was “arbitrary and inconsistent, and at the sole discretion of the judge, who can choose whether to seek medical advice or not”.24 Since 1990, Iran has executed more juvenile offenders than any other country in the world, and the number is more than double the total number of juvenile offenders executed by countries which constitute the next nine countries that continue to execute minors.25 Under the Islamic Penal Code, judges have discretion to grant alternative punishment to minors and individuals who committed crimes while under 18 years of age, but Iran’s judges have continued to sentence juveniles and juvenile offenders to death.26 At least 4 juvenile offenders were executed in both 2019 and 2020 respectively. Of those, 2 were executed on rape charges and 6 were executed on murder charges. 27 28 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.29 C. Torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment Article 38 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran prohibits torture and other illtreatment, but only when it is “used to extract an admission of guilt or to obtain information”.30 Similarly, Article 578 of the Islamic Penal Code asserts “any civil servant or judicial or nonjudicial agent who corporally mistreats and abuses an accused person in order to force him to confess shall be sentenced […]”.31 Such a provision is reiterated under Article 60 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. While Iranian law prohibits - conditionally - torture and certain abusive conducts during interrogations, it does not provide a definition of torture per se. Torture and other ill-treatment inflicted on an individual for other purposes than extracting confessions and/or information is not, therefore, explicitly prohibited. The prohibition of torture and other illtreatment is a jus cogens norm under international law and cannot be restricted in any circumstances,32 including by conflicting domestic laws. 24 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, January 2019 Amnesty International, “Executions of Juveniles Since 1990 as of November 2019” accessed April 25, 2020 26 Iran Human Rights and ECPM, Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran 2019, 16. 27 https://iranhr.net/en/articles/4727 28 https://iranhr.net/media/files/Rapport_iran-GB.pdf 29 UN Human Rights Committee, General Comment no.36, Article 6 (Right to life), 3 September 2019, CCPR/C/GC/35 30 Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran English translation 31 Islamic Penal Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran (2013), English translation, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center 32 CCPR General Comment No. 20: Article 7, 10 March 1992, https://www.refworld.org/docid/453883fb0.html 25 4