might indicate the existence of protection systems providing specialised services on the street or
the existence of trainings for social workers to ensure that social welfare assistance addresses
adequately the needs of children in street situations.
In 2016, answering to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Government of the Islamic
Republic of Iran stated that a range of relevant stakeholders and organisations had formed a
Council set up to deal with the issue of street children, without precising the exact extent of its
scope of work. The government added that there were 37 centers for street children in operation
in the country and daily care centers, or ‘drop off centers’ were established in 15 provinces,
“where the children could spend their time”.21 In its latest annual report (March 2018 to March
2019), the State Welfare Organisation reported 31 care centers for street children in the country,
which all together admitted a total of 6,198 children during the year, 1,289 of whom were in the
Tehran province and 1,075 in Sistan and Baluchistan province. 22 The report showed that the
provinces of Boushehr, Zanjan and Hamedan do not have such centers. In comparison and as
aforementioned, official statistics estimated the number of children in street situations to be up to
60,000, 23 while NGOs believe the number exceeds 200,000. 24 There is little information as to
the extent these centers address the causes that brought children onto the streets and how they
may participate to the reduction of children living and/or working in the streets of the Islamic
Republic of Iran. In 2018 the director of the State Welfare Organisation’s office reportedly
declared that child workers, including children working in the street, were so numerous that no
organisation could single-handily address the issue.25
Additionally, the Iranian Government established a National Body for the Convention of the
Rights of the Child, which has the responsibility “to set up plans and programs to promote the
child rights and respect to their character” and to monitor and assess the implementation of child
rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran.26 The body is headed by the Minister of Justice, who
appoints most of its members and officers, and includes 3 NGO representatives among its 23
members.27 During the country’s 2016 CRC review, The National Body listed its main
achievements, notably the establishment its working groups, notably the Support and
Coordination which did “analysis of ways to support street and working children” and the
Monitoring and Assessment working group which visited “NGOs active in the area of supporting
children, especially street, working and educationally deprived children”. 28 There is no readily
21
OHCHR News, https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=16940&LangID=E
Behzisti News, http://www.behzisti.ir/news/11295/
23
U.S. State Department Human Rights Report 2019, Iran, https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-country-reports-on-human-rightspractices/iran/
24
Center for Human Rights in Iran, https://www.iranhumanrights.org/wp-content/uploads/Days-to-remember-low.pdf
25
Radio Farda, https://en.radiofarda.com/a/thousands-of-children-forced-to-work-beg-in-the-streets-in-iran/30142546.html
26
Article 2 National Body for the Convention on the Rights of the Child Bylaws
27
Justice for Iran, submission to the CRC, 2015,
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CRC_NGO_IRN_19746_E.pdf
28
The Supplementary Response of the (NBCRC) regarding the Concluding Observation on the Combined third and fourth
periodic reports of the Committee on the Rights of the Child for the Islamic Republic of Iran, 2016,
22
3