The Islamic Republic of Iran has made a reservation to the Convention on the Rights of the Child stipulating that: “The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran reserves the right not to apply any provisions or articles of the Convention that are incompatible with Islamic Laws and the internal legislation in effect.”20 On the justification of such reservation, the Islamic Republic of Iran has violated children’s rights otherwise protected under the Convention, notably by continuing to apply the death penalty for child offenders. Indeed, the Islamic Penal Code (2013) maintains the age of criminal responsibility for crimes punishable by hudud (punishments fixed by God) or qisas (punishment or retribution in kind), which carry mandatory punishments such as death, at the age of “maturity” that is 9 years old for girls and 15 years old for boys. Reportedly, four convicted child offenders were executed in 2019 in the Islamic Republic of Iran.21 Above-mentioned provisions are not the only Iranian laws attenuating and abrogating rights guaranteed by the five international instruments to which the Islamic Republic of Iran is a party.22 23 20 Reservation of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, issued upon ratification (13 July 1994) available at: http://treaties.un.org/doc/publication/unts/volume%201788/volume-1788-a-27531-english.pdf 21 https://www.ecpm.org/wp-content/uploads/Rapport-iran-2020-gb-070420-WEB.pdf 22 See more : Joint submission to the Human Rights Committee from All Human Rights for All in Iran, Association for Human Rights in Kurdistan – Geneva, Association for the Human Rights of the Azerbaijani People in Iran, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, OutRight International, Siamak Pourzand Foundation, Small Media, Impact Iran, 2020, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CCPR/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CCPR_NGO_IRN_42317_E.pdf 23 See more: 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 3