UN to fund Iran anti-drugs programme despite executions of offenders

The UN anti-drug agency is finalising a multimillion-dollar funding package, including European money, for Iran’s counter-narcotics trafficking programmes, despite the country’s high execution rate of drug offenders. Iranian authorities have hanged at least two people a day this year for drug offences, according to the human rights group Reprieve, which works for the abolition of death penalty.

Ahmed Shaheed, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, also warned this week that the Islamic republic continues to execute more people per capita than any country. At least 753 people were hanged last year in Iran, of whom more than half were drug offenders.

Reprieve and a number of other organisations have repeatedly urged the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to stop funding Iran’s anti-narcotics campaign until Tehran ends its use of capital punishment for drug-related offences.

But despite their concerns, the UNODC is agreeing a new five-year deal with Iranian officials. Reprieve says its research shows that millions of dollars of support to Iran can be directly linked to the arrest and execution of thousands of people, including children. Iran has a notorious record of juvenile executions.

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