Medicine Organization has reportedly repeatedly ignored past medical records of mental
disorders to issue their opinion on a child’s maturity.5 6 7
Over the years, several executions of child offenders have been commuted in Iran, however,
these reports are rare.8 In the January 2020 report, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of
human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran wrote that “he continues to monitor the situation of
child offenders on death row, and has received information that there are at present at least 100
individuals who have been sentenced to death for crimes committed when they were under 18
years of age”.9 Iranian authorities executed 6 juvenile offenders in 2018, 4 in 2019 and 4 in
2020.10 One of the juvenile offenders executed in 2020 was Majid Esmailzadeh, a victim of
sexual exploitation who was tortured to make self-incriminating confessions. One of the juvenile
offenders executed in 2020 was Majid Esmailzadeh, a victim of sexual exploitation who was
tortured into making self-incriminating confessions. 11The continuing high levels of death
sentences issued to persons under 18 suggests the government of Iran has not taken the prima
facie position that the minds of juvenile offenders are of uncertain development.
B. Ensure that the burden of proof is always on the prosecution to establish complete
certainty about the full mental development of the child, in line with Article 91.
The Iranian legal framework does not adequately provide detailed provisions on standard of
proof and on whom the burden of proof rests.
Article 37 of the Constitution protects the presumption of innocence.12 13 However, Article 164
of the Islamic Penal Code defines confessions as self-incriminating statements made by the
accused and Article 171 gives primary weight to confessions.14 Article 360 of the Code of
Criminal Procedure stipulates that convictions can be issued on the basis of voluntary given
confessions alone. The heavy reliance of the criminal justice system on confessions as evidence
5
Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/04/iran-execution-of-young-man-vengeful-and-cruel/
OHCHR News, https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24581&LangID=E
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
For more, please see: Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran https://www.iranrights.org/projects/omidmap
9
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, January 2020,
https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/IR/Report_of_the_Special_Rapporteur_on_the_situation_of_human_rights_in_the_
Islamic_Republic_of_IranA4361.pdf
10
https://iranhr.net/en/articles/4727/.
11
https://iranhr.net/en/articles/4233
12
Article 37, Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran
<http://www.iranchamber.com/government/laws/constitution_ch03.php>
13
Article 4, Code of Criminal Procedure of the Islamic Republic of Iran (2015) original version http://dotic.ir/print/5584
14
Islamic Penal Code (2013), English translation, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, https://iranhrdc.org/englishtranslation-of-books-i-ii-of-the-new-islamic-penal-code/
6