Punishment of Children

Children, due to their age, do not possess full physical and mental development, and when committing a crime, they should not be treated like adults. According to paragraph (a) of Article 37 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, no child should be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. The death penalty or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole cannot be applied to children under 18 years of age. Article 49 of the Islamic Penal Code defines a minor as a person who has not reached legal maturity. In this law, criminal responsibility is lifted from minors. Also, as long as responsibility has not been imposed on a person, they cannot be prosecuted or punished, but after reaching maturity, they become responsible and can be punished. The period of childhood in Islamic jurisprudence ends with reaching maturity. In Iranian law, the age of maturity and the end of childhood is determined to be 15 years for boys and 9 years for girls, and children who reach this age are no longer considered 'minors' and are deemed responsible. Meanwhile, the age of maturity in other civil laws is set at 18 years. On the other hand, the law regarding juvenile offenders, which considers the end of childhood to be 18 years, has not been explicitly repealed by the legislator. In the Islamic Penal Code of 2013, specific regulations regarding children committing crimes have been established. In this law, children aged 9 to 15 years, 12 to 15 years, and 15 to 18 years are punished based on the type of crime committed. According to these laws, whenever a minor commits one of the crimes subject to punishment or retaliation, if they are between 12 and 15 lunar years, they will be subject to different punishments depending on whether they committed a discretionary or mandatory crime. Article 91 of the 2013 law states: 'In crimes subject to punishment or retaliation, if a minor under 18 years of age does not understand the nature of the crime committed or its prohibition, or if there is doubt about their maturity, they will be punished according to their age as provided in this chapter.' According to this law and other laws, we still witness the execution of children who have committed crimes subject to punishment and retaliation under the age of 18. In these cases, based on the judge's knowledge, children are deemed criminally responsible, and upon reaching the age of 18, punishments of retaliation and mandatory punishment are applied to them. According to published statistics, in the years 2012 and 2013, 16 death sentences were issued, and in 2017, at least 5 cases of execution of child offenders were reported in Iran. Iran is the only country that considers the age of criminal responsibility based on sexual maturity, which is 9 years for girls and 15 years for boys. The consequence of setting the criminal age this way is the application of similar punishments to adults for newly mature children. Child rights activists consider this completely contrary to children's rights and demand an end to the death penalty and severe criminal punishments, as well as an increase in the criminal age to 18 years for children, regardless of their gender.