pigeons were returned and the plaintiff withdrew his complaint.41 The same year a 17-year-old received 80 lashes on the charge of “drinking alcohol”.42 The Human Rights Committee has explicitly stated that flogging and amputation are not compatible with the ICCPR.43 The text of article 7 allows for no limitation and violating jus cogens norms, such as the prohibition of torture or other ill-treatment, cannot be justified on the basis of inconsistent domestic laws.44 Additionally, Article 1179 of the Civil Code allows for the ‘reasonable punishment of children’, which may include corporal punishment in the context of child-rearing and education.45 The previous version of the Islamic Penal Code (as amended up to 2012) provided for the right of parents or guardians to impose corporal punishment on their children under Article 49 and 59. Such provisions now appear under Article 158 of the 2013 Islamic Penal Code, which provides for the chastisement of children by parents or guardians within customary and religious limits. 46 Article 7 of the previous Law on Protection of Children (2002), prohibited “all kinds of abuse leading to physical, mental or moral damage to the child endangering their physical or mental health” (Article 2) but excluded from this protection actions taken under Article 59 of the Penal Code and Article 1179 of the Civil Code (Article 7).47 On June 7, 2020, the Guardian Council approved a bill amending the Law on Protection of Children which, while including new penalties for certain acts that harm children and adolescents’ physical and mental health, does not explicitly prohibit corporal punishment on children.48 Due to this, Iranian law remains in violation of international law as the Human Rights Committee has stated that the prohibition under Article 7 of the ICCPR extends to “corporal punishment, including excessive chastisement ordered as punishment for a crime or as an educative or disciplinary measure”.49 There is insufficient information to argue for the positive effects of the new child protection law, yet there is evidence that the recent COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated cases of child abuse in Iran. Iran’s welfare organization has speculated that (as of August 13th) child abuse instances had grown fivefold since the beginning of the pandemic.50 Additionally, there are reports of children 41 Abdorrahman Boroumand https://www.iranrights.org/library/document/273 Abdorrahman Boroumand Center https://iranrights.org/projects/flogging 43 UN Human Rights Committee (HRC), CCPR/C/79/Add.85 44 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, 27 September 2018 45 Article 1179 of the Civil Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran as referenced by the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4, 14 March 2016 46 Islamic Penal Code (2013), English translation, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center 47 Law on Protection of Children and Adolescents (2002) as referenced in “Country Report of Iran”, Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children 48 Human Rights Watch, https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/06/23/iran-child-protection-law-positive-insufficient 49 UN Human Rights Committee (HRC), CCPR General Comment No. 20: Article 7 (Prohibition of Torture, or Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment), 10 March 1992 50 Atlantic Council 42 6