mediate cases of children sentenced with qisas, notably in order to commute qisas into diya
sentences (blood money). These institutions include a reconciliation commission, a working
group tasked to support mediation with the victim’s next of kin, conflict resolution council
branches and the Women and Children and Protection Office of the Judiciary.8 There is no
readily available information that would indicate the number of cases received, reviewed and
adjudicated by these institutions.
Additionally, Article 91 of the 2013 Islamic Penal Code allows judges to pronounce alternative
sentences in circumstances where the juveniles “do not realize the nature of the crime committed
or its prohibition, or if there is uncertainty about their full mental development, according to their
age”.9 The Article further adds that “the court may ask the opinion of forensic medicine or resort
to any other method that it sees appropriate in order to establish the full mental development”. In
2017, a number of special procedure mandate holders described ongoing executions of child
offenders in the Islamic Republic of Iran as “conclusive proof of the failure of the 2013
amendments to stop the execution of individuals sentenced to death as children”.10 In 2019, the
Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran found that the
aforementioned assessment of the mental development of the accused at the time of the offence
was “arbitrary and inconsistent, and at the sole discretion of the judge, who can choose whether
to seek medical advice or not”.11
The prohibition of imposing the death penalty on children is widely considered to be jus cogens
under international law and represents a violation of Articles 6(5) of the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights and 37(a) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Human
Rights Committee has explicitly stipulated that the death penalty cannot be imposed if it cannot
be proved, beyond reasonable doubt, that the accused was older than 18 years old at the time of
the offence.12 Executions of child offenders continue to be conducted in the Islamic Republic of
Iran. Iranian authorities executed at least 6 juvenile offenders in 2018, 4 in 2019 and 4 in 2020.13
14
There is no readily available information that might indicate the existence of steps taken by the
Government to repeal laws imposing the death penalty against child offenders.
The Parliament of the Islamic Republic of Iran has not amended legislation to prohibit the
execution of persons who committed a hudud or qisas crime while below the age of 18 years.
8
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, January 2019,
https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=A%2FHRC%2F40%2F67&Language=E&DeviceType=Desktop
9
Article 91, Islamic Penal Code (2013), English translation, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center,
https://iranhrdc.org/english-translation-of-books-i-ii-of-the-new-islamic-penal-code/
10
See OHCHR News, www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21547&LangID=E
11
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, January 2019,
https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=A%2FHRC%2F40%2F67&Language=E&DeviceType=Desktop
12
UN Human Rights Committee (HRC), General comment no. 36, Article 6 (Right to Life), 3 September
2019, CCPR/C/GC/35, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5e5e75e04.html
13
ECPM, Iran Human Rights: https://www.ecpm.org/wp-content/uploads/Rapport-iran-2020-gb-070420-WEB.pdf
14
https://iranhr.net/en/articles/4727
2