Iran
Stop Child Executions (MDE 13/078/2007)
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."
"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."
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. (Iran is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1975) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1994). Both of these instruments forbid the execution of anyone for offences committed before the age of 18 years. When ratifying the CORC in 1974, the Iranian Government stated that it ,"reserves the right not to apply any provisions or articles of the Convention that are incompatible with Islamic Laws". This reservation potentially negates many of the provisions of the Convention. Ed.)
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
Please write to at least two of the following Iranian authorities with copies to the Iranian Ambassador. Make these points in your letters.
- Express grave concern at Iran's continuing use of the death penalty against juvenile offenders (those who were under the age of 18 years at the time of their alleged offences);
- Call for an immediate moratorium on the execution of juvenile offenders;
- Urge that the death sentences be commuted for the 71 juvenile offenders identified by Amnesty International and for any other juvenile offenders under sentence of death in Iran;
- Point out that death sentences or executions of juvenile offenders are violations of customary international law and are prohibited by the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, instruments to which Iran is a state party;
- Urge that the law in Iran be changed to abolish the use of the death penalty for any crimes or offences committed by juvenile offenders.
Addresses
Head of the JudiciaryAyatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Justice Building, Panzdah-Khordad Square,
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: +98 21 3390 4986 (please keep trying)
Email: info@dadgostary-tehran.ir (In the subject line write: FAO Ayatollah Shahroudi)
Leader of the Islamic Republic
His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed 'Ali Khamenei, The Office of the Supreme Leader
Shoahada Street, Qom,
Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: info@leader.ir
Or istiftaa@wilayah.org
Fax: +98 251 7774 2228
(mark FAO Office of His Excellency Ayatollah al Udhma Khamenei)
Speaker of Parliament
His Excellency Gholamali Haddad Adel
Majles-e Shoura-ye Eslami, Baharestan Square,
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: + 98 21 3355 6408
Email: hadadadel@majlis.ir
Copies To:
H.E. Mr Morteza Rahmani MovahedAmbassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran
P O Box 10 249, Wellington .
Fax 04-386 3065
Email:info@iranembassy.org.nz
