Concluding Observation Committee on the Rights of the Child CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4 para
56
Full recommendation:
In the light of its general comment No. 8 (2006) on the right of the child to protection from
corporal punishment and other cruel or degrading forms of punishment, the Committee urges the
State party to review its legislation with a view to prohibiting all forms of corporal punishment
irrespective of its purpose, including by parents, guardians and teachers, and instead to promote
positive, non-violent and participatory forms of child-rearing and discipline.
Assessment using Impact Iran indicators1
As all Iranian laws have religious (Shia Islam) roots, many cases of acts of violence against
children are not recognized as violence and are attributed to the right of a parent to discipline
their child, this includes violence in child-rearing situations and parents or guardians disciplining
children within the household. After a particularly gruesome incident in 2016, where a father
beheaded his child, Government officials and international organizations highlighted these
deficiencies in Iran and the government pledged to enforce protective laws on children exposed
to violence.2 For this reason, the Iranian government prepared a bill entitled "The Law on
Protection and Protection of Children and Teenagers from Violence" and submitted it to
parliament for due process. This law had been submitted in 2012 but was stalled in Parliament. It
was resubmitted by President Rouhani’s government in 2016 and was ultimately approved by the
Guardian Council on June 7th 2020. The new law introduces several updates to a previous law
passed in 2003, in the form of new procedures for social workers to investigate the situation of
children under “extreme danger” (article 33) from abuse and exploitation, as well as by
criminalizing several forms of female genital mutilation.
Despite the above highlighted improvements, the new law has been found lacking in some
regards and human rights organizations have pointed out that, even with these protections in
place, if the murder that prompted lawmakers to draft the bill in the first place had occurred after
its passing, the father of the young child who was murdered would still face a minor sentence (310 years).3 Additionally the bill doesn’t deal with issues of children affected by armed conflict.
There is insufficient information to argue for the positive effects of the new child protection law,
yet there is evidence that the recent COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated cases of child abuse in
Iran. Iran’s welfare organization has speculated that (as of August 13th) child abuse instances had
grown fivefold since the beginning of the pandemic.4
1
CRC.19.1.S.1; CRC.19.1.P.1; CRC.19.1.O.1
Human Rights Watch: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/06/23/iran-child-protection-law-positive-insufficient
3
Atlantic Council: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/iransource/the-new-iranian-child-protection-law-isholistic-but-discriminatory/
4
Atlantic Council: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/iransource/coronavirus-pandemic-exacerbates-irans-childabuse-problem/
2
1