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

4/1/2001

URGENT ACTION TO STOP STONING

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

Once again we are writing to you to express our outrage at the act of stoning practiced by the Islamic Regime of Iran. Based on the final verdict that was issued on March 11, 2001, Maryam Ayoubi, accused of committing adultery has been sentenced to death by stoning, by the Islamic regime of Iran (IRI).

We are very disturbed by your continuing silence about the human rights abuses in Iran. We expect you as the General Secretary of the UN, to speak up against the daily violation of human rights by IRI rather than rewarding this system of terror by appointing it as the host of the Conference on “Discrimination and Tolerance”.

The cruelty of stoning 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 that No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

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.

Stoning 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,

Mohammad Parvin, Director

MEHR Foundation

JOIN THE CAMPAIGN FOR THE ABOLISHMENT OF STONING IN IRANI