The Penal Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran imposes corporal punishment for a significant number of crimes. Articles 386 to 416 contain regulations allowing the imposition of a range of punishment under qesas-e ozv (retaliation for injured limb or body part).33 Such punishments include amputation of limbs, cutting of body parts and blinding. Under Article 278 of the Penal Code, the crime of theft, when meeting certain conditions,34 is sentenced with “amputation of the full length of four fingers of the right hand of the thief […]”.35 Iran’s penal law provides for about 149 offenses that are punishable by flogging, according to the Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation.36 Flogging is foreseen for offenses such as: consumption of alcohol, drug use and petty drug dealing, theft, adultery, “flouting” of public morals, illegitimate relationships, and mixing of the sexes in public.37 Based on the age of majority in the Penal Code, girls above the age of 9 lunar years and boys above the age of 15 lunar years can be flogged for criminal offenses, although revisions in the 2013 Penal Code provide for some limitations on the application of these sentences. (For explanation on these limitations, see section 148 on child executions). It is currently unclear whether these revisions have impacted sentencing.38 While the 2013 Islamic Penal Code abolishes corporal punishment and flogging of children under the age of 18 years for the crimes under ta’zir (discretionary punishment for crimes or which fixed penalties not provided in Islamic Law), it retains the punishment for crimes under hudud (fixed punishments prescribed by Islamic Law) and qisas (punishment of retribution in kind) for children who have reached the legal age of criminal responsibility (9 lunar years for girls and 15 lunar years for boys). 39 In 2016, the Committee on the Rights of the Child raised serious concerns about such crimes carrying sentences “involving torture or cruel or degrading treatment or punishment which have been and continue to be applied to children.”40 For example, a 14-year-old boy was sentenced to six months in prison and 30 lashes for stealing pigeons from his neighbor’s roof in February 2013 by a court in Birjan, Khorasan Province. The judge sentenced the boy despite the fact that the 33 Islamic Penal Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran (2013) as referenced in “Flawed Reforms: Iran’s next Code of Criminal Procedure”, Amnesty International, 2016 34 The conditions stipulated under this provision include but are not limited to the following: “The stolen property has a legitimate value”, “the stolen property was placed in herz [a secure place]”, “the thief breached the herz [the secure place]”, and “the theft was not committed in a time of famine” Article 268, Islamic Penal Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran (2013), Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, https://iranhrdc.org/english-translation-of-books-i-ii-of-the-new-islamic-penal-code/. 35 Article 278 Islamic Penal Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran (2013) Islamic Penal Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, https://iranhrdc.org/english-translation-of-books-i-ii-of-the-new-islamic-penal-code/ 36 Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation, Flogging Interactive, available at: https://iranrights.org/projects/flogging. 37 For a list of acts punishable by flogging in Iranian law, see: Abdorrahman Boroumand Center 38 Impact Iran submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, review of the 3rd and 4th periodic reports of the IslamicRepublic of Iran 39 Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4, 14 March 2016 40 Ibid. 5