A/HRC/34/40 reportedly often compelled to describe their consensual sexual activity as rape in order to avoid such a sentence. 20. Judgments imposing the death penalty on individuals under the age of 18 and the implementation of such judgments are incompatible with the international obligations of the country under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 21. The Secretary-General recalls that during its first universal periodic review, the Islamic Republic of Iran accepted a recommendation to consider the abolition of juvenile executions. The Secretary-General urges the Government to halt the execution of children in conflict with the law and to undertake a special review of the cases of persons on death row for crimes committed when they were under the age of 18, with a view to commuting or quashing their death sentences altogether. B. Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment 22. The Secretary-General remains concerned about the persistent practice of torture and ill-treatment in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The judiciary continues to sentence people, contrary to international human rights standards, to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, such as amputation of limbs, blinding and flogging in accordance with the provisions of the Penal Code. Flogging, blinding and amputation 23. A wide range of acts considered as crimes under the Penal Code are punishable by flogging, including the consumption of alcohol and drugs, petty drug dealing, theft, adultery, “flouting” of public morals, illegitimate relationships and mixing of the sexes in public. Children can also be sentenced to this type of ill-treatment. The Secretary-General does not share the view of the Government, which argues that Islamic punishments are effective deterrent penalties and more humane in comparison with long-term imprisonment. 24. Between May and December 2016, 35 students who were holding a graduation party near the city of Qazvin, a blogger and writer accused of spreading lies and “disturbing public opinion”, a theatre actor charged with “improper relations with the opposite sex” and nine goldminers from the company Agh Dare were reportedly subjected to flogging. 25. On 23 November 2016, Keywan Karimi, a prominent Kurdish filmmaker, was orally summoned to present himself to receive a flogging sentence of 223 lashes. He was sentenced in October 2015 to six years’ imprisonment on the charge of “insulting Islamic sanctities” in connection with a music video clip the authorities found on his hard drive, and to 223 lashes on the charge of “illicit relations falling short of adultery” for shaking hands and being under one roof with a female friend who had not covered her head and neck. In their comments on the present report, the Iranian authorities indicated that the sentence of flogging had been removed from the final verdict on Mr. Karimi. 26. Official Iranian media, including the Iranian Students News Agency, reported that in November 2016, in a prison near Tehran, authorities blinded a man from Qorveh (Kurdistan Province). Three cases of forced blinding were reported in 2015. In December 2016, finger amputation sentences for two men detained in Urmia prison on charges of robbery were carried out. Seventy other prisoners, who were probably convicted of similar charges, were allegedly forced to watch the sentence being carried out. 8 27. The Secretary-General recalls that sentences of flogging, blinding or amputation violate the absolute prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, contained notably in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Secretary-General encourages the Government to review its position 8 See www.hra-news.org/2016/hranews/a-9009/. 5