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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Public Statement
AI Index: MDE 13/005/2005
(Public)
News Service No: 023
31 January 2005
Iran: End the double talk - Time to end
the death penalty for children
Amnesty International urges the all relevant Iranian authorities,
including
the judiciary, to act in accordance with the Government of Iran's public
pronouncements and take urgent measures to bring its law and practice in
line with its obligations as a state party to the Convention on the Rights
of the Child (the Convention) and end the imposition of death penalty on
children.
On Friday 28 January 2005, following its
consideration of Iran's
second periodic report on its implementation of the provisions of the
Convention, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (the
Committee), the body of independent experts established under the
Convention to monitor states parties' compliance with the treaty, urged
Iran:
"to take the necessary steps to
immediately suspend the execution of
all death penalties imposed on persons for having committed a crime before
the age of 18, to take the appropriate legal measures to convert them to
penalties in conformity with the provisions of the Convention and to
abolish the death penalty as a sentence imposed on persons for having
committed crimes before the age of 18, as required by article 37 of
the
Convention."
And, inter alia:
"to suspend immediately the imposition
and execution of all forms of
torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, such as amputation,
flogging or stoning, for crimes committed by persons under 18." (See
paragraphs 30 and 72.b of the Committee's Concluding Observations.)
The Committee noted that the Iranian
delegation had stated, in the
course of the public consideration of Iran's report, that Iran had
suspended executions of persons for having committed crimes before the age
of 18. In its Concluding Observations, the Committee "deplores the
fact
that such executions have continued since the Committee's consideration of
the State party's initial report, including one such execution on the day
of the examination of the current report."
Prior to the Committee's consideration, on
10 January 2005, the
Speaker of the Judiciary reportedly dismissed reports that Iran's
authorities carried out executions of those under the age of 18 as
"foreign
propaganda" and that the issue allegation "comes from outside
the country
and is aimed at distorting the image of the Islamic Republic".
Amnesty International urges all the
relevant Iranian authorities,
including the judiciary, to abide with the recommendations of the
Committee
and make public its plans to ensure their implementation.
Amnesty International believes that the
representations of the
delegation of Iran to the Committee and the views of the Committee
underline the fact that the time to stop sentencing children to death, the
time to stop carrying out executions of children, and the time to stop all
forms of violence against children in Iran is now.
Iran's second periodic report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child,
along with the Committee's Concluding Observations can be viewed at:
http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/crcs38.htm
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