AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: IRAN TOPS THE GRIM GLOBAL TABLE OF EXECUTIONERS OF JUVENILE

Amnesty International, 26 January 2016- Two decades after Iran ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the authorities 
continue to show contempt for one of its core principles – the prohibition of the death 
penalty for juvenile offenders (people younger than 18 at the time of the crime). Indeed, Iran 
tops the grim global table of executioners of juvenile offenders. Between 2005 and 2015, 
Amnesty International recorded 73 such executions, including at least four in 2015. A UN 
report issued in August 2014 stated that more than 160 juvenile offenders were on death 
row. Amnesty International understands that some of them have been in prison for over a 
decade.
Growing up on death row: The death penalty and juvenile offenders in Iran reveals that Iran has continued to consign juvenile offenders to the gallows.
The report lists 73 executions of juvenile offenders which took place between 2005 and 2015, and narrates the distressing accounts of scores of youths who are languishing on death row for crimes committed under the age of 18. According to the UN at least 160 juvenile offenders are currently on death row.
As a state party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Iran is legally obliged to treat 
everyone under the age of 18 as a child.