violation of international law as the Human Rights Committee has stated that the prohibition
under Article 7 of the ICCPR extends to “corporal punishment, including excessive
chastisement ordered as punishment for a crime or as an educative or disciplinary measure”.28
Furthermore, while the 2013 Islamic Penal Code abolishes corporal punishment and flogging
of children under the age of 18 years for the crimes under ta’zir (discretionary punishment for
crimes of which fixed penalties are not provided in Islamic Law) 29, it retains the punishment
for crimes under hudud (fixed punishments prescribed by Islamic Law) and qesas
(punishment of retribution in kind) for children who have reached the legal age of criminal
responsibility (9 lunar years for girls and 15 lunar years for boys). 30 In 2016, the Committee
on the Rights of the Child raised serious concerns about such crimes carrying sentences
“involving torture or cruel or degrading treatment or punishment which have been and
continue to be applied to children.”31 For example, a 14 year-old boy was sentenced to six
months in prison and 30 lashes for stealing pigeons from his neighbor’s roof in February 2013
by a court in Birjan, Khorasan Province. The judge sentenced the boy despite the fact that the
pigeons were returned and the plaintiff withdrew his compliant.32 The same year another
individual aged 17 years old received 80 lashes on the charge of “drinking alcohol”.33
Recommendation Status:
This recommendation has NOT been implemented.
28
UN Human Rights Committee (HRC), CCPR General Comment No. 20: Article 7 (Prohibition of Torture, or Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment), 10 March 1992, available at:
https://www.refworld.org/docid/453883fb0.html
29
Ta’zir crimes are acts that are in violation of Shari’a laws and/or the Islamic Government’s regulations. While the
punishments for crimes under hudud or qisas are provided under Shari’a law, taz’ir crimes do not have codified and fixed
penalties under Shari’a law, which are determined at the discretion of the Islamic Government .
30
Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4, 14 March 2016,
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CRC%2fC%2fIRN%2fCO%2f34&Lang=en
31
Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4, 14 March 2016,
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CRC%2fC%2fIRN%2fCO%2f34&Lang=en
32
Abdorrahman Boroumand Center https://www.iranrights.org/library/document/273
33
Abdorrahman Boroumand Center https://iranrights.org/projects/flogging
4