The Committee on the rights of the Child explicitly stipulated that the “child justice system should apply to all children above the age of criminal responsibility but below the age of 18 years at the time of the commission of the offence.” The Committee further recommended member States to “ensure a non-discriminatory full application of their child justice system to all persons below the age of 18 years at the time of the offence.”18 The Iranian judicial system has established several procedural mechanisms to administer juvenile justice. However, the Islamic Republic still lacks a distinctive and comprehensive juvenile justice system that is geared toward the best interest of the child. While there are positive aspects to the new juvenile courts and juvenile branch of the criminal courts, these developments fail to bring Iran’s juvenile justice system in line with the Convention.19 Neither court system is constructed around the best interest of the child, nor are there any legal provisions requiring judges to take the best interest of the child into account during criminal proceedings. Iranian law does not prescribe any limit on pretrial detention of defendants under the age of 18. Nor does Iranian law present any procedural safeguards to protect the privacy of child defendants. 20 B. Develop procedures and criteria to provide guidance to all relevant persons in authority for determining the best interests of the child in every area and for giving this due weight as a primary consideration As of February 2020, Iran has not established an independent and impartial National Human Rights Institution which would advise and guide authority figures in the implementation of human rights and treaty bodies such as the Committee on the Rights of the Child. The High Council of Human rights is often mentioned by Iran as being the country’s NHRI, yet this body is a part of the Judiciary of Iran which contradicts standards introduced by the Paris Principles. Similarly, there is no mechanism that deals specifically with children’s rights that also accepts and addresses complaints by children. The National Body for the Convention of the Rights of the Child was established in Iran in 2010, yet this body is also a part of the Ministry of Justice.21 In its National Report to the Universal Periodic Review in 2019, the Islamic Republic of Iran reported that it carried out “human rights trainings for judges, judicial officers and administrative staff on the rights of the child, the rights of persons with disabilities, the prohibition of torture and 18 General comment No. 24 (2019) on children’s rights in the child justice system, CRC/C/GC/24, https://undocs.org/CRC/C/GC/24 19 Impact Iran submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, review of the 3rd and 4th periodic reports of the Islamic Republic of Iran: https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/TreatyBodyExternal/countries.aspx?CountryCode=IRN&Lang=EN 20 See more: Impact Iran submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, review of the 3rd and 4th periodic reports of the Islamic Republic of Iran: https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/TreatyBodyExternal/countries.aspx?CountryCode=IRN&Lang=EN 21 For more please see: Impact Iran submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, review of the 3rd and 4th periodic reports of the Islamic Republic of Iran: https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/TreatyBodyExternal/countries.aspx?CountryCode=IRN&Lang=EN 3