Concluding observations Committee on the Rights of the Child CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4 para
92(d)
Full recommendation:
Promote alternative measures to detention, such as diversion, probation, mediation, counselling
or community service, wherever possible, and ensure that detention is used as a last resort and
for the shortest possible period of time and that it is reviewed on a regular basis with a view to
withdrawing it.
Assessment using Impact Iran human rights indicators1
A. The State party should promote alternative measures to detention, such as
diversion, probation, mediation, counselling or community service, wherever
possible
Article 6 of the Law on the Protection of Children and Adolescents (adopted in April 2020)
identifies and details the responsibilities of the institutions responsible for the prevention of
crimes as well as for the sentences held against juvenile offenders.2 These institutions include the
State Welfare Organization, the police, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Interior, the
Ministry of Labour, and the Ministry of Health. Article 4 of the law mandates the Judiciary to
establish an "Office for the Protection of Children and Adolescents" to oversee the
implementation of the law.3 There is no readily available information that might suggest that
these institutions have been promoting alternative measures to detention.
In its 2019 National Report to the Universal Periodic Review, the Government of the Islamic
Republic of Iran gave examples of protections given to children under its revised criminal laws.
Regarding alternative measures to detention, the State noted that it applied “a variety of
correctional and educational alternatives to incarceration”. These included returning children to
their families or “holding” children in “rehabilitation centers for upbringing for a maximum of 5
years”.4 The Government also mentions that, in most provinces’ capitals, “Rehabilitation and
Training Centers” have been established for convicted juvenile offenders.5 The nature of these
rehabilitation centres remains rather unclear, but reports indicate that most of them are6
Additionally, there is no readily available information as to the circumstances into which
children are being ‘held’ in these rehabilitation centres.
1
CCPR.37.1.S.2; CCPR.37.2.S.1; CCPR.37.2.S.2; CCPR.37.2.P.1; CCPR.37.1.O.1; CCPR.37.2.O.1
< https://shenasname.ir/laws/6788 >
3
< https://shenasname.ir/laws/6788 >
4
National Report, UPR 2019, Islamic Republic of Iran, https://undocs.org/A/HRC/WG.6/34/IRN/1
5
For a history of “Rehabilitation and Training Centers” in Iran, please see: http://www.madadkar.org/preven- tion-of-socialdamage/history-correcting-and-training-centers.html
6
Iran Human Rights Documentation Center consultation with Iranian lawyer Hossein Raeesi, February 2015
2
1