UN Calls for Immediate Halt to Executions of Juvenile Offenders

The UN Human Rights Office issued a statement on Friday, February 16, highlighting the increase in executions of juvenile offenders in Iran and calling for an "immediate halt" to the death penalty for individuals who commit crimes while underage. According to a report by Agence France-Presse, in less than seven weeks since the start of the new calendar year, three juvenile offenders have already been executed in Iran, compared to only five executions for juvenile offenders throughout the entire previous year. The statement reveals that currently, 80 individuals in Iranian prisons are awaiting execution for crimes committed before the age of 18. Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, the UN Human Rights Chief, urged the Iranian authorities to "comply with international laws and immediately cease the execution" of such offenders. Previously, following the execution of three individuals in January who were under 18 at the time of their crimes, Human Rights Watch had also called on the Iranian government to stop executing juvenile offenders. Human Rights Watch, based in New York, stated in a release on February 7 that "Iran must immediately and unconditionally stop executing individuals who committed crimes while under the age of 18 and move towards the complete abolition of the death penalty." The statement detailed the executions of three offenders in January: Amir Hosseinpour Jafar, Ali Kazemi, and Mahbubeh Mofidi. Amir Hosseinpour Jafar, 18, was executed on January 4 in Karaj prison for the rape and murder of a three-year-old girl when he was 16. Ali Kazemi, who reportedly killed a man with a knife at the age of 15 during a fight, was executed on January 30. Mahbubeh Mofidi, 20, who killed her husband at the age of 16 after four years of marriage, was also executed on the same day. Mr. Ra'ad Al Hussein noted in his statement that "no other country has come close to Iran in terms of the number of juvenile offender executions in the past two decades." Iran is among a few countries where the death penalty is still imposed on juvenile offenders, with executions carried out after they turn 18. International laws explicitly urge countries to refrain from imposing the death penalty on individuals under 18. The UN Human Rights Office also mentioned three condemned individuals whose executions have been postponed and could be carried out at any moment: Abolfazl Chizani Sharahi, Hamid Hamadi, and Omid Rostami. Amnesty International reported that from 2005 until the beginning of the current calendar year, at least 87 individuals in Iran have been executed for crimes committed while under the age of 18.