Stop Child Executions Campaign

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Stop Child Executions Campaign Logo
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The “Stop Child Executions” Campaign, initiated by Nazanin Afshin-Jam, aims at putting an end to executions of minors in Iran. The campaign intends to raise awareness about this issue as well to put pressure on the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, both internally in Iran and internationally. This campaign is a follow-up effort to the successful campaign and petition that helped save the life of Nazanin Fatehi from execution. Preparation activities in support of this campaign commenced after release of nazanin Fatehi from prison and after more than 350,000 signatures that were signed worldwide. [1][2]

Contents

[edit] Background Information

The organizers of the campaign consider that as a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the government of Iran has undertaken not to execute anyone for an offense committed when they were under the age of 18.

Article 6.5 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) declares: “Sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age” and the article 37(a) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) provides that: “Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offenses committed by persons below eighteen years of age”.

In January 2005, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which monitors states' compliance with the CRC, urged Iran to immediately stay all executions of child offenders and to abolish the use of the death penalty in such cases. In the summer of 2006, the Iranian Parliament reportedly passed a bill establishing special courts for children and adolescents. However, it has not yet been approved by the Council of Guardians, which supervises Iran's legislation to ensure conformity with Islamic principles. During the past four years, the Iranian authorities have reportedly been considering legislation to ban the death penalty for child offenders. Recent comments by a judiciary spokesperson indicates that the proposed law would only prohibit the death penalty for certain crimes, and not all crimes committed by children.

In spite of these efforts, the number of child offenders executed in Iran has risen during the past two years. As of March 2007 at least 25 child offenders remain on death row in Iran. Their names and ages (where known) at the times of their alleged crimes are [3]:

1. Delara Darabi, 17 2. Beniamin Rasouli, 17 3. Hossein Toranj, 17 4. Hossein Haghi, 17 5. Morteza Feizi, 16 6. Sa'eed Jazee, 17 7. Ali Mahin Torabi, 16 8. Milad Bakhtiari, 16 9. Farshad Sa'eedi, 17 10. Hossein Gharabaghloo, 16 11. Shahram Pourmansouri, 17 12. Hedayat Niroumand, 15 13. Mohammad Mousavi, 14. Mostafa, 16 15. Mahmoud, 17 16. Hamid, 17 17. Sajjad, 17 18. Farzad, 15 19. Asghar, 16 20. Iman, 17 21. Ne'mat, 15 22. Hamzeh S, 17 23. Saber 24. Reza Alinejad 17 25. Sina Paymand 17 26. Saeed Kamberzai 17

[edit] Stop Child Execution Campaign Petition

A Petition has been made to obtain signatures and support worldwide. (# of signatures gathered to date). The petition is also available in Persian and Spanish languages.

SCE Camapaign maintains its website at http://www.stopchildexecutions.com.

[edit] Supporters

Some of the supporters of this campaign are:

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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