Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran A/69/356 para 106 Full recommendation: The Government should take immediate steps to address the increasing incidence of early and forced child marriage, in particular by banning child marriage and raising the minimum age for marriage to 18 years, as specified in a number of laws identified in the country’s submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child. He further appeals for efforts to define and criminalize domestic violence and to expand the definition of rape to encompass marital rape to be expedited. He asserts, however, that, while domestic violence is an egregious act, it does not constitute a lethal action required for the application of capital punishment under international law. Assessment drafted using Impact Iran indicators1 Articles 19 and 34 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child mandates states to prevent sexual exploitation of children in any scenario, including while in the care of a parent or a guardian. This includes any type of coercion or inducement of a child to engage in unlawful sexual activity. Furthermore, child marriage is regarded by human rights activists as conducive to (if not a form of) sexual abuse.2 A law on child adoption, passed in 2013, legalized the marriage between a father and his adopted daughter.3 Such a marriage would be prohibited unless a court, after consulting with the state welfare organization, rules that such a marriage is in the best interest of the child though the conditions for this determination are not made clear.4 There is no formal age of consent defined by legislation in Iran as sexual relations outside of marriage are forbidden, thus age of consent is directly dependent on the minimum age of marriage. The legal minimum age for marriage is 13 years old for girls and 15 years old for boys.5 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 only with legal and medical approval, was rejected by the Parliament’s Committee for Judicial and Legal Affairs.6 In February 2019, the chair of the Committee stated that a “new plan” would be introduced for the 1 Indicators used: CRC.19.1.S.1; CRC.19.1.P.1; CRC.19.1.O.1; ESCR.12.1.S.8 Persia Education Foundation: https://www.persia.education/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Legal_Study_Children_Rights.pdf 3 Law on the protection of children and adolescents without guardians or with irresponsible ones, Article 26, (2013), available at: http://www.rooznamehrasmi.ir/Laws/ShowLaw.aspx?Code=1344 . 4 Impact Iran submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, review of the 3rd and 4th periodic reports of the Islamic Republic of Iran: https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/TreatyBodyExternal/countries.aspx?CountryCode=IRN&Lang=EN 5 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, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CRC_NGO_IRN_19809_E.pdf 6 Amnesty International, UPR submission 2019, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1305732019ENGLISH.PDF 2 1

Select target paragraph3