Tag Archives: views

قصه قانون و غصه كودكان قرباني

  اعتماد ملی-  نازنين كياني‌فرد

 به اين اخبار توجه كنيد: تعرض نوجوان 17 ساله به پسر 5 ساله در اصفهان، دستگيري نوجوان 17 ساله به اتهام قتل جواني در شيراز، قتل توسط پسر 14 ساله‌اي در نزاع ميان بچه‌ها در ساوه،
اعدام جوان 20 ساله‌اي كه در 13 سالگي متهم به تجاوز به عنف شده، سجاد پسر 16 ساله‌اي كه با شكايت ده‌ها پسربچه به اتهام آزار و اذيت جنسي بعد از دو سال از صدور حكم برائتش و آزادي از زندان، براي بار دوم به همين اتهام دستگير و بازداشت شد و … ‌

موضوع از چه قرار است؟‌ پديده كودك‌آزاري و تعرض جنسي و قتل توسط كودكان چندي است كه نه‌تنها فاعل و مفعول جرم، هر دو كودك و يا دست‌كم نوجوان هستند و هرچند به سن بلوغ جسماني رسيده‌اند و داراي مسووليت كيفري هستند، ولي به رشد و شعور عقلي و رواني نرسيده و هنوز سن آنان پايين‌تر از 18 سالگي است؛ سني كه وفق كنوانسيون حقوق كودك، بلوغ مدني، كيفري و سياسي را نيز شامل مي‌شود. ‌

 صرف‌نظر از ملا‌ك اعتبار قرار دادن سن بلوغ در قوانين كيفري ايران و مغايرت آن با روح و فلسفه مجازات و همچنين مقررات بين‌المللي، آنچه بيش
از پيش تاثربرانگيز است، واقعيت هويت قرباني‌كننده و قرباني‌شونده اينگونه جرائم است و البته نوع جرم اينگونه قربانيان كه اغلب از حد آزار و اذيت‌هاي كودكانه كه حوادثي جزئي نشأت‌گرفته از غرور و شور جواني دارد، فراتر رفته و جاي خود را به جرائم مهمي نظير قتل و عمل لواط و تجاوز به عنف داده است. حمايت از كودكان به دليل ناتواني‌هاي ناشي از عدم بلوغ و رشد، امري منطقي و ضروري به نظر مي‌رسد. اينگونه حمايت‌ها، چه در قالب حمايت‌هاي خانوادگي در درون محيط خانه با حضور والدين مسوول و راهنما، و چه در قالب حمايت‌هاي اجتماعي و آموزشي و فرهنگي در پرورش شخصيت كودكان، البته نقش بسزايي خواهد داشت، ولي آنچه ضروري به نظر مي‌رسد، حمايت از حقوق كيفري كودكان و مطالعه در آسيب‌شناختي رواني و حدود مسووليت كيفري آنان است. مگر حمايت از حقوق كيفري اين كودكان، از خوردن افسوس براي اينكه از هيچگونه حمايتي برخوردار نيستند، بهتر و منطقي‌تر نيست؟

 

Will You Take the Time To Save a Life ?

By Sasha

Someone asked several legitimate questions in reference to the impending death of Ali Mahin-Torabi: “Is human life sacred? Or, delivering justice is sacred? Or, ˜Nothing is sacred.?” In my opinion, every human life is sacred and precious. Who has the right to decide who dies, when, where, why and how many people will die?  

Delivering justice is important in a civilized society to keep order but it has to be done with due process. There has to be sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a person is guilty of a crime. Especially, an alleged crime in which the death penalty is imposed. If it is later found that the person was innocent, you cannot return their life to them.
“There are no refunds, exchanges or returns.” Death is as final as it gets in this world. There have been actual people on death row that have been wrongly accused and executed only to find out years after their execution that they were innocent. It has even happened here in the “good old” USA. Now imagine being accused, given a speedy trial based on hearsay, unreliable witnesses, and circumstantial evidence, and being sentenced to death.

The majority of us know that the current court systems in Iran, the U.S. and other countries have problems. No court system is perfect. This is why certain international laws have been put into place like the United Nations Convention on The Rights of the Child, in which it is forbidden to impose capital punishment on a person who was under 18 years old at the time of an alleged offense.
Ali Mahin-Torabi was most definitely at the wrong place at the wrong time and because of it, he is now on death row. The alleged crime occurred when he was 16 years old and he is now 21. When someone has very few options if any to turn to for help, it is when organizations like Stop Child Executions Campaign, and Amnesty International step in to try to remind us that every life matters.

Ali Mahin-Torabi’s case could have easily have been one of my sons or nephews. They are normally great kids but all it takes is a few minutes to ruin the rest of their lives. The teenage years are the most trying times for kids and for the parents who love them dearly. I truly do feel for Mazdakâ’s parents loss and if I could bring back their son, I would, but the thing is two wrongs do not make anything right. Ali Mahin-Torabiâ’s death will not lessen their pain or loss and it will certainly not bring their son back.
Now, in answer to the above question ” Or, Nothing is sacred?”: My answer is “Yes, life is sacred and precious”.  When something as important as the life of another Human being really matters to someone, you not only make the time but you forget about being afraid of being visible and you will take all the insults they throw at you to defend their very last breath. 

I decided it was time I practiced what I preached. So now, I ask the readers to practice what you preach. Will you take the time to save the life of another human being like Ali Mahin-Torabi? There are so many others in prison and on death row in Iran. Some of them are political prisoners and activists that were simply trying to make a change in Iran, as someone on this site mentioned as part of the “Evolutionary” process in Iran. It does not take much time to write a couple of emails and to sign some petitions. However, that time that you give could save a life.

Human Rights is Universal

Courtesy of: Reza Bayegan

As Iranian human rights activists we are fighting to restore to our nation those rights that are universal and inalienable. These rights are founded on the incontrovertible truth that all human beings are born free and equal. The constitution of the Islamic Republic is incompatible with this omnipresent reality. It is riddled with inconsistencies and discrimination. It stands contrary to all those hard won liberties secured by human beings throughout the ages.

Human rights are not a product of the West. Neither are they the inheritance of one race or culture. They are the upshot of the accumulated experience and collective enlightenment of mankind as a whole. They are the intellectual tribute to the sweat and blood of black African slaves in the cotton plantations of Georgia as well as persecuted and murdered Christians under Roman emperors. These laws abhor the extermination of Jews in Nazi death camps as well as the massacre of Moslems in Srebrenica. The responsibility invoked by these laws does not stop at the gates of Buddhist temples in Burma nor behind the Great Wall of China.

When Mr Shahroudi the head of the Iranian judiciary and his cohort sit down together “to draw up scientific strategies” to introduce realities of Islamic human rights to world nations (IRNA, 15 November 2007) they fail to realize or rather maliciously ignore the meaning of the word ‘universal’ in the title of that historic declaration. They evade the fact that no nation or culture or state can claim to have its own hyphenated version of human rights.

Unlike the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights makes no distinction between men and women, agnostics and atheists, Baha’is and Moslems. It applies to everyone everywhere without any ambiguities and ifs or buts. What Mr Shahroudi and his “team of experts” can offer to the rest of the world as “scientific” human rights solutions envisaged in their religion is self-evident in the busy gallows and overcrowded jails and torture chambers of the clerical state.

Iranians are fighting tooth and nail for their release from the limbo of the Islamic Republic into the universe of shared values and rights that are the common legacy of humanity the world over.

SCE Analysis of the recent comments by Iran's Judiciary spokesperson

As reported earlier , Iran’s judiciary spokesman , Alireza Jamshidi in a news conference stated that the Iran’s judiciary has submitted a bill to the parliament to stop executions and life imprisonment of children below 18 years of age. The news conference was only a few days after the execution of another minor: Mohammad Mousavi. Direct approval of execution of yet another child by the head of judiciary, Ayatollah Sharudi  seemed in contraction to the judiciary spokesperson news conference about their proposal to permanently stop child executions in Iran, therefore Nazanin Afshin-Jam and Stop Child Executions campaign made a series of inquiries about the validity of the judiciary’s claim.

After discussion of the subject with Iranian lawyers, Amnesty International and other resources , SCE campaign has concluded that the recent news conference was a distraction tactic by Iran’s judiciary. The judiciary has not submitted any new bills to the parliament and the bill that was being referred to is the same OLD bill that the SCE campaign had already discussed in its petition:  “In the summer of 2006, the Iranian Parliament reportedly 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. During the past four years, the Iranian authorities have reportedly been considering legislation to ban the death penalty for child offenders. Recent comments by a judiciary spokesperson indicates that the proposed law would only prohibit the death penalty for certain crimes, and not all crimes committed by children”

“ This comments by judiciary spokesperson was an attempt to defuse the recent international pressure by presenting an old and flawed drafted law as todays news.” a legal observer in Iran told SCE campaign.

The regime of Iran on one hand tells the foreign press that :”The judiciary must be considerate of children because unlike adults, children who have committed a crime, lack organized and established violence. Therefore we must have lenience to remove hard punishments from this age group.” They also claim to have submitted a bill where ”the punishment of execution and life imprisonment (for minors) has completely been eliminated.” but on the other hand they continue to approve and execute children. The execution of  Mohammad Mousavi less than a month ago for an alleged crime at the age of 16 years is an clear proof to the lack of commitment to stop child executions, especially since according to Iran’s law such approval (Estizan) must have come directly by Ayatollah Sharudi who has in the past approved execution of many other children. Obviously if they truly opposed child execution with one executive order Ayatollah Shahroudi could put a stop to child execution until a bill to permanently ban child executions goes in effect.

Additionally , articles in the old unapproved bill which replaces the death penalty for child offenders with prison terms, does not extended to qisas  and huddud cases. The judiciary spokesperson in 2006  had stated that “qisas” crimes (crimes which carry a sentence of ‘retribution’, for example murder) were 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, which means under this bill, most of these children will still be executed!. Obviously we would welcome the passing of the law- it would be of huge importance in the recognition that juveniles should not be sentenced to death, but unless it has undergone major changes in revision and still excludes qisas, it would be of extremely limited scope- if indeed it were passed by the Iran’s Council of Guardians which supervises all proposed laws to comply with Islamic Sharia. However, as it would signal the recognition of the importance of prohibition of the death penalty for child offenders, our lobbying strategy would be for the extinction of the law to encompass qisas- arguing that the state does have a role in qisas cases, and it is not just a matter for the family of the victim. SCE campaign is awaiting the receipt of a copy if the bill which at that time we will give a more comprehensive view of its content. We also anticipate a comprehensive report by Amnesty International to be published soon, on the use of the death penalty against child offenders- current and previous cases, global picture including an analysis of domestic and international laws. As part of the report, there will be an analysis of the Iranian drafted law by Iranian judiciary.

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.