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Summary: The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran presented his report to the Human Rights Council during the 19th session. Ahmed Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, said that the apparent unwillingness of Iranian authorities to cooperate substantively only heightened concerns and seemed to fuel further attention to its human rights record. The report presented concerns about a number of vaguely defined security provisions within the Islamic Penal Code which were reportedly applied in ways that unduly limited freedom of expression, association and assembly. Witnesses reported arrests for activities protected by international law, and detention in solitary confinement in the absence of official charges. Those who attempted defending the accused were also met with severe punitive measures, while a significant increase in the rate of executions in Iran was reported. The Special Rapporteur noted that Iran had accepted some 34 per cent of the 126 recommendations of the Universal Periodic Review. "Baseless allegations", says Iran Iran, speaking as the concerned country, said that it would fully cooperate with all reporting mechanisms of the Human Rights Council, including Special Rapporteurs, to visit Iran in order to understand the issue of human rights. The Special Rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed had not met the minimum requirements of the Council and had confined himself to repeating baseless allegations on human rights violations without paying any attention to the promotional aspects of human rights in the country. The actions Mr. Shaheed had run counter to the principles of universality, objectivity and non-selectivity in observing human rights situations, and his working method contradicted the approach of the Council which should be transparent, just and impartial and lead to genuine dialogue and promotion of human rights. States' responses In the interactive debate following the presentation by the Special Rapporteur on Iran, countries expressed deep concern over the deteriorating human rights situation and by the serious failings in the administration of justice, the situation of religious and ethnic minorities and women, and the alarming rise in the number of executions. Juvenile executions Several countries joined the urgent call for the prohibition of the execution of juveniles and the establishment of a moratorium on executions. Repression took the form of arbitrary arrests of journalists, human rights defenders and students. The Iranian Government was trampling its own constitution and its international commitments. Other speakers said they opposed country mandates as a matter of principle and said that cooperative mechanisms such as the Universal Periodic Review provided an opportunity to examine human rights situations in countries and to discuss human rights concerns in a non-politicized manner.