Juvenile Executions

According to the international advocacy organization Human Rights Watch, Iran holds the distinction of leading the world in juvenile executions. Despite the fact that the government of Iran has signed International Covenants that forbid them to execute anyone under the age of 18 who has allegedly committed an offence, they continue to do so. Amnesty International has documented 31 executions of child offenders in Iran since 1990. In many cases, these minors have been imprisoned until the age of 18 and then executed, and there are currently at least 95 minors on death row in Iran.

Youth Imprisonment

Only a few Iranian cities have a youth prison. Minors are often held with adult violent offenders. According to the UN Integrated Regional Information Networks, there are 300 boys and 40 girls at the Tehran youth prison; their average age is 14 but some are as young as six. Consequences for parents who could not afford court fees are severe; children are imprisoned for petty offenses such as shoplifting, wearing make-up or mixing with the opposite sex.

Nazanin Fatehi

The “Stop Child Executions Campaign,” headed by Nazanin Afshin-Jam, an international human rights activist and former Miss World Canada, has profiled the plights of minors on death row in Iran. The campaign was initiated as a follow-up effort to the successful petition drive that helped save Nazanin Fatehi from execution.

On January 3, 2006, Nazanin Mahabad Fatehi was sentenced to death for murder by court in Iran after she stabbed one of three men who attempted to rape her and her 15-year-old niece in a park in a suburb of Tehran in March 2005. She was seventeen years old at the time.

Nazanin Fatehi was released from Iranian prison after more than 350,000 signatures were gathered worldwide. This successful campaign illustrates the need for international attention to illuminate the abuses inside Iran and spur peaceful change.

Amnesty International

Amnesty International published a report about juvenile executions to draw international attention to this grave and long-standing violation of human rights, to support the efforts being made in Iran by Iranians to stop child executions and to secure an end to the death penalty for child offenders. According to Amnesty International’s records, Iran holds the macabre distinction of having executed more child offenders than any other country in the world since 1990.

In many cases, child offenders under sentence of death in Iran are kept in prison until they reach 18 before execution. In this period, some win appeals against their conviction. Some have their sentences overturned on appeal and are freed after a retrial. Some are reprieved by the family of the victim in cases of qesas (retribution) crimes and are asked to pay diyeh (monetary compensation) instead. Some are executed.

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 the death penalty for child offenders, regardless of circumstance. The executions also gravely undermine the particular obligation that all states have to protect children, one of the most vulnerable groups in society.

The Iranian authorities continue to fly in the face of the global trend when it comes to executions, despite the UN General Assembly resolution of 18 December 2007 which calls on States “to establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty.” The resolution, which was passed by a large majority of UN member states, also called on governments to inform the UN Secretary General about their observance of international “safeguards guaranteeing the protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty”

The international consensus against executing child offenders reflects the widespread recognition that because of children’s immaturity, impulsiveness, vulnerability and capacity for rehabilitation, their lives should never be written off ? however heinous the crimes for which they are convicted. The guiding principle must be to maximize a child offender’s potential for eventual reintegration into society. Execution is the ultimate denial of this principle.

Sources: U.S. Department of State Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – Iran (2007)