Mai Sato: I have no authority to stop the execution, but my presence is necessary

Farnaz Ghazizadeh, senior anchor at the BBC

The UN Special Rapporteur on Iran Affairs says he cannot stop the execution of the sentence, but he can demand answers from the Iranian authorities, include the victims' narratives in official documents and increase the political cost of human rights violations.

Mai Sato, the UN's special rapporteur on human rights issues in Iran, clearly explains the limits of her authority: "I have no authority to stop the executions." He can ask the Iranian authorities to stop the execution of the sentence and ask the UN member states to raise their concerns, but he does not have the power to issue a cease and desist order.

However, Ms Sato says her limited powers do not mean the mission is futile. The importance of the special reporter's work is not measured only by the immediate outcome of a case; This mission is a way to "demand answers from the Republic of Salami, increase the political cost of human rights violations and document the narratives of the victims" in official UN documents. He even follows the cases where the death sentence was carried out so that the families and lawyers can tell their story about what happened. According to him, this work is "part of the list of truth and its transformation into an official document of the United Nations", a document that can be cited in future follow-ups.