The 2020 Child Protection legislation requires social workers from the State Welfare Organization (SWO) to promptly investigate the children in situation of “extreme danger” from abuse, exploitation, or being out of school,10 11 situations in which most of children in street situations find themselves. However, there is no readily available information that might indicate the number of complaints received, addressed, promptly investigated and adequately adjudicated by the SWO. The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran also established “Special Investigation Branches and Criminal Courts in the Judiciary for the examination of child abuses crimes” and launched an SMS hotline 30003636 for child abuse reports.12 Similarly, there is no readily available information as to whether complaints concerning ill-treatment and abuse of children in street situations have been promptly investigated and adequately adjudicated, and whether cases prosecuted led to convictions. Another situation where children in street situations found themselves at risk of abuse is while working in the streets. The lack of protective child labor laws and the widespread use of children as cheap labor in the Islamic Republic of Iran facilitate the existence of child laborers, in particular children working in the streets, notably in waste management.13 Child laborers have been reportedly working in hazardous conditions such as in garbage collection, brick kilns, and industrial workshops, without protective clothing.14 Although the Iranian Government noted the existence of labor inspectors exercising monitoring functions, 15 private companies have been reportedly escaping governmental scrutiny, notably for out of waste disposal services informally employed by municipalities. 16 There is no readily available information that might indicate the existence of a mechanism enabling children employed illegally or working in illegal conditions to file complaints.17 Additionally, there is no National Human Rights Institution in the Islamic Republic of Iran that is competent to receive and address complaints of violations of children’s rights. In 2015, a SWO official reportedly stated that 21% of children living on the streets have experienced sexual abuse. 18 In 2018, a welfare official reportedly told to the Iranian Students News Agency that “73 percent of child vendors on the streets” face various forms of physical 10 Human Rights Watch, https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/06/23/iran-child-protection-law-positive-insufficient Parliament of the Islamic Republic of Iran, https://rc.majlis.ir/fa/legal_draft/state/1055680 12 National Report, UPR 2019, Islamic Republic of Iran, https://undocs.org/A/HRC/WG.6/34/IRN/1 13 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 14 CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4, para. 87, https://undocs.org/en/CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4 14 Center for Human Rights in Iran, https://www.iranhumanrights.org/wp-content/uploads/Days-to-remember-low.pdf 15 CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4, para. 87, https://undocs.org/en/CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4 16 Center for Human Rights in Iran, https://www.iranhumanrights.org/wp-content/uploads/Days-to-remember-low.pdf 17 Persia Educational Foundation, https://www.persia.education/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/PEF_Irans-Childrens-Report.pdf 18 National Council of Resistance of Iran, https://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/21-of-iran-s-street-children-face-sexual-abuse/ 11 2