a reconciliation commission, a working group tasked to support mediation with the next of kin victim, conflict resolution council branches and the Women and Children and Protection Office of the judiciary. 7 There is no readily available information indicating the number of cases concerning children that have been received, reviewed and adjudicated by these institutions. However, the Government of the Islamic of Iran stated that the State was not intervening in the execution of the sentence in cases of qisas, which “is only possible on the basis of the request of the owners of the blood”.8 Ultimately, if the next of kin of the victim does not grant pardon in exchange for diya, the sentence must be fulfilled, with no option for the accused, including children, to seek pardon or commutation from the State. Additionally, Article 91 of the 2013 Islamic Penal Code allows judges to issue alternative sentences in circumstances where the juveniles “do not realize the nature of the crime committed or its prohibition, or if there is uncertainty about their full mental development, according to their age”.9 The Article further adds that “the court may ask the opinion of forensic medicine or resort to any other method that it sees appropriate in order to establish the full mental development”.10 In 2017, a number of special procedure mandate holders described ongoing executions of child offenders in the Islamic Republic of Iran as “conclusive proof of the failure of the 2013 amendments to stop the execution of individuals sentenced to death as children”.11 In 2019, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran found that the aforementioned assessment of the mental development of the accused at the time of the offence was “arbitrary and inconsistent, and at the sole discretion of the judge, who can choose whether to seek medical advice or not”.12 In recent years, reports indicate that courts have been selective in applying Article 91 and its note.13 There were cases where, despite forensic reports confirming that the defendant was not “fully mature” at the time of the crime, the judge decided that the accused individual(s) were mature and the language of Article 91 did not apply to them, as they had previously been charged for criminal activities (e.g., robbery). In general, the current Iranian legal framework permits the issuance of the death penalty for those under the age of 18, and the reforms introduced by the Islamic Penal Code have not 7 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, January 2019, https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=A%2FHRC%2F40%2F67&Language=E&DeviceType=Desktop Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, January 2019, https://undocs.org/en/A/HRC/40/67 9 Islamic Penal Code (2013), English translation, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, 8 https://iranhrdc.org/english-translation-of-books-i-ii-of-the-new-islamic-penal-code/ 10 See Islamic Penal Code (2013), English translation, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, https://iranhrdc.org/english-translation-of-books-i-ii-of-the-new-islamic-penal-code/. 11 See OHCHR News, www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21547&LangID=E 12 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, January 2019, https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=A%2FHRC%2F40%2F67&Language=E&DeviceType=Desktop 13 Amnesty International, https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/irans-hypocrisy-exposed-as-scores-of-juvenileoffenders-condemned-to-gallows/ 2

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