SCE News & Updates نوجوانان را اعدام نکنید

Following are the list of the signed commitments of Government of Islamic Republic of Iran to the UN Convention on the Right of the Child (CRC) and (ICCP).  Iranian Government is in violation of all of the following signed UN documents:

MAY 8, 2006 :  Government of Iran commitment letter to United Nations   (see Page 2)  

CCPR-International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: 

Prior Ratification

CRC-Convention on the Rights of the Child : 

Prior Ratifications 

Sources: Amnesty International, United Nations 

28 March 2007 - The Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions issued the following statement today:

"The execution of juveniles in Iran is completely unacceptable", says Philip Alston, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. "The Iranian Government cannot continue to ignore its obligations under international law. In particular, in 1994 Iran ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child and made a clear and unambiguous legal commitment not to impose the death penalty for offences committed by persons less than eighteen years old."

"It is time for Iran to demonstrate that its commitment to international law involves concrete action, not just empty words," says Alston. "The Government of Iran must immediately commute all death sentences imposed for crimes individuals committed before the age of 18."

A report released by Alston yesterday referred to the cases of 15 individuals on which he had acted over the past two years. These included nine boys and six girls who had been sentenced to death in Iran for crimes committed when they were under 18. According to the available information four of these juvenile offenders have been executed and two acquitted. Five other death sentences are "on hold" and one is under review. The status of the remaining three cases is unclear.

Alston presented his findings to the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday. This report contains a comprehensive account of communications sent to Iranian Governments up to 1 December 2006, along with replies received up to the end of January 2007. In it's communique about Naznin Fatehi last year the Iranian Goverrnent had falsely replied to UN that : "Ms. Nazanin was born in 1986...when she was over 19 years of age. According to the records of the court, the crime has been committed based on personal .reasons and not in self defense as it has been reported to the Special Rapporteurs."

The report also clarifies some of the UN communique in Fenruary of 2006 about Delara Darabi. It also shows the urgent UN appeal about Rostam Tajok who was 16 at the time of alleged crime. However Islamic Republic of Iran still proceeded with his execution on December 10, 2006.


Philip Alston was appointed as Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights on 13 July 2004. In 2006, the Commission on Human Rights was replaced by the Human Rights Council, and Alston now reports to the Council. For further information on the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, see:

http://www.ohchr.org/english/issues/executions/ , http://www.extrajudicialexecutions.org/ The report that Alston presented to the Human Rights Council on March 27 is UN Doc. No. A/HRC/4/20, and communications with governments are included in A/HRC/4/20/Add.1.

A word of thanks to UN offices of Mr. Philp Aliston for their efforts and comments.

Yesterday, Dagbladet newspaper from Norway with about 800,000 daily readers published a detailed article about Delara Darabi and child executions in Iran. The article explained how myspace has been used by human rights activists to save Nazanin Fatehi and Delara. The Norwegian newspaper has published the address of Delara's myspace site which has resulted in substantial number of friend requests from Norway on Delara's myspace page since yesterday. As a result many newspaper readers have been signing both Delara's petition and stop child executions petitions in the past two days. 

The newspaper wrote that Amnesty International has been working for Delara's case. On Monday John Peder Egenæs, general secretary of Amnesty International Norway, together with soccer players Freddy Dos Santos and Tommy Berntsen, delivered a collection of signatures to the consulate General of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ali Kazemi. He claimed that Delara Darabi will not be executed. "I know nothing about this case, but it is not correct that she will be executed," said Kazemi when he received the signatures.

Mr. Egenæs of Amnesty International does not believe this claim: "They must be giving out false information to make themselves look better, because this case has received so much attention".

He believes the campaign will help: "Iran is under so much pressure now, and is being embarrassed in so many areas, that if we can focus on single cases like this, there's a good chance we will succeed. I am an optimist." He said.

The Swedish newpaper Expressen has published an article about Stop Child Execution Campaign which resulted in additional signatures from Sweden. The new petition has already passed 1000 signtaure mark .

A word of thanks to Dagbladet newspaper , Peder Egenæs, general secretary of Amnesty International Norway, Norwegian soccer players: Freddy Dos Santos and Tommy Berntsen, Kristian Hvesser of Stop Child Execution Team and all other new friends of Delara Darabi and SCE campaign from Norway, as well as Expressen and all the Swedish supporters.

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Hedayat Niroumand (15)

In December 2006, Hedayat Niroumand , a 15 year old Kurdish boy, was sentenced to death. The boy is accused of killing his father. Circumstances are unknown. The verdict will be implemented when he turns 18.

Sources:

Kurdistan Observer
Kurdistan human right defense organization

He is #12 on the stop child executions petition and this is all that we know about him. It is crucial to find where he is being kept, who his attorney is and any other pertinent information that can help us save him from execution. If you have any more information about Hedayat, please send us an email. 

Thank You for caring

Stop Child Executions Campaign

In support of the campaign to stop child executions in Iran, European parliament members signed the resolution that was presented to them on February 27, 2007 by Nazanin Afshin Jam and Mina Ahadi. Following is the text of the resolution and the signatures:

Call for abolition of Executions of Juveniles in Iran 2007

Background

As a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Iran has undertaken not to execute anyone for an offence committed when they were under the age of 18. Nevertheless, Amnesty International has recorded 21 executions of child offenders in Iran since 1990. In 2006, Iran and Pakistan were the only countries in the world to continue to execute child offenders

 The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which monitors states’ compliance with the CRC, in January 2005 urged Iran immediately to stay all executions of people convicted of crimes committed when they were under 18, and to abolish the use of the death penalty in such cases.

The European Parliament:
-       having regard to its previous resolutions on Iran, notably concerning Human Rights,

-       having regard to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child to which Iran is a party,

1)      Calls on the Iranian authorities to immediately halt all executions of juvenile offenders and to prevent any further application of the death penalty, especially against minors;

2)      Strongly condemns the death sentences passed against and execution of juvenile offenders and minors, and calls upon the Iranian authorities to respect internationally recognized legal safeguards with regard to minors such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which provides that capital punishment shall not be imposed for offences committed by persons below 18 years of age at the time of the commission of the offence.

3)      Strongly condemns the death sentences of the following 23 child offenders as reported by Amnesty International in January 2007:


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

Signatures from Members of European Parliament:

Germany:             Uca, Felenka

Nazanin Afshin-Jam
Human Rights Activist

Mina Ahadi
Head of The International Committee Against Execution

  Stop Child Executions Campaign is now in internet encyclopdia: Wikipedia

The Stop Child Executions Campaign is made possible with efforts of many individuals and organizations. Here are more names to add to our previous list. We would like to thank the following individuals for their restless refforts:

Nazanin Afshin-Jam spoke with Delara's eldest sister and she said that her family visited Delara last week. She said that Delara was very sick with kidney illness. She said Delara had prior kidney condition which has been aggravated since imprisonment. She said that Delara has her ups and downs but that she doesn't share her feelings too much with her family as to not upset them.

KRSI is an Persian Radio station that broadcasts from outside Iran.

Attorney for Nazanin Fatehi and Reza Alinejad