qisas (punishment or retribution in kind), which carry mandatory punishments such as death, is maintained at the age of “maturity” that is 9 and 15 lunar years for girls and boys respectively. In qisas cases, the implementation of the sentence is solely based on the request of the victim or the victim’s guardian, which deprives the child of his or her right to seek pardon or commutation from the State.17 There are a number of institutions which can intervene to 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 next of kin victim, conflict resolution council branches and the Women and Children and Protection Office of the judiciary. 18 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 juvenile “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”.19 This would allow for the use of alternative punishments such as imprisonment instead of the death penalty. The note of this article specifies that, at the discretion of the judge, “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”.20 In practice, these amendments to the Islamic Penal Code have not prevented the issuance of execution sentences for juveniles. In recent years, there have been many reports that courts have been selective in applying this article and its note.21 There were cases where, despite forensic reports confirming that the defendant was not “fully mature” at the time of the crime, the judge decided that the accused individual(s) were mature and the language of Article 91 did not apply to them, as they had previously been charged for criminal activities (e.g. robbery).22 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”.23 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 17 https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G19/021/61/PDF/G1902161.pdf?OpenElement Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, January 2019 19 Islamic Penal Code (2013), English translation, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center 20 Ibid. 21 Amnesty International 22 HRANA, Kurdistan Court Condemns Juvenile Offender with History of Mental Illness, and HRANA, The Tragic Tale of a Juvenile Offender Hanged 23 See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21547&LangID=E 18 3