"Officially Iran had placed a moratorium on the cruel and painful practise in 2002, but Amnesty claims sentencing continues," according to Alison Langley ("Seven Women Face Stoning in Iran," 29 September 2006, <http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34939>). It's possible that Amnesty International is correct, but I don't automatically believe everything that AI or any human rights group says about Iran or any other country, for that matter, just as I have been skeptical of claims (made by Peter Tatchell, the Persian Gay & Lesbian Organization, etc.) that gay men are being executed on account of their gay identity in Iran.
What is undoubtedly true is Iran is one of the countries that execute many:
<blockquote>Most Executions in 2005
1. CHINA (At least 1,770 Executions)
2. IRAN (At least 94)
3. SAUDI ARABIA (At least 86)
4. UNITED STATES (60)
5. Pakistan (31)
6. Yemen (24)
7. Vietnam (21)
8. Jordan (11)
9. Mongolia (8)
9. Singapore (6)
<http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=127&scid=30></blockquote>
China's newly announced policy change on death penalty is very welcome, a part of a larger policy change currently taking place, after a power struggle between the Hu Jintao faction and the Jiang Zemin faction (for lack of better terms), in a direction that curbs the latter's neoliberal excesses.
<blockquote><http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6204516,00.html> China Judge Urges Death Penalty Caution Friday November 10, 2006 4:46 AM By AUDRA ANG Associated Press Writer
BEIJING (AP) - China's chief justice is urging extreme caution when imposing the death penalty, state media said, the latest effort apparently aimed at curbing the country's frequent use of capital punishment.
China, believed to carry out more court-ordered executions than all other nations combined, enacted legislation last week that requires approval from the Supreme People's Court - the country's highest - before putting anyone to death.
"In cases where the judge has legal leeway to decide whether to order death, he should always choose not to do so,'' Xiao Yang, the court's president, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency on Wednesday.
"Judges should be very cautious, as if walking on thin ice,'' he said.
The death penalty should be reserved for only an "extremely small number'' of serious offenders, Xiao said. The report did not give any details.
China is thought to execute hundreds, and possibly thousands, of people each year for crimes ranging from murder to tax evasion. Amnesty International says China executed at least 1,770 people in 2005 - about 80 percent of the world's total.
The true number is thought to be many times higher. London-based Amnesty has cited a senior member of China's national legislature as saying some 10,000 people are executed each year.
China began allowing lower courts to order executions in 1983 as part of an anti-crime campaign. Complaints have been common that lower courts were involved in miscarriages of justice.
The change, adopted by the legislature Oct. 31, enshrines last year's announcement by the Supreme People's Court that it would start reviewing all death sentences, ending a 23-year-old practice of giving the final review to provincial courts. It takes effect Jan. 1.
Since then, state media has reported that the Supreme Court has doubled the size of its death penalty review team to 100 judges to cope with the change.
Many were recruited from local courts and have finished a three-month training course. Lawyers and law school professors also would be recruited for the tribunals, the media reports said.
While activists have expressed hope the amendment will help decrease the number of capital punishment cases, Xiao said it was unlikely the death penalty will be abolished.
"The conditions are not yet ripe for China to ban the death penalty,'' he said. "It is still a necessary means to ensure the safety of the state and protect the people.''</blockquote>
I'd look to that sort of internally generated change in the case of Iran as well as any other country. Such change won't happen overnight, changes that do come are likely to be small, and there won't be linear progress either, but change that comes from inside the country is the only reliable kind of change. -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>