To some extent, Iranian law protects children in street situation from abuses, as the Child and
Adolescent Protection law, according to the Government, criminalises “any type of
maltreatment, economic exploitation, deal and selling/buying, prostitution and any form of
sexual exploitation, any vulgar exploitation and pornography”.21 The dearth of recent official
reports and disaggregated data on children in street situations in the Islamic Republic of Iran
prevents any assessment as to whether such legal protection ensures that children in street
situations are not subjected to discrimination, abuse or harassment by the public and law
enforcement officials. NGO reports aforementioned suggest otherwise.
As of February 2021, there is no evidence of the existence of a policy measure to ensure
adequate monitoring and disaggregated data collection on violence against children, including
against children in street situation, in order to generate situation analysis in the Islamic Republic
of Iran. The lack of readily available information regarding cases of complaints concerning illtreatment and abuse of children in street situations prevents any assessment of whether
investigations are promptly carried. The apparent regularity of cases of abuses against children in
street situations may suggest that these children lack access to even file a complaint in the first
place.
Legal provisions concerning vagrancy may well criminalise and disproportionately affect
children in street situations and put them at risk of arbitrary arrest and illegal detention. The
absence of legal safeguards against arbitrary arrest and illegal detention for children in street
situations may well enable such violations to occur. Additionally, although children are protected
from violence under the law, in practice children in street situation reportedly suffer from
discrimination, abuse or harassment by the public and by law enforcement officials.
Recommendation Status:
This recommendation has NOT been implemented.
21
National Report, UPR 2019, Islamic Republic of Iran, https://undocs.org/A/HRC/WG.6/34/IRN/1
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