On July 19

On this day in ...
... 2005 (5 years ago today), boys aged 18 and 16 were executed by public hanging in Iran (flag at left). The punishment stemmed from allegations that they had sexually assaulted younger boys. A defense lawyer said that according to national child-offender laws, the sentences should have been commuted to 5 years in jail. The death penalties -- banned by the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Iran is a state party -- provoked widespread condemnation. Individuals like Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian attorney and the 2003 Nobel Peace Prizewinner, reiterated criticism of the juvenile death penalty, and some rights groups contended that the boys were punished not for committing assault but for engaging in gay sex.

(Prior July 19 posts are here, here, and here.)

Ebadi on the death penalty

We have been observing a constant deterioration of the human rights situation since 2005. In 2008, for example, we saw that there had been a 300% increase in executions in the prior 3 years! Speaking proportionally, Iran has surpassed even China: there were 355 executions in Iran, a country of 70 million inhabitants; in China, 2,200 executions and 1.3 billion inhabitants. Do the math ....

-- Shirin Ebadi (right), Nobel Peace Prizewinner, in a telephone interview with Le Monde. The Iranian human rights attorney also spoke of the government's closure of her human rights center and harassment of her staff; of the repression in Iran of religious and ethnic minorities such as Bahais, Sunni Muslims, and Kurds; and of how democracy is being "maltreated" in the runup to next month's Presidential election.
With regard to capital punishment, Ebadi not only pointed to overall numbers in the last 3 years, but also to the executions of 26 juveniles and the death row confinement of another 138, 5 of whom are girls. She expressed little hope for reform on this front:

I remain pessimistic, how can I be anything else? We've just learned that last week a couple was sentenced to death by stoning. Anyway, on December 18, 2008, when the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution seeking a moratorium on the death penalty, only 46 countries out of 192 voted against it. Among them was Iran ....

As detailed on page 17 of this record of the vote in the General Assembly (above left), also among the countries opposing a death penalty moratorium was China. And the United States.

On October 10, ...

... 1967 (40 years ago today), the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, typically called the Outer Space Treaty, entered into force. The treaty was forged from drafts submitted by the United States and the Soviet Union; its key components include a ban on "placing nuclear arms or other weapons of mass destruction in orbit," as well as on the claim by any state to "sovereignty over the Moon or other celestial bodies."
... 2003, Iranian lawyer and rights activist Shirin Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. As posted here, Ebadi maintains her practice in Tehran to this day. (Ebadi photo courtesy of Nobelprize.org)

On June 21, ...

... 1947 (60 years ago today), Shirin Ebadi (left) was born in Hamedan in the northwest part of Iran. She's served as a judge and as an attorney for decades. For her courageous efforts on behalf of "democracy and human rights," especially on "the rights of women and children," Ebadi received the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize. (Susan Tiefenbrun's paper "The Semiotics of Women's Human Rights in Iran" analyzes the efforts of Ebadi and others.) Ebadi's work continues; currently she represents Haleh Esfandiari, an Iranian-American arrested for espionage while in Iran to visit her mother.
... 2007 (today), the sun stands still. Well, not quite, but that's the notion at the root of the word "solstice." It's Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, where the sun shines longer than on any other day; south of the equator things are reversed, and it's Winter Solstice. Across time and culture the event has been cause for magical celebration: In Midsummer's Night Dream, it was on this day that the ensorcelled Queen Titania danced with a donkey. (painting by Henry Fuseli, circa 1790)