pardon or commutation from the State.6 There are several 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 victim’s next of kin, conflict resolution council
branches and the Women and Children and Protection Office of the Judiciary. 7 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 juveniles “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”.8 The Article further adds that “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”. 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”.9 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
was “arbitrary and inconsistent, and at the sole discretion of the judge, who can choose whether
to seek medical advice or not”.10
The prohibition of imposing the death penalty on children is widely considered to be jus cogens
under international law and represents a prima facie 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 proven, beyond reasonable doubt, that the accused was older than 18 years old at
the time of the offence.11 Executions of child offenders continue to be conducted in the Islamic
Republic of Iran. Reportedly, four convicted child offenders were executed in 2019 in the
Islamic Republic of Iran.12
6
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, January 2019,
https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=A%2FHRC%2F40%2F67&Language=E&DeviceType=Desktop
7
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, January 2019,
https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=A%2FHRC%2F40%2F67&Language=E&DeviceType=Desktop
8
Article 91, Islamic Penal Code (2013), English translation, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center,
https://iranhrdc.org/english-translation-of-books-i-ii-of-the-new-islamic-penal-code/
9
See OHCHR News, www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21547&LangID=E
10
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, January 2019,
https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=A%2FHRC%2F40%2F67&Language=E&DeviceType=Desktop
11
UN Human Rights Committee (HRC), General comment no. 36, Article 6 (Right to Life), 3 September
2019, CCPR/C/GC/35, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5e5e75e04.html
12
ECPM, Iran Human Rights: https://www.ecpm.org/wp-content/uploads/Rapport-iran-2020-gb-070420-WEB.pdf
2