independently reviewed and investigated.6 There is no independent National Human Rights
Institution competent to receive complaints from children, including girls, in the Islamic
Republic of Iran.
The prohibition of imposing the death penalty on children is widely considered to be jus cogens
under international law and represents a violation of Articles 6(5) of the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights and 37(a) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Human
Rights Committee has explicitly stipulated that the death penalty cannot be imposed if it cannot
be proved, beyond reasonable doubt, that the accused was older than 18 years old at the time of
the offence.7
The Islamic Republic of Iran has not ensured that all persons below the age of 18 years, without
exceptions, are considered children and are provided with all rights under the Convention.
B. Further increase the minimum age for marriage for both girls and boys to 18 years,
and to take all necessary measures to eliminate child marriages in line with the State
party’s obligations under the Convention
Child marriage continues to be permitted under Iranian law. The legal minimum age for marriage
is 13 for girls and 15 for boys.8 However, children who have reached puberty can marry with
parental consent and court approval.9 The predefined age of puberty under the Islamic Republic
of Iran, and the age of legal majority, is 9 lunar years for girls and 15 lunar years for boys.10
Marriage before puberty is criminalised in accordance with Article 50 of the Family Protection
Act11 and is punished under Article 646 of the Islamic Penal Code (2013).12
In 2018, a proposed amendment to Article 1041 of the Civil Code that would raise the age of
marriage for girls from 13 to 16, while allowing earlier marriage with legal and medical
approval, was rejected by the Parliament’s Committee for Judicial and Legal Affairs.13 In
6
Joint submission to the Human Rights Committee, Abdorrahman Center, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC),
Impact Iran and Human Rights Activists in Iran, 2020,
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=INT%2fCCPR%2fICS%2fIRN%2f42313
&Lang=en
7
UN Human Rights Committee, General Comment no.36, Article 6 (Right to life), 3 September 2019, CCPR/C/GC/35, available
at https://www.refworld.org/docid/5e5e75e04.html
8
Article 1041 of the Civil Code as amended up until December 2000, NGO Impact Iran Coalition, Joint Submission to the
Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2016
9
Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, https://iranhrdc.org/wpcontent/uploads/pdf_en/LegalCom/Womens_Rights_Commentary_389929723.pdf
10
Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2016, CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4, paras. 27–28 https://undocs.org/en/CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4
11
Universal Periodic Review, Iran, 2019, https://undocs.org/A/HRC/43/12
12
Islamic Penal Code (2013), Islamic Republic of Iran, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, https://iranhrdc.org/islamicpenal-code-of-the-islamic-republic-of-iran-book-five/
13
Amnesty International, UPR submission 2019,
https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1305732019ENGLISH.PDF
2