UNITED

NATIONS

 

Economic and Social

Council

 

Distr.

GENERAL

E/CN.4/Sub.2/1997/5

16 May 1997

 

Original: ENGLISH

 

 

 

 

 

COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination

and Protection of Minorities

Forty-ninth session

Item 2 of the provisional agenda

 

QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS, INCLUDING POLICIES OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION AND SEGREGATION AND OF APARTHEID, IN ALL COUNTRIES, WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO COLONIAL AND OTHER DEPENDENT COUNTRIES AND TERRITORIES: REPORT OF THE SUB-COMMISSION
UNDER COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS RESOLUTION 8 (XXIII)

 

Note by the Secretary-General

 

1. At its forty-eighth session, the Sub-Commission adopted resolution 1996/7, entitled "Situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran", in which it requested the Secretary-General to continue to keep the Sub-Commission informed of relevant reports and United Nations measures to prevent human rights violations in the Islamic Republic of Iran, including violations of the religious freedoms of the Baha'i and the Christian communities in Iran.

 

2. In compliance with this request, the attention of the Sub-Commission is drawn to the interim report which the Special Representative on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mr. Maurice Copithorne, submitted to the General Assembly at its fifty-first session (A/51/479 and Add.1).

 

3. On 12 December 1996, the General Assembly adopted resolution 51/107 entitled "Situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran".

 

4. The Special Representative submitted his final report to the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-third session (E/CN.4/1997/63).

 

5. At its fifty-third session, the Commission on Human Rights also had before it reports by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (E/CN.4/1997/4 and Add.1), by the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (E/CN.4/1997/34), and by the Special Rapporteurs on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions (E/CN.4/1997/60 and Add.1), on the question of torture (E/CN.4/1997/7 and Add.1) and on religious intolerance (E/CN.4/1997/91), which refer to the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran within the terms of their respective mandates.

 

6. On 15 April 1997, the Commission on Human Rights adopted resolution 1997/54 entitled "Situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran". The Commission decided to extend the mandate of the Special Representative, as contained in Commission resolution 1984/54 of 14 March 1984, for a further year, and requested him to submit an interim report to the General Assembly at its fifty-second session and to report to the Commission at its fifty-fourth session.

 

7. The attention of the Sub-Commission is also drawn to the concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD/C/43/CRP.1/Add.9) and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (E/C.12/1993/7), and the comments of the Human Rights Committee (CCPR/C/79/Add.25) on reports submitted by the Islamic Republic of Iran under article 9 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, under articles 16 and 17 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and under article 40 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, respectively.