Iran: End Juvenile Executions

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HRW/3149595c5fc7f67d20f3f1c382787b81.htm

(New York, July 27, 2005) - Iran's execution of a juvenile offender last week violated international law, Human Rights Watch said today in letters to the president and head of the judiciary. Two youths, aged eighteen and nineteen, were put to death on July 19 after they were found guilty of sexually assaulting a thirteen-year-old boy some fourteen months earlier. One of the youths was seventeen at the time of the offense.

"Death is an inhumane punishment, particularly for someone under eighteen at the time of his crimes," said Hadi Ghaemi, Iran researcher for Human Rights Watch. "All but a handful of countries forbid such executions. Iran should as well."

Before the two youths were put to death, each also received 228 lashes for theft, disturbing public order, and consuming alcohol. snip

Elsewhere in the world, only China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan, and the United States are known to have put juvenile offenders to death in the past five years. The United States executed nine juvenile offenders during this period; the other countries are each known to have put one juvenile offender to death. The U.S. Supreme Court declared the juvenile death penalty unconstitutional in March 2005.

[whistle]

1. U.S. executes 18 and older so what is the difference?

[JNelson6563]

2. Ah the good ol' US of A!!

:puke:

[wli]

3. the US' human rights record was abysmal even before Bush

Only China to date has had the temerity to make any statement to this effect, and even then it soft-pedaled the issue by a tremendous longshot.

[Xithras]

4. In Iran, you can be tried as an adult as young as nine.

Or so claims the Iraqi-born immigrant sitting at the desk next to me.

Iraq runs under Sharia, and Sharia defines the start of adulthood as the point where puberty is entered. For women, that can be as early as her first menses (nine or ten years). For men the number is usually a bit higher...14 or 15. Once someone has entered puberty, they are a legal adult in Iran, with all of the rights and privledges, and all of the legal requirements and punishments, as adults decades older than they.

FWIW, I don't know that this is even technically a violation of international law. The convention on the rights of the child lays out legal requirements for countries to abide by when legally dealing with citizens who haven't reached the age of adulthood. The treaty defines that age as 18...but then goes on to add "unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier". Since majority is attained at puberty in Iran, the treaty probably doesn't even apply to these two.