AT LEAST NINE CHILDREN EXECUTED IN IRAN SINCE 2018

Iran has executed at least nine children since 2018 to date, Javaid Rehman, the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, reported this month to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Rehman additionally reported that at least 90 children are sitting on death row in Iran today. Some have been awaiting their executions for over a decade.

INTERNATIONAL LAW FORBIDS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT FOR CHILDREN

Iran is one of the only states in the world that permits sentencing of those under 18-years-old—including girls as young as nine-years-old—to death, in direct conflict with international law. The right to life and the right to freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment are codified in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), respectively. The treaties do not expressly proscribe capital punishment, although widespread support continues to grow for its abolition, but international law does forbid the use of the death penalty against minors. Iran has ratified both treaties. 

CONTINUED DEATH PENALTY SENTENCING IN IRAN DESPITE LEGAL REFORM

While the Islamic Republic amended its domestic law in 2013 to grant judges discretion to exempt certain children from the death penalty, Iran continues to maintain one of the highest death penalty rates in the world, second only to China according to most analyses. Amnesty International has identified Iran as the “top executioner of children in the world”.

Since the 2013 law was enacted, 21 children have been sentenced to death—including two 17-year-old cousins who were executed earlier this year for convictions of rape and robbery imposed when the boys were 15-years-old, after a corrupt trial. Mehdi Sohrabifar and Amin Sedaghat were granted visitation with their families the day before their deaths, although the prison informed neither of the boys nor their families—nor their lawyers—that the visit was in anticipation of their execution. Evidence indicates that Sohrabifar and Sedaghat were flogged before their deaths. 

 Iran regularly conducts its state-sanctioned killing of juveniles in secret. In Iran, anyone convicted of murder, whether adult or juvenile, is sentenced to death; the regime does not categorise murders by degree or consider any defences, including self-defence. Iran law also permits the application of capital punishment to those convicted of other crimes, including prostitution, adultery, certain thefts, and “waging war against God.”

Ariana is a core team member of Human Rights Pulse. She is an ardent human rights advocate and soon-to-be attorney with experience in immigration and refugee rights, anti-death penalty advocacy, and nuclear disarmament among other issues.

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