Iran rejection of rights calls contemptuous-Amnesty

(February 19, 2010) Iran's rejection of human rights recommendations made by Western nations shows contempt for both international obligations and its own people, rights group Amnesty International said on Wednesday. An official U.N. report published on Wednesday said Iran had rejected calls to release all political prisoners and accept an international inquiry into violence after last June's contested presidential elections. The Islamic Republic also refused to end the death penalty and said it would not make torture an offence under its laws, according to the report. "By rejecting specific recommendations made by dozens of countries, the Iranian authorities showed contempt for international obligations just as they have done in their treatment of their own people," said Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui. "By promising to consider recommendations to eliminate the execution of juvenile offenders, the Iranian authorities are cynically camouflaging their existing obligation under the Convention on the Rights of the Child not to execute juvenile offenders."