Execution of Children in Iran

[gellibee]

As a state party to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Iran has undertaken not to execute anyone for an offence committed when they were under the age of 18.

Nevertheless, 11 child offenders have been executed in Iran since 1990. On 20 January 2005 Iman Farokhi was executed for a crime committed when he was 17 years old. On the same day an Iranian governmental delegation claimed that Iran does not execute people under the age of 18, in a declaration to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child.

The Committee, which monitors states' implementation of the CRC, urged Iran to immediately stay all executions of people convicted of crimes committed when they were under 18, and abolish the use of the death penalty in such cases. The Committee said that it "deplored" the fact that Iran had continued to carry out such executions even after it ratified the CRC, including the execution that had taken place that day.

There are least 37 children under sentence of death in Iran, including Rasoul Mohammadi, a 17-year-old boy who is due to be executed on 16 April at Esfahan prison. (See UA 86/05, MDE 13/012/2005, 14 April 2005) For the last three years, the Iranian authorities have been considering legislation that would prohibit the use of the death penalty for offences committed under the age of 18.

[MXB]

Iran: End child executions

"My daughter Delara is accused of a crime that she did not commit… Help me and help us until justice is properly served. There are no signs of humanity and justice in here."
father of Delara Darabi who is awaiting execution in Iran, 11 January 2007

Amnesty International is calling on Iran's judicial and political authorities to order an immediate moratorium to prevent further executions of child offenders and to amend the laws so no children who commit crimes can be sentenced to death. In a new report, the organization said at least 71 child offenders were awaiting execution in Iran, where more child offenders have been executed than in any other country since 1990.

"Iran stands virtually alone as a country in which child offenders - persons under 18 at the time of the crime of which they were convicted - are put to death," said Malcolm Smart, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme.

"It is high time that the Iranian authorities put an end to this shameful practice - for once and for all - and bring themselves in line with the rest of the international community, which has long recognized the obscenity of executing those who commit crimes while children."

In the report, Iran: The last executioner of children, Amnesty International lists the names of the 71 child offenders known to be facing the death penalty, but notes that the total number could be much higher as many death penalty cases in Iran are believed to go unreported. Of the 24 child offenders recorded as having been executed since 1990, 11 were still under the age of 18 at the time of their execution while the others were either kept on death row until they had reached 18 or were convicted and sentenced after reaching that age.

"The Iranian authorities deny that they execute children but so far this year we have already recorded two executions of child offenders," said Malcolm Smart. "Mohammad Mousavi, aged 19, was executed in April for a crime committed when he was 16, and Sa'id Qanbar Zahi, hanged on 27 May 2007 at Zahedan prison, was only 17 when he was sentenced to death with six other members of Iran's Baluchi minority two months earlier."

The execution of Atefeh Rajabi Sahaaleh, sentenced for "crimes against chastity" and hanged at the age of 16 on August 2004, is one of seven cases highlighted by the report.

A day after her execution, a judiciary official told a newspaper that she was 22 years old. Rajabi's case highlights the failure of the Iranian judicial system to protect children and provides further evidence that some child offenders are executed in Iran even before they reach the age of 18. The report also lists the cases of 17 other people who were executed for crimes committed when they were under 18.

Although executions of child offenders are few compared to the total number of executions in Iran, they highlight the government’s disregard for its commitments and obligations under international law, which prohibits in all circumstances the use of the death penalty against child offenders.

Apart from Iran, the only countries in which executions of child offenders have been recorded since 2003 are China, Sudan and Pakistan; though the Chinese and Pakistani authorities insisted that those executed were aged 18 or over at the time of the crime. In each year the number of child offenders executed in Iran exceeded the total number of all other executions of child offenders.

Some members of the government and the judiciary are also believed to favour at least reducing, if not abolishing, the death penalty for child offenders, but progress is painfully slow. For example, a draft law proposed by the judiciary in 2001 could pave the way for the abolition of the death sentence for minors or at least result in a reduction in the number of offences for which child offenders could be sentenced to death, but the draft law is still under consideration by the political and judicial authorities.

Amid the horror of child executions and the wider problem of the death penalty in Iran, there are some positive signs, particularly, the emergence of a growing movement in favour of the abolition of the death penalty for child offenders. This is being led by a courageous band of human rights defenders and activists within Iran, and it has already achieved some notable successes.

"Amnesty International opposes the death penalty unreservedly for anyone, regardless of their age and regardless of the nature of the crime or the character of the condemned," said Malcolm Smart. "Every execution is an affront to human dignity - a human rights violation of premeditated cruelty that denies the right to life enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."

[andrewf]

It is very shameful to see that there are still so many countries in the world that imposes death penalty over individuals under the age of 18. And above they are prosecuted without providing them any fair and just trial. So justice has yet to prevail over these backward minded countries.