number of children in street situations to be up to 60,000, 22 while NGOs believe the number
exceeds 200,000. 23 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 Organization’s office reportedly declared that child
workers, including children working in the street, were so numerous that no organization
could single-handily address the issue.24 Yet, child rights organizations have been deploring
the lack of cooperation of the Iranian Government with non-governmental organizations, in
particular with regards to the ‘round-ups’ of street children.25 The Government of the Islamic
Republic of Iran affirmed that many non-governmental organizations working in the area of
children’s rights were active and operating in the country as well as in close cooperation with
the government.26 However there are reportedly few non-profit organizations engaged in
activities directly linked to street children.27 In 2017, the Association to Defend the Street
and Working Children’s office was reportedly closed by Iranian authorities.28 In July 2020,
the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said that she was alarmed
by the Iranian Government’s increased pressure on the civil society group Imam Ali Popular
Student’s Relief Society. 29 The organization, working notably on issues such as child labor,
was closed by Iranian authorities, who arrested its founding member along with a number of
colleagues. 30
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.31 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.32 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”. 33 There
22
U.S. State Department Human Rights Report 2019, Iran, https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-country-reports-on-human-rightspractices/iran/
23
Center for Human Rights in Iran, https://www.iranhumanrights.org/wp-content/uploads/Days-to-remember-low.pdf
24
Radio Farda, https://en.radiofarda.com/a/thousands-of-children-forced-to-work-beg-in-the-streets-in-iran/30142546.html
25
ISNA, https://www.isna.ir/news/96070301939/ﮐﻮدک-ﮐﺎر-ﺑﺎ-اﻗﺘﺼﺎد-روﺳﯿﺎھﯽ
26
OHCHR, https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=16940&LangID=E
27
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318729333_Transnationality_of_Child_Poverty_The_Case_of_Iranian_and_Afgh
an_Street_Children_in_Tehran
28
EN-HRANA, https://www.en-hrana.org/association-defend-street-working-childrensealed?hilite=%27street%27%2C%27children%27
29
OHCHR, https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26141&LangID=E
30
OHCHR, https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26141&LangID=E
31
Article 2 National Body for the Convention on the Rights of the Child Bylaws
32
Justice for Iran, submission to the CRC, 2015,
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CRC_NGO_IRN_19746_E.pdf
33
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,
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=INT%2fCRC%2fCOB%2fIRN%2f23
480&Lang=en
3