Globalaffairs

Issue 20/ April-June 2010
By Xavier Cornut

“Oh mother, I see the hangman’s noose in front of me. They are going to execute me. Please save me.” Delara Darabi, 22, screamed in the phone of her parents last May from the jail of Rasht, northern Iran. A few minutes later, the line went dead, and the young woman was executed on a charge of murder. Years before, at 17, Darabi had told the police that her boyfriend had persuaded her to make a false confession by telling her that he would be executed, as she would not, being a minor. The investigation confirmed that the murder had been committed by a right-handed person, while Delera was left-handed. But in Iran, the life of a female is worth half that of a male. While her boyfriend was serving a 10-year sentence, Darabi was hanged.

On April 19, 2009, Iranian officials announced that Delara’s sentence had been granted a two-month delay. But on May 1st, they suddenly killed her without warning her parents and lawyer in advance in violation of the Iranian national code, in order to avoid domestic and foreign protests. A silent and illegal murder.

Under international law, the execution of persons for crimes committed while minors is strictly forbidden. “Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age” says the Convention on the Rights of the Child adopted by the United Nations in 1989. Yet, five countries still continue to violate this injunction: Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Iran, Yemen and Nigeria. One State in particular, the Islamic Republic of Iran, is in the infamous position of executing more juveniles than any other country in the world - 33 since 2004.

In a recent report presented to the British Parliament, a human rights association, Stop Child Executions (SCE), summarized the issue: “Since 47% of Iran’s population is below the age of 18, this is an important and justified area of concern for all those who care about Iran and Iranians.” Indeed, the judicial system of the Islamic regime lists many offences requiring the death penalty: murder, blasphemy, forbidden religion (often the Ba’hai minority), criticism of the government, possession of forbidden media or books, high treason, drinking alcohol after a third conviction, drug related offences, adultery, sexual relationships between non-married people after four convictions, sodomy, homosexuality, sexual relations between a Muslim and a non-Muslim… With the civil law setting the age of criminal responsibility at 14 years old for boys and 9 for girls, the door is wide open for the massive condemnation of juveniles.

Human Rights Council. UN Photo/Jean-Marc FERRE

What they are protesting is part of the systematic brutality of the mullahs: in 2008, eight teenagers were executed by hanging or stoning. Children like Nazbibi, prosecuted for drugs trafficking when she was 16, like Na’im, charged of possession of drugs at 15, like Reza, condemned to death for having mistakenly killed a friend during children’s play at 13, or Soghra, executed while being mentally disabled at the age of 13. Currently, up to a total of 160 minors are in the death row in Iran.

At the 10th session of the Human Rights Council in March 2009, IHEU Main representative Roy Brown said: “Iran has been responsible for 26 out of a total of 32 child executions since 2005. Eight were executed in Iran in 2008 and 133 remain under sentence of death”. He called upon the Council to act to end “what many see as the ultimate barbarity: States killing their own children”. This appeal was repeated at the 11th session of the Council in September 2009 by IHEU representative David Cormut, who pointed out that “Iran signed the Convention on the Right of the child, but … persists in ignoring its obligations under international law: for example, Tehran hanged a 17-year-old boy on the very day the regime presented its record on the rights of children at the UN.”

In 2004, Mahmud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, both 15, were convicted to 228 lashes and ultimately hanged because of their homosexuality. In 2007, a young man was executed after having “confessed” to a minor crime under torture. Furthermore, while waiting in jails full of adults, young prisoners are sexually abused and tortured, especially women who are threatened and often gang raped by inmates and guards.

Human rights defenders have repeatedly pointed out the implications of the fact that the notion of “child” - a person without full intellectual and moral clarity until 18 - does not exist in Iran. Reports have shown that most crimes involving juveniles were committed without premeditation and in self-defense. In these cases, often group fights, the person actually responsible is not easily identifiable. When taken to the police stations however, minors are often frightened, and easily manipulated under questioning. They usually make damaging confessions and receive the harshest sentences. In trials, judges unused to dealing with cases involving minors often convict them based on “elm e-qazi”: the judge’s own knowledge - without the advice or presence of any expert on children.

Fighting child executions remains a very serious challenge. Authorities harass the families of detainees and their attorneys. In October 2007, one lawyer had his belongings ransacked; his passport confiscated and was jailed for five years on charges of “endangering national security”. Says David Cornut: “The Iranian regime is unpredictable. It respects neither international law nor its own, national law. Thus, this death industry cannot be stopped by judiciary battles only. The pressure must come from the international community, at the highest levels.”

And in some cases world pressure has proven to be effective. Sentenced to death in 2004, Leyla Mafi, who had been forced to marry a 55 year-old man and put into prostitution at the age of 17, was released because of the mobilization of human rights defenders throughout the world. The same happened to Nazanin Fatehi, in the death row for having killed a man who tried to rape her: she was ultimately saved by a global movement led by Nazanin Afshin-Jam, an Iran-born activist from Canada.

As if to thumb its nose at the very concept of human rights, this year the Islamic Republic of Iran had the effrontery to apply for membership of the Human Rights Council. But following world-wide protests, Iran was unable to gain sufficient support and withdrew its candidacy.

Xavier Cornut
IHEU representative at the UN, Geneva

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