A/HRC/28/70 14. In November and December 2014, the Head of the High Council for Human Rights, Mohammad Javad Larijani, reiterated calls to amend the law on narcotics of 1988, maintaining that such a policy shift would reduce the execution rate by 80 per cent. 3 Capital punishment for drug-related offences in the country is governed by that law and its amendments of 1997 and 2011. The current version of the law mandates the death penalty for 17 offences. In addition, the death penalty is automatically mandated when a minimum threshold amount of contraband is involved, for example, 30 grams of heroin, morphine, cocaine, methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA/ecstasy) or methamphetamine.4 15. The revised Islamic Penal Code, which came into force in June 2013, allows the application of capital punishment to juvenile offenders, unless the offender is found to lack the mental capacity to understand the nature of the crime or its consequences. Juvenile executions continue; reports indicate that at least 13 juveniles may have been executed in 2014 alone.5 16. At least 33 individuals were reportedly executed in the Kerman Prison between 26 August and 14 November 2014. All but one had reportedly been convicted of drugrelated crimes. During that period, the authorities made no public announcements of executions at the Prison.6 This raises alarming concerns about possible underreporting. B. Fair trial standards 17. Following a country visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2003, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention recommended that the State establish safeguards for legal counsel against intimidation and provide for the involvement of legal counsel from the beginning of a case, regardless of the nature of the allegations against the accused (see E/CN.4/2004/3/Add.2 and Corr.1, para. 65). Likewise, the Government received 13 recommendations related to fair trial standards and judicial independence during its universal periodic review in 2014, equal to the number of recommendations made on those issues in 2010. In several recommendations, delegations stressed the need to ensure immediate access to a lawyer of one’s choosing, and adequate access to all evidence gathered for the prosecution. 18. Article 48 of the revised Code of Criminal Procedure, scheduled to come into effect in June 2015, provides for the right of defendants to request the presence of a lawyer at the onset of detention. However, a note to article 48 allows for exceptions; for example, if the accused is detained on suspicion of committing organized crime-related offences, crimes against national security, theft or drug-related offences, they may be denied access to a lawyer for up to a week after arrest. It should be noted that most violations of fair trial standards reportedly occur during the investigation phase. Lawyers, journalists, religious 3 4 5 6 6 Euronews, “Iran’s Larijani slams West’s ‘bias’ on human rights”, 7 November 2014, and Mizan News Agency (semi-official news), 5 December 2014, http://mizanonline.ir/fa/content/19246. University of Essex, Human Rights in Iran Unit, “The death penalty for drug crimes in Iran: analysis of Iran’s international human rights obligations” (2014). Available from www.essex.ac.uk/hri/documents/research-paper-iran-death-penalty-drug-crimes.pdf. See also Iran Human Rights, “Another juvenile execution in Iran”, 5 July 2014, http://iranhr.net/2014/07/another-juvenile-execution-in-iran/ and Amnesty International, “Iran: alleged juvenile offender among 10 hunger strikers threatened with immediate execution”, 16 December 2014, www.amnestyusa.org/news/news-item/iran-alleged-juvenile-offender-among-10hunger-strikers-threatened-with-immediate-execution. Iran Human Rights, “Secret mass executions of drug convicts in Kerman Prison (Southeastern Iran)”, 30 December 2014. Available from http://iranhr.net/2014/12/secret-mass-executions-of-drugconvicts-in-kerman-prison-southeastern-iran/.