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On Tuesday June 6, 2008 the Iranian regime executed seventeen years old Mohammad Hasanzadeh. He was sentenced to death at the age of fifteen. Hasanzadeh was charged with the killing of a man the City of Kamiaran, located in Iranian Kurdistan. He was hanged publicly in the city of Sanandaj, also located in Iranian Kurdistan.
Two core international human rights treaties, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, prohibit the imposition of the death penalty for crimes committed below the age of eighteen. Iran has ratified both treaties.
Only Iran, Sudan, China and Pakistan are known to have executed children since 2004. Sudan carried out two such executions in 2005, while China executed one juvenile offender in 2004 and Pakistan executed one juvenile offender in 2006. In contrast, Iran is known to have executed at least 20 juvenile offenders since 2004. On a per capita basis, Iran executes more people annually than any other country.
Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, PDKI, is deeply concerned about the continuous practice of capital punishment for alleged offences committed by Iranian children and youth under the age of 18.
Article 6.5 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) declares:
"Sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age".
Article 37(a) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) provides that:
"Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age".
As a signatory state, the Iranian government is under international obligation to comply with both articles. However, Amnesty International has documented twenty-one executions of child offenders in Iran since 1990. In many cases, these minors have been imprisoned until the age of 18 and then executed.
In January 2005, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which monitors states' compliance with the CRC, urged Iran to immediately stay all executions of child offenders and to abolish the use of the death penalty in such cases. In the summer of 2006, in 2007 the Iranian Parliament passed a bill establishing special courts for children and adolescents. However, it has not yet been approved by the Council of Guardians, which supervises Iran's legislation to ensure conformity with Islamic principles.
PDKI calls on the International community to demand that that Iranian Government:
1. Provide a complete list of all individuals under the age of eighteen who are sentenced to death.
2. Immediately halt executions and prevent any further application of such penalties against children and teenagers.
3. Take immediate measures to permanently abolish the death penalty for all child offenders in accordance with Iran's obligations as a state party to the ICCPR and the CRC.
4. Demand that the Iranian government immediately comply with its international obligations as defined by ICCPR and CRC.
Democratic Party o Iranian Kurdistan
Office of International Relations
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