Concluding Observations Committee on the Rights of the Child CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4 para
10
Full recommendation:
The Committee, in line with its previous recommendation (CRC/C/15/Add.254, para. 7) and in
the light of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action of 1993, urges the State party to
review the general nature of its reservation and encourages the State party to withdraw it in a
clear timeframe. The Committee recommends that the State party bring its domestic laws and
regulations into compliance with the Convention and ensure that the provisions of the
Convention prevail whenever there is a conflict with the domestic law.
Assessment using Impact Iran human rights indicators1
A. Urges the State party to review the general nature of its reservation and encourages
the State party to withdraw it in a clear timeframe
According to Article 19 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which entered into
force on 27 January 1980, « A State may, when signing, ratifying, accepting, approving or
acceding to a treaty, [may] formulate a reservation unless: […] the reservation is incompatible
with the object and purpose of the treaty.”
According to Article 9 of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Civil Code, any ratified international
instrument, which includes the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC), should have the
force of law and thus should be enforceable in the national courts and impact the larger legal
framework.2 The Islamic Republic of Iran has, however, included a reservation to the
Convention, which states 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.”3
In 2005, the Committee of the Rights of the Child found that Iran’s broad and imprecise
reservation does not meet the necessary requirements for reservations, as it in effect negates
many provisions of the Convention and undermines the object and purpose of the treaty.4
As of February 2020, the Islamic Republic of Iran has not reviewed nor withdrawn its general
reservation to the CRC.
1
CRC.19.1.S; ESCR.3.S.1; CCPR.14.1.S.1; CRC.37.1.S.1
Civil Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran (“Civil Code”), art. 9 (1981, amended 1991, 2006)
3
Reservation of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, issued upon ratification (13 July 1994)
4
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Consideration of the Report submitted, (31 March 2005), CRC/C/15/Add.254, paras.
6-7
2
1