{"id":251363,"date":"2021-11-25T08:22:02","date_gmt":"2021-11-25T13:22:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=251363"},"modified":"2023-02-01T04:38:09","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T03:38:09","slug":"irans-juvenile-executions-wont-stop-unless-retroactively-punished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/iran-resistance\/irans-juvenile-executions-wont-stop-unless-retroactively-punished\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s Juvenile Executions Won\u2019t Stop Unless Retroactively Punished\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Irans-Juvenile-Executions\"
File photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Majid Saheb Jam<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yesterday, another international campaign to halt the execution of a juvenile offender in Iran,\u00a0Arman Abdolali<\/a>,\u00a0was utterly ignored and carried out. Several such individuals are put to death each year, and each new incident prompts an outpouring of public statements condemning\u00a0the\u00a0Iranian regime\u2019s judiciary for a long list of irregularities as well as for being one of the only nations still handing down death sentences for minors, in clear violation of international law.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is estimated that\u00a0the clerical regime\u00a0is responsible for 70 percent of juvenile death<\/a> sentences implemented throughout the world over the past 30 years. And despite the outcry from human rights organizations, Western governments, and Iranian activists and expatriates, there is no sign of the trend slowing down anytime soon. The key problem is that all of the clemency campaigns seem to simply appeal to Tehran\u2019s conscience, ignoring the fact that it has none.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If this regime is ever to stop this or any of its myriad other human rights abuses and violations of international law, it will have to be compelled to do so. This fact is underlined by the consistently defiant tone of the regime\u2019s responses to those international campaigns. At times, coordinated pressure succeeds in forcing the regime to delay juvenile executions, but invariably those death sentences are then carried out at a later date, after the pressure has subsided and it has become clear, once again, that the Iranian regime\u2019s authorities will face no serious consequences for their actions.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The regime judiciary\u2019s own so-called human rights monitor has repeatedly taken the position that the regime is not bound by international law if the law in question contradicts the regime\u2019s stated cultural and religious principles. The practice of executing juvenile offenders ostensibly derives from the regime\u2019s fundamentalist interpretation of Islam, which allows for boys to be considered legally responsible at the age of 13, and girls<\/a> at only nine. If such backward thinking were permitted to override international law, there would be no limit to what the regime could justify.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, the international community rejects Tehran\u2019s explanations for its conduct. But each time the regime carries out a juvenile execution, or convicts a prisoner based on forced confessions, or commits any number of violations of due process, the\u00a0regime\u00a0is in fact permitted to violate international law. The regime never faces consequences and comes away from each controversy with an inflamed sense of impunity.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sadly, this permissiveness is part of a long tradition, and the regime\u2019s impunity was already well established more than three decades ago. It is bad enough that juvenile executions in recent years have gone unpunished, but it is easier to understand why Tehran doesn\u2019t fear potential punishment when one considers that the regime carried out juvenile executions on a vast scale, without consequence, in 1988<\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Stop Executions Of Child Offenders In Iran<\/div><\/div>
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