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Iran Killing Kids? Juvenile Death Penalty in the Spotlight
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ShareOctober 03, 2006 6:46 PM
Iran's president has blocked efforts to stop juvenile executions in Iran, according to Human Rights Watch.
Two teenagers in Iran narrowly escaped the death penalty last month for crimes committed when they were minors. The incident, Human Rights Watch says, highlights Iran's status as the "world leader in juvenile executions."
Sina Paymard, 18, and Ali Alijan, 19, were facing death by hanging for a murder committed when they were under the age of 18. They were spared after the victim's family granted a pardon. Under Iranian law, the victim's survivors can grant clemency, sometimes taking "blood money" or financial compensation for the crime committed.
Iran continues to carry the death penalty for juveniles despite having signed and ratified the U.N.'s Covenant on the Rights of the Child, a document that prohibits capital punishment for crimes committed by anyone under 18 years of age. The justice system in Iran is such that if any item in a treaty conflicts with Islamic law, the latter wins the day. Islamic law as practiced in Iran allows the execution of minors. The United States is not a signatory of the U.N. Covenant on the Rights of the Child.
Lawyers and activists in Iran have been fighting to change the juvenile execution policy and were making progress before the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, says Hadi Ghaemi of Human Rights Watch.
Since then, momentum has stalled, and legislation has been opposed by Iran's Council of Guardians, a group of conservative clerics with veto power over any law passed by parliament.
Crimes that can carry the death penalty in Iran range from murder to adultery, drug trafficking to homosexuality, Ghaemi tells ABC News.
A 22-year-old blogger in Tehran who asked to remain anonymous told ABC News that there hasn't been much mention of the Paymard-Alijan case in the local press -- 'nobody speaks about these events' -- and that the issue of juvenile executions has hardly received any mainstream attention.
Iran is not the only country which subjects convicted juvenile offenders to capital punishment.
Since 2001, the execution of minors has been confirmed in China, Pakistan and the United States. The juvenile death penalty was legal in America until a March 2005 Supreme Court ruling struck it down.
"There is a clear trend away from the death penalty internationally...most of our close allies have abandoned it," says attorney and anti-death penalty activist Richard Dieter. "There may be rogue states and exceptions to the pattern, but the death penalty is dwindling in the international sphere."
It's a trend Dieter and others want to see continue.
October 3, 2006 | Permalink | User Comments (10)
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America leads the world by far in executions, children and mentally handicapped included.
We have become a shameful nation.
Posted by: mark | Oct 4, 2006 6:02:52 PM
What makes the life of a minor more valuable than an adult? If they should not be executed because their age annuls them from full responsibility of their acts, then should say, the d.c sniper really be in prison for life?
Or does the barbarity of the death penalty seem particularly clear when applied to minors?
Killing people is so heinous an act that it should never be state controlled or sanctioned. Even if it would be "justice".
Posted by: heather | Oct 5, 2006 9:39:25 AM
"Iran continues to carry the death penalty for juveniles despite having signed and ratified the U.N.'s Covenant on the Rights of the Child, a document that prohibits capital punishment for crimes committed by anyone under 18 years of age."
"The United States is not a signatory of the U.N. Covenant on the Rights of the Child."
Wow. US didn't sign. Just wanted to highlight that.
Posted by: Gina | Oct 6, 2006 1:03:33 AM
Children's (including adolescent's) brains are not fully developed, therefore children should not be executed. They learn their morality from those in their life. Unfortunately there are many morally bankrupt individuals in our "modern" world. We teach our kids, "if it feels good do it" or, "if it feels bad it must be bad" This includes discipline, obedience and other great character traits that used to be valued.
Posted by: Gary | Oct 6, 2006 2:34:21 PM
Any killing is murder! Justice can never be served by vengance. Those that condone murder are themselves murderers. Take a lesson from the Amish. I am ashamed to say that they are the only ones conducting themselves as Christians in America.
Posted by: Concerned | Oct 9, 2006 1:10:40 AM
Some crimes deserve to be punished by death - murder, rape etc. Congratulations to Iran for ridding the world of these indiviuals. The US would arrest them and release them once they became adults. I am sure that they would suddenly become fine citizens once "reformed".
Posted by: Homeboy | Oct 12, 2006 4:55:41 PM
Wow, the propaganda machine is in full gear, getting us ready to accept the idea of attacking Iran. Everyone seems to have forgotten that GW Bush presided over the execution of several juvenile offenders while he was governor of Texas.. and those juveniles were all racial minorities. So let's stop pretending we're any better than anyone else. We're not.. not any more.
Posted by: Brorussell | Oct 12, 2006 4:56:46 PM
Congratulations to Iran for ridding the world of murderers, rapists etc. The US should do the same instead of releasing them at 18 or 21 once they've been "reformed" or once their brains have matured.
Posted by: Osama | Oct 12, 2006 5:02:48 PM
Iran shouldn't be applauded for executing anybody, and neither should any other country. Those who say they are for the death penalty as a form of "Justice" should reconsider. They know not what it is like to take another human beings life. I do...I did my bidding for the army in Vietnam and nothing can ever be the same. Killing is killing, period.
Posted by: George | Sep 30, 2008 8:31:30 PM
The death penalty is a sick and immoral act supported by only the most sickest and immoral people. An eye for an eye makes us all blind, and when people think that the death penalty acts as a deterent they clearly don't understand the facts. It does nothing as a deterent, and mistakes can never be made righs. When I think that some places still execute juveniles... Murder is murder whether it's legal or not
Posted by: Samantha | Jul 1, 2009 6:31:33 PM
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