No one shall be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

The Islamic Republic's record on Human Rights abuses is apparent in the forms of punishment that are prescribed by the clergy and carried out in public by the Judicial Police, the Islamic Guards and sometimes the public. These punishments range from the most ridiculous that requires vandals to ride around their neighborhood on donkeys, facing backwards, to the most outrageous and unforgiving practice of the public stoning of adulterers to death. Public hangings and floggings, the cutting off of the hands, amd the gouging of the eyes are but a few examples of the cruel and inhuman punishments that have been practiced under the rule of the Islamic Republic. Aside from the above there is also the Islamic ground for crucifixion, which is perhaps the most shocking and outrageous punishment of all. Although an actual case of crucifixion happening has yet to be recorded in Iran, yet it must be of concern to all Human Rights advocates that such a practice is still considered to be a legal form of punishment, in that it is institutionalized in the Penal Code of the Islamic Republic. The laws, outlined below, make it clear that the purpose of crucifixion is to inflict severe pain which may lead to death:

"The curcifixion of a Mohareb and Mofsed fil Arz shall be carried out by observing the following conditions:

1- The manner of tying does not cause the death

2- The person being crucified does not remain on the cross for more than three days; but if he dies during the three days he may be brought down after his death

3- If he remains alive after three days, he must not be killed

It is also important to note that the victims of these outrageous practices are not only those offenders who are the subjects of these punishments, but also the general public who are forced into having to accept these laws in the first place, and who are then further brutalized in having to witness and participate in the administration of the cruel punishments that are prescribed by such laws.