Parliament of Iran starts review of the bill to stop child execution

According to Iranian Etemaad newspaper the parliament of Iran has started review of a bill to stop child executions. SCE had reported the news of submission of this bill in its prior updates.

The bill was initially drafted three years ago and after modifications and approval of Iran’s judiciary is now under review during the public sessions of the Parliament. The bill also in intended to abolish life imprisonment for those under the age of 18.  Speaker of Iran’s judiciary “Alireza Jamshidi” in his weekly press conference asked Iran’s parliament members to pass the bill before their term ends soon. According to Jamshidi the new law makes no distinction between boys and  girls and maximum sentence for children between the ages of 15-18 will be 8 years of imprisonment. In a report published by the review and study committee of Iran’s parliament “Approval of this bills will serve an important role in organization of the children’s penal laws in direction of scientific standards. Fundamentally the necessarily of approval of this bill is not hidden to the experts”

The bill is in reaction to the the demands for abandonment of traditional policies and moving towards new methods to fill the legal vacuum and modernizing Iran’s judiciary system which overlooks children who are guilty of crimes.

Head of center for reform and training , Mansour Abed in an interview with Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) said: ” Present laws make no distinctions between 15-18 year old children and adults, but with the new bill level of some punishments are reduced to as much as 10% of its past laws” .

According to proposed bill “children and youth are categorized by age and not based on puberty (9 for girls and 13 for boys according to current Islamic Sharia). Children under 9 will completely be relieved of penal responsibility and will not be assigned to courts. Children between 9 and 13 will also have lighter sentences. Those between 13-15 and 15-18 (in order) face lighter sentences different than adults. Maximum sentence for 18 year olds will be determined. Execution will be abolished and Qisas will be applied in certain and special cases. ” He added.

Nasrin Sotoudeh who represents few children currently facing execution hopes that Iran’s Judiciary stops executions of children while the bill is under consideration. Khoramshahi who is also attorney for some of these children also told Etemaad newspaper “The judiciary authorities based on the same necessities which has resulted in submission of this bill, until the approval and implementation of the bill should stop the execution of under 18 children” He called the bill a step forward and added that these are ” the same issues that Children Rights Organizations have been addressing for many years”. He is hopeful that bill be approved as soon as possible in order to stop execution of the children currently facing execution in Iran. 

As stated in SCE’s prior statements, Stop Child Executions Campaign welcomes the passing of the law as it would be of huge importance in the recognition that juveniles should not be sentenced to death nor be subjected to life imprisonment. However we are still extremely concerned about the portion of the bill that allows  “Qisas will be applied in certain and special cases “

According to Islamic Sharia laws , “qisas” crimes are those crimes which carry a sentence of ‘retribution’ by the family of the victim. Qisas considers the retribution a private, not a state matter. Most of the cases of the children that the SCE campaign is aware of are the ones where the sentence is qisas, and the families have been given the right to seek retribution OR THE CHILD CAN BE EXECUTED. Any such language in the law will leave room in future rulings for possibility of execution for children. Such language can leave room for child executions ” in certain and special cases”.

Especially that while Iran’s judiciary claims to be have recognized the necessarily to stop child execution, in the past two months they have executed two children!

It is also important to note that all the laws passed by Parliament of Islamic regime of Iran must also be approved by Guardian Council which overlooks the compliance of the bills with Islamic Shaia and often bills which do not comply with their interpretations of Sharia get rejected.

SCE campaign reiterates its position as stated in its petition: Demanding the Government of Islamic Regime in Iran to:

– Immediately halt executions and prevent any further application of such penalties against child offenders.

– 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.