamonline.ir/papertext.aspx? newsnum=100841075238. Association of Human Rights in Kurdistan of Iran-Geneva, report on landmine victims in Iranian Kurdistan, submitted to the office of the Special Rapporteur, www.kmmk-ge.org/?p=633&lang=en. Ibid. Reports of the Centre for Supporters of Human Rights and of the Association of Human Rights in Kurdistan of Iran-Geneva submitted to the office of the Special Rapporteur on 3 December 2014 and 6 February 2015, respectively. Azad News Agency (semi-official news), 6 October 2014, www.ana.ir/Home/Single/109068. Website of Omid Karimian, 3 November 2014, www.omidkarimian.ir/Default.aspx?NewsId=261. 17