'''Academic appointments:'''
[[Australian National University]]
[[Monash University]]
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Mai Sato | |
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United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran | |
Assumed office July 2024 | |
Preceded by | Javaid Rehman [1] |
Personal details | |
Born | Tokyo |
Alma mater | King's College London Academic appointments: Australian National University Monash University Birkbeck,London |
Mai Sato (佐藤舞) is a Japanese born academic with an interest in international human rights law and the death penalty. In 2024,she was appointed the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran.
Sato was born and grew up in Tokyo. [2] She studied social sciences in the United Kingdom,receiving a PhD from King's College London in 2011,and working at the Universities of Reading and the Oxford. [3] Moving to Australia in February 2019,she was an associate professor at the Australian National University [2] and then Monash University. [4]
Her principal focus has been on the death penalty and has worked on projects on the death penalty in Asia and Africa. She has also established and helps run CrimeInfo,an NGO which promotes the abolition of capital punishment in Japan and has made a documentary film on this subject. [5]
In July 2024,Sato was appointed the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran,commencing her duties on 1 August 2024. The appointment was for a three-year term,that can be extended. [6] The number of executions in Iran is among the highest in the world, [7] which relates the appointment to Sato's area of expertise.
In addition,she was appointed Professor and Director of the Institute for Crime and Justice Policy Research at Birkbeck,University of London from February 2025. [4]
Capital punishment,also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide,is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in such a manner is known as a death sentence,and the act of carrying out the sentence is known as an execution. A prisoner who has been sentenced to death and awaits execution is condemned and is commonly referred to as being "on death row". Etymologically,the term capital refers to execution by beheading,but executions are carried out by many methods,including hanging,shooting,lethal injection,stoning,electrocution,and gassing.
Special rapporteur is the title given to independent human rights experts whose expertise is called upon by the United Nations (UN) to report or advise on human rights from a thematic or country-specific perspective.
The state of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran has been regarded as very poor. The United Nations General Assembly and the Human Rights Commission have condemned prior and ongoing abuses in Iran in published critiques and several resolutions. The government is criticized both for restrictions and punishments that follow the Islamic Republic's constitution and law,and for "extrajudicial" actions by state actors,such as the torture,rape,and killing of political prisoners,and the beatings and killings of dissidents and other civilians. Capital punishment in Iran remains a matter of international concern.
Juan E. Méndez is an Argentine lawyer,former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel,Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,and a human rights activist known for his work on behalf of political prisoners.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Iran. The list of crimes punishable by death includes murder;rape;child molestation;homosexuality;drug trafficking;armed robbery;kidnapping;terrorism;burglary;incest;fornication;adultery;sodomy;sexual misconduct;prostitution;plotting to overthrow the Islamic government;political dissidence;sabotage;arson;rebellion;apostasy;blasphemy;extortion;counterfeiting;smuggling;recidivist consumption of alcohol;producing or preparing food,drink,cosmetics,or sanitary items that lead to death when consumed or used;producing and publishing pornography;using pornographic materials to solicit sex;capital perjury;recidivist theft;certain military offences;"waging war against God";"spreading corruption on Earth";espionage;and treason. Iran carried out at least 977 executions in 2015,at least 567 executions in 2016,and at least 507 executions in 2017. In 2018 there were at least 249 executions,at least 273 in 2019,at least 246 in 2020,at least 290 in 2021,at least 553 in 2022,at least 834 in 2023,and at least 226 so far in 2024. In 2023,Iran was responsible for 74% of all recorded executions in the world.
Delara Darabi was an Iranian Gilaki woman who was sentenced to death after having been convicted of murdering her father's female cousin in 2003. Although Delara initially claimed that she had committed the crime,she subsequently recanted and explained that her older boyfriend,Amir Hossein,had persuaded her to lie about the incident to protect him. According to Delara and other sources familiar with the case,Amir Hossein was the person who had committed the murder in an attempt to steal from a wealthy member of the Darabi family. She was hanged in Rasht Prison on 1 May 2009.
Ahmed Shaheed is a Maldivian diplomat,politician and professor. On 24 March 2016,he was appointed for the sixth year running as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Shaheed is also the Chairperson of the Geneva-based international human rights think-tank,Universal Rights Group,which was launched in January 2014. He now lives in England as a Professor of Human Rights Practice at the University of Essex. Shaheed is also a Senior Fellow at Raoul Wallenberg Human Rights Centre and a Fellow at the Bonavero Institute of Human rights at the University of Oxford.
Philip Geoffrey Alston is an Australian international law scholar and human rights practitioner. He is John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law at New York University School of Law,and co-chair of the law school's Center for Human Rights and Global Justice. In human rights law,Alston has held a range of senior UN appointments for over two decades,including United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial,summary or arbitrary executions,a position he held from August 2004 to July 2010,and UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights from 2014-2020.
The Davao Death Squad (DDS) is a vigilante group in Davao City,Philippines. The group is alleged to have conducted summary executions of street children and individuals suspected of petty crimes and drug dealing. It has been estimated that the group is responsible for the killing or disappearance of between 1,020 and 1,040 people between 1998 and 2008. A 2009 report by the Philippine Commission on Human Rights (CHR) noted stonewalling by local police under the mayorship of Rodrigo Duterte while a leaked cable observed a lack of public outrage among Davao residents.
William Anthony Schabas,OC is a Canadian academic specialising in international criminal and human rights law. He is professor of international law at Middlesex University in the United Kingdom,professor of international human law and human rights at Leiden University in the Netherlands,and an internationally respected expert on human rights law,genocide and the death penalty.
Agnès Callamard is a French human rights activist who is the Secretary General of Amnesty International. She was previously the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial,summary,or arbitrary executions appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council,and the former Director of the Columbia University Global Freedom of Expression project.
David Kaye is an American politician who served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression between August 2014 and July 2020. He was succeeded by Irene Khan. Kaye is clinical professor of law at the University of California,Irvine on public international law,international humanitarian law human rights and international criminal justice. He is co-director of the UCI Fair Elections and Free Speech Center working at the intersection of technology,freedom of speech and democratic deliberation. He is also the independent board chair of the Global Network Initiative.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran is a United Nations Special Rapporteur whose mandate is to monitor and investigate human rights violations in Iran. The current Special Rapporteur is Mai Sato. She is the seventh special rapporteur to Iran,following the tenures of Andrés Aguilar (1984–1986),Reynaldo Galindo Pohl (1986–1995),Maurice Copithorne (1995–2002),Ahmed Shaheed (2011–2016),,Asma Jilani Jahangir (2016–2018) and Javaid Rehman (2018−2024).
Capital punishment in Sudan is legal under Article 27 of the Sudanese Criminal Act 1991. The Act is based on Sharia law which prescribes both the death penalty and corporal punishment,such as amputation. Sudan has moderate execution rates,ranking 8th overall in 2014 when compared to other countries that still continue the practice,after at least 29 executions were reported.
Capital punishment as a criminal punishment for homosexuality has been implemented by a number of countries in their history. It is a legal punishment in several countries and regions,all of which have sharia-based criminal laws,except for Uganda.
Ahmad Reza Djalali is an Iranian-Swedish disaster medicine doctor,lecturer,and researcher. He has worked in several universities in Europe,among which Karolinska University of Sweden,where he had also attended his PhD program,Universitàdegli Studi del Piemonte Orientale (Italy),Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium). He also cooperated with universities in Iran and is in contact with universities worldwide.
Javaid Rehman is a British-Pakistani legal scholar and Professor of Islamic Law and International Law at Brunel University London.
Annalisa Ciampi is an Italian law professor and public official. In 2017,Ciampi served as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association.
Capital punishment remains a legal penalty for multiple crimes in The Gambia. However,the country has taken recent steps towards abolishing the death penalty.
Francesca P. Albanese is an Italian international lawyer and academic. On 1 May 2022,she was appointed United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories for a three-year term. She is the first woman to hold the position.
Countries & territories |
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(Human Rights) Thematic mandates |
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United Nations special rapporteurs bear mandates from the United Nations Human Rights Council and may hold the titles special rapporteur, independent expert or special representative of the Secretary-General, and are also referred to simply as mandate-holders. |