The BBC report on the juvenile executions performed in Iran. The Iranian government claim these are not executions, but retaliations from the aggreived family of victims of murder and other crimes.
Amnesty International are particularly concerned about Iran’s position on the killing of children.
The execution of juvenile offenders is prohibited under international law, as stated in Article 6 (5) of the ICCPR and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), of which Iran is a state party to and so has undertaken not to execute anyone for crimes committed when they were under 18.
Since 1990 Iran has executed at least 36 juvenile offenders, including eight in 2007. The execution today of Reza Hejazi brings the number of juvenile executions to five so far in 2008. No other country is known to have executed a juvenile offender in 2008.
The situation of juvenile offenders facing execution in Iran has reached crisis levels, with at least 132 juvenile offenders known to be on death row in Iran, although the true number could be much higher.
The organization urges the Iranian authorities to immediately stop sentencing juvenile offenders to death and commute the sentences of these on death row.
