Date Posted: July 7, 2010

By Arsalan Iftikhar, Special to CNN  

Editor's note: Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer, founder of TheMuslimGuy.com and legal fellow for the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding in Washington, D.C.  

Washington (CNN) -- It is clearly stated in Article 5 of the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights that, "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

Adopted in 1948 by the U.N. General Assembly, in addition to outlawing torture categorically, this international treaty was to be used as a common standard for international law and outlined -- for the first time ever -- fundamental human rights to be protected anywhere around the world.

Included under the category of "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" would most certainly be the impending death by stoning of a 42-year-old Iranian mother for the alleged crime of adultery.

Sakineh Mohammadie Ashtiani -- a mother of two -- could be stoned to death at any moment under the terms of a death sentence that Iranian authorities handed down in 2006.

Read the rest of Arsalan’s CNN column here: http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/07/07/iftikhar.iran.stoning/index.html?hpt=T2