child defendants are frequently charged with these less serious categories of offenses, especially
girls accused of prostitution, a crime punishable by flogging. Even in cases where a child
defendant is eligible for state funded legal aid, there is no system in place to prioritize attorneys
for children.14
In practice, authorities in Iran frequently restrict or limit access to a lawyer even in situations
where it is legally permitted or required. Defendants in national security cases are often denied
access to a lawyer in the investigative stage of the judicial process. In the hundreds of cases of
individuals arrested for political reasons or suspected for ordinary crimes that the Abdorrahman
Boroumand Center has investigated, all detainees were interrogated without the presence of an
attorney.15 Reported cases show a pattern of incarcerated prisoners being subjected to limited or
restricted access to legal representation through all stages of the trial process.16 17 Such pattern
includes cases where children were denied access to legal counsel, notably during the
investigation phase, and in some of these cases were sentenced to the death penalty. 18 19 20
The Parliament Article 90 Commission is in charge of investigating complaints from citizens
made against the operations of the Parliament itself, the executive and the judiciary.21 There is no
publicly available information on data relating to the number of complaints received and
investigated vis-à-vis cases of violations of the rights to fair trial and due process of children in
the Islamic Republic of Iran. Additionally, there is little information as to whether children have
unhindered access to such complaint mechanism. Under Iranian law, only children over the age
of 15, who are legally deemed mature, may bring a case to Iranian courts unassisted.22 However,
children under the age of 15 must bring cases through their legal guardians, typically a father
who must consent prior to the initiation of legal proceedings, except in cases where the father is
the person against whom a complaint is made, or he is unavailable to provide his consent.23 24
There is no National Human Rights Institution in the Islamic Republic of Iran that is competent
to receive and address complaints of children who have been detained or arrested and
14
See more: Joint alternative report by civil society organizations on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the
Child by the Islamic Republic of Iran, 2015,
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CRC_NGO_IRN_19809_E.pdf
15
Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, joint submission to the Human Rights Committee from the Abdorrahman Boroumand
Center, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, Impact Iran, Human Rights Activists in Iran, 2020,
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CCPR/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CCPR_ICS_IRN_42313_E.pdf
16
HRANA https://www.en-hrana.org/political-prisoner-denied-access-to-an-attorney
17
HRANA https://www.en-hrana.org/arash-sadegh-golrokh-iraeis-lawyers-access-cases
18
See: https://www.en-hrana.org/juvenile-offender-death-row-ardabil-prison;https://www.en-hrana.org/open-letter-kurdishcitizen-fears-for-imprisoned-brothers-life ; https://www.en-hrana.org/mohammad-saber-malek-reisi-teenager-became-adultprison
19
OHCHR News, https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23689&LangID=E
20
Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/04/iran-two-17yearold-boys-flogged-and-secretlyexecuted-in-abhorrent-violation-of-international-law/
21
Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, https://iranhrdc.org/internal-regulation-on-the-commission-of-article-90-of-theconstitution/
22
Civil Code, art. 1210
23
Civil Code, art. 1210
24
For example see art. 1172 of the Civil law.
3