The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO) has appealed to Luis Alfonso de Alba, the President of the UN Human Rights Council, to call on the Iranian regime "to cease in the use of the death penalty as a weapon of fear and oppression" following this week's killing of four Ahwazi Arab opposition activists.
The organisation, which lobbies on behalf of groups representing Iran's Ahwazi, Azeri and Kurdish minorities, also urged de Alba to call on Iran to "uphold its obligations with regard to civil and political rights, including the provision of equal rights to ethnic, religious and minority groups in Iran."
UNPO has suggested the establishment of an investigation team, mandated by the UNHRC, to "consider the series of arrests, trials, and executions, with findings reported to the UN General Assembly."
In his letter to de Alba, UNPO General Secretary Mario Busdachin wrote that "In the wake of this series of executions, UNPO is particularly alarmed at the systematic targeting of ethnic Ahwazi Arabs and the fact that the Iranian Judiciary in many of the cases conducts secret trials, effectively denying the defendants the most fundamental of legal rights ...
"UNPO remains deeply concerned by the routine arrest and execution of Iran's dissidents and has repeatedly called for international action to address the deteriorating human rights situation faced by the Ahwazi Arab population of Iran."
The UNPO is among a number of organisations calling for an end to the execution of Ahwazi Arab activists. Since Wednesday's executions, appeals have been issued by Amnesty International , Human Rights Watch and the Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation .
Labels: death penalty , human rights , UN
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keywords: ahvaz ahwaz ahwazi arabistan khuzestan khuzistan khuzestani arab arabistan iran iranian human rights security oil news ahmadinejad ethnic cleansing
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