We remain deeply concerned about the continued use of the death penalty in Iran. After China, Iran executes more people than any other country in the world. Despite announcing a moratorium on juvenile executions in 2005, Iran still imposes the death penalty for crimes committed before the age of 18. Reports suggest that between five and eight juvenile executions took place in 2005, and at least two in 2006. This is a clear contravention of Iran's obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. We are also concerned that basic standards surrounding the application of capital punishment are absent in Iran and that death sentences are often carried out in public.
We make frequent representations to the Iranian authorities about the use of the death penalty, both bilaterally and through the EU. On 11 December 2006 our ambassador in Tehran raised our concerns about death sentences handed down to 10 men, with the head of Iran's International Department of the Judiciary. On 21 January and 4 March, the EU presidency in Tehran raised our concerns about specific juvenile death penalty cases and reiterated the EU's longstanding objection to the death penalty in all circumstances. In the last two years, through the EU, we have raised the death penalty with the Iranian authorities at least 15 times.
We also take action through the UN, and were pleased that all EU countries supported a resolution on human rights in Iran at the UN General Assembly in December 2006, which expressed serious concern at "the continuing of public executions, including multiple public executions, and, on a large scale, other executions in the absence of respect for internationally recognized safeguards" and "in particular, deplores the execution of persons who were under the age of 18 at the time their offence was committed".