effectively removed this type of punishment from legislation. The death penalty is still being
issued and carried out for qisas cases.14
Since 1990, Iran has executed more juvenile offenders than any other country in the world. The
total number of juveniles executed in Iran more than doubles that of the next nine countries who
also execute minors.15 According to Iran Human Rights’ reports, at least 63 juvenile offenders
were executed between 2010 and 2020. 16 Iranian authorities executed 5 juvenile offenders
(people who were under the age of 18 when committing a crime) in 2017, 6 in 2018 and 4 in
2019.17 In its January 2020 report, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the
Islamic Republic of Iran stated that he received “information that there are at present at least 100
individuals who have been sentenced to death for crimes committed when they were under 18
years of age.”18
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 proven, beyond reasonable doubt, that the accused was older than 18 years old at the time of
the offence.19 Executions of child offenders continue to be performed in the Islamic Republic of
Iran. There is no readily available information that might indicate the existence of steps taken by
the Government to repeal laws imposing the death penalty against child offenders.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has not taken the necessary steps to immediately suspend the
execution of all death penalties imposed on persons for having committed a crime before the age
of 18, has not taken the appropriate legal measures to convert them into penalties in conformity
with the provisions of the Convention, and has not abolished the death penalty as a sentence
imposed on persons for having committed crimes before the age of 18.
Recommendation Status:
This recommendation has NOT been implemented.
14
Iran Human Rights and ECPM, Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran 2019, 34. https://www.iranhr.net/en/reports/22/
Amnesty International, “Executions of Juveniles Since 1990 as of November 2019” accessed April 25, 2020,
https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/ACT5002332019ENGLISH.pdf
15
16
17
https://iranhr.net/en/articles/4727
ECPM, Iran Human Rights, https://iranhr.net/media/files/Rapport_iran-GB.pdf and
https://iranhr.net/media/files/Rapport_iran_2019-GB-BD.pdf
18
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, January 2020,
https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=A%2FHRC%2F43%2F61&Language=E&DeviceType=Desktop
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
19
3