Mission for Establishment of Human Rights in Iran 
(MEHR IRAN)

1/3/2001

URGENT ACTION TO STOP STONING

The Honorable Kofi Annan, 
Secretary General, The United Nations
Fax # (212) 963-4879

We are writing to you to express our outrage at the recent verdict issued by the Islamic Regime of Iran to kill a woman by stoning. According to “Doran-Emrouz” daily in January 3, 2001 edition published in Iran, a thirty eight years old woman has been charged and convicted of murdering of her husband. A Judge called Ganji has ordered her to be stoned to death. Her accomplice has been also sentenced to death. 

We condemn this cruel practice in the strongest possible terms, and consider the punishment of stoning to death, regardless of the charges or circumstances, contrary to all human rights principles. 

The cruelty of this act that shocks any concerned human being is further reflected in the article 119 of the Law of Hodoud and Qesas, passed by the Majlis. It states that " In the punishment of stoning to death, the stones should not be too large so that the person dies on being hit by one or two of them; they should not be so small either that they could not be defined as stones."  

Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), to which Iran is a signatory, clearly states, "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." We urge all Human Rights groups to pressure the Iranian Authorities to grant this woman a fair trial with all established internationally ac-accepted standards as has been enshrined within Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international protocols and laws.

This punishment is inhumane. Please pressure the Islamic Regime of Iran to unconditionally abolish the capital punishment in general and the practice of stoning people to death in particular.

Respectfully,

MEHR Foundation 

JOIN THE CAMPAIGN FOR THE ABOLISHMENT OF STONING IN IRANI