Growing Up on Death Row: The Death Penalty and Juvenile Offenders in Iran 
 
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 Scores of youths in Iran are languishing on death row for crimes committed under the age of 18, said Amnesty International in a new report published today. The report debunks recent attempts by Iran’s authorities to whitewash their continuing violations of children’s rights and deflect criticism of their appalling record as one of the world’s last executioners of juvenile offenders. 
 
 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, while trumpeting as major advances, piecemeal reforms that fail to abolish the death penalty against juvenile offenders. 
 
 “This report sheds light on Iran’s shameful disregard for the rights of children. Iran is one of the few countries that continues to execute juvenile offenders in blatant violation of the absolute legal prohibition on the use of the death penalty against people under the age of 18 years at the time of the crime,” said Said Boumedouha, deputy director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Program. 
 
 “Despite some juvenile justice reforms, Iran continues to lag behind the rest of the world, maintaining laws that permit girls as young as nine and boys as young as 15 to be sentenced to death.” 
 
 In recent years the Iranian authorities have celebrated changes to the country’s 2013 Islamic Penal Code that allow judges to replace the death penalty with an alternative punishment based on a discretionary assessment of juvenile offenders’ mental growth and maturity at the time of the crime. However, these measures are far from a cause for celebration. In fact, they lay bare Iran’s ongoing failure to respect a pledge that it undertook over two decades ago, when it ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), to abolish the use of death penalty against juvenile offenders completely. 
 
 As a state party to the CRC Iran is legally obliged to treat everyone under the age of 18 as a child and ensure that they are never subject to the death penalty nor to life imprisonment without possibility of release. 
 
 However, Amnesty International’s report lists 73 executions of juvenile offenders which took place between 2005 and 2015. According to the UN at least 160 juvenile offenders are currently on death row. The true numbers are likely to be much higher as information about the use of the death penalty in Iran is often shrouded in secrecy. 
 
 Amnesty International has been able to identify the names and location of 49 juvenile offenders at risk of the death penalty in the report. Many were found to have spent, on average, about seven years on death row. In a few cases documented by Amnesty International, the time that juvenile offenders spent on death row exceeded a decade. 
 
 “The report paints a deeply distressing picture of juvenile offenders languishing on death row, robbed of valuable years of their lives – often after being sentenced to death following unfair trials, including those based on forced confessions extracted through torture and other ill-treatment,” said Boumedouha. 
 
 In a number of cases the authorities have scheduled the executions of juvenile offenders and then postponed them at the last minute, adding to the severe anguish of being on death row. Such treatment is at the very least cruel, inhuman and degrading. 
 
 ‘Piecemeal’ reforms failing to deliver justice 
 
 Iran’s new Islamic Penal Code adopted in May 2013 had sparked guarded hopes that the situation of juvenile offenders under a death sentence would finally improve, at least in practice. The code allows judges to assess a juvenile offender’s mental maturity at the time of the offence, and potentially, to impose an alternative punishment to the death penalty on the basis of the outcome. In 2014, Iran’s Supreme Court confirmed that all juvenile offenders on death row could apply for retrial. 
 
 Yet almost three years after the changes to the Penal Code, the authorities have continued to carry out executions of juvenile offenders, and in some cases, they even often fail to informed the juvenile offenders of their right to apply for a retrial. ||||| (Beirut) – Iran’s judiciary should halt the execution of a woman convicted of murdering her husband when she was 17. The woman, who has admitted to shooting her husband while he was asleep, was married at 14 and is the mother of a 6 year old. Authorities have announced that she is at imminent risk of execution. International law strictly prohibits the execution of child offenders. 
 
 Authorities arrested Razieh Ebrahimi – also referred to as “Maryam” in the local press – four years ago after she shot her husband in the head as he was sleeping and buried his body in the backyard, a source familiar with her case told Human Rights Watch. Ebrahimi, who is in prison in the southwestern city of Ahvaz, admitted guilt but expressed remorse. She said she snapped after several years of physical and verbal abuse by her husband. 
 
 “Every time an Iranian judge issues a death sentence for a child offender like Ebrahimi, he should remember he is flagrantly violating his legal responsibilities to administer justice fairly and equitably,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director. “Iran’s judiciary should reverse its execution order of a child bride who says she was battered.” 
 
 A criminal court convicted Ebrahimi of murder and sentenced her to death. Iran’s judiciary rejected Ebrahimi’s request for a retrial despite the fact that she was under 18 when she committed the murder. 
 
 In early 2013, new amendments to the penal code went into effect, strictly prohibiting the execution of child offenders for certain categories of crimes, including drug-related offenses. No such prohibition exists, however, for children convicted of murder and a host of other crimes for which the punishments are fixed under Sharia law, including adultery and sodomy. 
 
 Under article 91 of the amended code, a judge may sentence a boy who is 15 or older or a girl who is 9 or older to death for these crimes if he determines that the child understood the nature and consequences of the crime. The article allows the court to rely on “the opinion of a forensic doctor or other means it deems appropriate” to establish whether a defendant understood the consequences of their actions. 
 
 Under Iranian law, in murder cases, the victim’s survivors retain the right to claim retribution in kind, to pardon the killer, or to accept compensation in exchange for giving up the right to claim retribution. The husband’s family has refused to pardon Ebrahimi. 
 
 A source familiar with Ebrahimi’s case told Human Rights Watch that prison authorities attempted earlier to carry out her execution, but when she informed them that she was 17 when she killed her husband they returned her to her cell. The source said that following recent changes to Iran’s penal code the lawyer requested a retrial from the Supreme Court on the basis that she had been under 18 and did not understand the consequences of her actions, but the court refused. 
 
 In an interview with an Iranian online magazine, Ebrahimi’s lawyer, Hassan Aghakhani, said that various branches of the Supreme Court have applied article 91 differently, and he hoped the judiciary could at the very least suspend his client’s execution until all branches of the court applied the article uniformly. 
 
 Since 2009, Iran has executed at least 10 child offenders, making it the country with the world’s highest number of child executions. In 2014 alone there have been at least three unofficial reports of authorities executing child offenders for murder and rape charges, despite increasing international and domestic pressure on Iran to end the practice. Human Rights Watch is investigating these cases to determine whether those executed were, in fact, child offenders. 
 
 Iran is one of only four countries known to have executed juvenile offenders in the past five years; the others are Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan, as well as Hamas authorities in Gaza. Iran is a state party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which bans execution of child offenders. Since 2010, numerous UN rights experts and bodies, including UN experts, the Human Rights Council, and the Human Rights Committee have strongly condemned Iran’s execution of child offenders. 
 
 In 2012 Human Rights Watch called on the Iranian government to amend its penal code to impose an absolute prohibition on the death penalty for child offenders. Human Rights Watch has also called on Iran’s judiciary to impose a moratorium on all executions in the country due to serious concerns regarding substantive and due process violations leading to the implementation of the death penalty. Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances because it is an inherently irreversible, inhumane punishment. 
 
 Under the Iranian Civil Code girls can marry at 13 and boys at 15. They can marry younger with the consent of their legal guardians and a competent court. International human rights standards recommend 18 as the minimum age for marriage. Child marriages violate many human rights, including education, freedom from violence, reproductive rights, access to reproductive and sexual health care, employment, freedom of movement, and consensual marriage. The statements of the children and women Human Rights Watch has interviewed in several countries illustrate the profoundly detrimental impact on their physical and mental well-being, and their ability to live free of violence. 
 
 “Iran’s judiciary should prove its commitment to protecting children – the most vulnerable members of its population – by calling a halt to death sentences for child offenders,” Stork said. ||||| Razieh Ebrahimi was forced to marry at the age of 14, became a mother at 15, and killed her husband at 17. Now at 21, she is on Iran's death row. 
 
 Ebrahimi, who shot dead her husband while he was sleeping, faces imminent execution, despite international laws prohibiting execution for crimes committed by juveniles. 
 
 Human Rights Watch, has urged Iran's judiciary to halt the execution. Earlier this week, Ebrahimi's lawyer also asked judges to consider a retrial, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported. 
 
 "I married our neighbour's son when I was only 14 because my dad insisted," Ebrahimi was quoted as telling officials working on her case, according to Mehr. "My dad insisted I should marry him because he was educated and was working as a teacher. I was 15 when I gave birth to my child." Her child is believed to be now six years old. 
 
 "I didn't know who I am or what is life all about," she said soon after being arrested. "My husband mistreated me. He used any excuse to insult me, even attacking me physically." 
 
 Ebrahimi is said to have admitted to killing her husband with his own gun before burying him in the garden. Ebrahimi initially told the police her husband was missing but her own father found the dead body and gave her in to the police. 
 
 Iran is signatory to the international convenant of civil and political rights (ICCPR) which prohibits death penalty for convicts if their act of crime is committed while they were under the age of 18. 
 
 HRW called on the judiciary, which is independent of the Iranian government, to reverse its decision. 
 
 "Every time an Iranian judge issues a death sentence for a child offender like Ebrahimi, he should remember he is in flagrantly violating his legal responsibilities to administer justice fairly and equitably," said HRW's Joe Stork. "Iran's judiciary should reverse its execution order of a battered child bride." 
 
 Althought a death penalty for Ebrahimi was handed down by the judges, her victim's family have until the very last minute to pardon her, a decision they have so far refused. Under Iranian law the victim's family have a final say over the death penalty. 
 
 In April an Iranian mother pardoned the man who had killed her sonjust moments before he was to be executed. Samereh Alinejad's act of forgiveness, has since inspired dozens of other families across Iran to pardon convicts at last minute. 
 
 Iran's judicial authorities have previously denied accusations of juvenile executions, but according to HRW, the country has executed at least 10 juvenile offenders since 2009. 
 
 The dispute appears to arise from Iran's own definition of a juvenile. The country does not provide a clear distinction between the age of majority – when minors cease to legally be considered children – and the minimum age of criminal responsibility, which is 15 for boys and nine for girls under Iranian law. Under the current civil code, girls can marry at 13 and boys at 15, HRW said. 
 
 In 2013, Iran and Iraq were responsible for more than two-thirds of the executions that happened worldwide, according to Amnesty. Iran says most of its executions are related to drug-offences. 
 
 Shadi Sadr, a London-based Iranian lawyer with the rights group Justice for Iran, told the Guardian that the case against Razieh Ebrahimi - also known as Maryan - underlined a hidden social and legal issue in Iran. 
 
 "Forced girl marriage in Iran is a hidden social and legal issue," she said. "However, it should be noted that Maryam Ebrahimi's case is not a unique case at all. This March, for instance, Farzaneh Moradi, 28, was executed for murdering her husband. She was forced to marriage at 15, gave birth at 16, fell in love with another man at 19 and was accused of murdering her husband at 20." 
 
 She added: "Women such as Maryam or Farzaneh, who are forced to marriage at childhood, are actually being raped constantly under the name of marriage. While they should go to school at that age, they are instead experiencing a life full of violence with no legal support. They eventually kill themselves or their husbands to end this vicious circle." 
 
 Sadr said Justice for Iran's research shows in 2012 alone, 1,537 girls under the age of of 10 and 29,827 girls between the ages of 10 and 14 were registered for marriage in Iran. 
 
 • This article was amended on 20 June 2014 to clarify that Razieh Ebrahami is also known as Maryam. ||||| Convict had noose around his neck when victim's mother approached, slapped him in the face and spared his life 
 
 When he felt the noose around his neck, Balal must have thought he was about to take his last breath. Minutes earlier, crowds had watched as guards pushed him towards the gallows for what was meant to be yet another public execution in the Islamic republic of Iran. 
 
 Seven years ago Balal, who is in his 20s, stabbed 18-year-old Abdollah Hosseinzadeh during a street brawl in the small town of Royan, in the northern province of Mazandaran. In a literal application of qisas, the sharia law of retribution, the victim's family were to participate in Balal's punishment by pushing the chair on which he stood. 
 
 But what happened next marked a rarity in public executions in Iran, which puts more people to death than any other country apart from China. The victim's mother approached, slapped the convict in the face and then decided to forgive her son's killer. The victim's father removed the noose and Balal's life was spared. 
 
 Hosseinzadeh's mother slaps Balal. Photograph: Arash Khamooshi /Isna 
 
 Photographs taken by Arash Khamooshi, of the semi-official Isna news agency, show what followed. Balal's mother hugged the grieving mother of the man her son had killed. The two women sobbed in each other's arms – one because she had lost her son, the other because hers had been saved. 
 
 The action by Hosseinzadeh's mother was all the more extraordinary as it emerged that this was not the first son she had lost. Her younger child Amirhossein was killed in a motorbike accident at the age of 11. 
 
 "My 18-year-old son Abdollah was taking a stroll in the bazaar with his friends when Balal shoved him," said the victim's father, Abdolghani Hosseinzadeh, according to Isna. "Abdollah was offended and kicked him but at this time the murderer took an ordinary kitchen knife out of his socks." 
 
 Balal's mother, left and Hosseinzadeh's mother embrace after the execution was halted. Photograph: Arash Khamooshi/Isna 
 
 Hosseinzadeh Sr has come to the conclusion that Balal did not kill his son deliberately. "Balal was inexperienced and didn't know how to handle a knife. He was naive." 
 
 According to the father, Balal escaped the scene of the stabbing but was later arrested by the police. It took six years for a court to hand down a death sentence, and the victim's family deferred the execution a number of times. A date for execution was set just before the Persian new year, Nowruz, but the victim's family did not approve of the timing. 
 
 Hosseinzadeh said a dream prompted the change of heart. "Three days ago my wife saw my elder son in a dream telling her that they are in a good place, and for her not to retaliate … This calmed my wife and we decided to think more until the day of the execution." 
 
 Many Iranian public figures, including the popular TV sport presenter Adel Ferdosipour, had called on the couple, who have a daughter, to forgive the killer. Although they did so, Balal will not necessarily be freed. Under Iranian law the victim's family have a say only in the act of execution, not any jail sentence. 
 
 The chair on the gallows. Photograph: Arash Khamooshi /Isna 
 
 In recent years Iran has faced criticism from human rights activists for its high rate of executions. The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, accused Hassan Rouhani of doing too little to improve Iran's human rights, especially reining in its staggering use of capital punishment. 
 
 As of last week, 199 executions are believed to have been carried out in Iran this year, according to Amnesty, a rate of almost two a day. Last year Iran and Iraq were responsible for two-thirds of the world's executions, excluding China. 
 
 At least 369 executions were officially acknowledged by the Iranian authorities in 2013, but Amnesty said hundreds more people were put to death in secret, taking the actual number close to 700. 
 
 Iran is particularly criticised for its public executions, which have attracted children among the crowds in the past. Iranian photographers are often allowed to document them. 
 
 Bahareh Davis, of Amnesty International, welcomed the news that Balal had been spared death. "It is of course welcome news that the family of the victim have spared this young man's life," she said. "However, qisas regulations in Iran mean that people who are sentenced to death under this system of punishment are effectively prevented from seeking a pardon or commutation of their sentences from the authorities – contrary to Iran's international obligations." 
 
 She added: "It's deeply disturbing that the death penalty continues to be seen as a solution to crime in Iran. Not only is the death penalty the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment with no special deterrent impact, but public displays of killing also perpetuate a culture of acceptance of violence. 
 
 "Public executions are degrading and incompatible with human dignity of those executed. In addition, all those who watch public executions – which regrettably often includes children – are brutalised by the experience." 
 
 In October last year an Iranian prisoner who survived an attempted execution and was revived in the morgue was spared another attempt, though his family said he had lost mental stability and remained in jail. ||||| Global figures 
 
 At least 1,032 people were executed in 23 countries in 2016. In 2015 Amnesty International recorded 1,634 executions in 25 countries worldwide - a historical spike unmatched since 1989. 
 
 Most executions took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan – in that order. 
 
 China remained the world’s top executioner – but the true extent of the use of the death penalty in China is unknown as this data is considered a state secret; the global figure of at least 1,032 excludes the thousands of executions believed to have been carried out in China. 
 
 Excluding China, 87% of all executions took place in just four countries – Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan. 
 
 For the first time since 2006, the USA was not one of the five biggest executioners, falling to seventh behind Egypt. The 20 executions in the USA was the lowest in the country since 1991. 
 
 During 2016, 23 countries, about one in eight of all countries worldwide, are known to have carried out executions. This number has decreased significantly from twenty years ago (40 countries carried out executions in 1997). Belarus, Botswana, Nigeria and authorities within the State of Palestine resumed executions in 2016; Chad, India, Jordan, Oman and United Arab Emirates –all countries that executed people in 2015 − did not report any executions last year. 
 
 141 countries worldwide, more than two-thirds, are abolitionist in law or practice. 
 
 In 2016, two countries – Benin and Nauru– abolished the death penalty in law for all crimes. In total, 104 countries have done so – a majority of the world’s states. Only 64 countries were fully abolitionist in 1997. 
 
 Commutations or pardons of death sentences were recorded in 28 countries in 2016. At least 60 people who had been sentenced to death were exonerated in 9 countries in 2016:Bangladesh (4), China (5), Ghana (1), Kuwait (5), Mauritania (1), Nigeria (32), Sudan (9), Taiwan (1) and Viet Nam (2). 
 
 Amnesty International recorded 3,117 death sentences in 55 countries in 2016, a significant increase on the total for 2015 (1,998 sentences in 61 countries). Significant increases were recorded in 12 countries, but for some, such as Thailand, the increase is due to the fact that the authorities provided Amnesty International with detailed information. 
 
 At least 18,848 people were on death row at the end of 2016. The following methods of execution were used across the world: beheading, hanging, lethal injection and shooting. Public executions were carried out in Iran (at least 33) and North Korea. 
 
 Reports indicated that at least two people who were under 18 at the time of the crime for which they were sentenced to death were executed in 2016 in Iran. 
 
 In many countries where people were sentenced to death or executed, the proceedings did not meet international fair trial standards. In some cases this included the extraction of “confessions” through torture or other ill-treatment, including in Bahrain, China, Iran, Iraq, North Korea and Saudi Arabia. 
 
 Regional analysis 
 
 Americas 
 
 For the 8th consecutive year, the USA was the only country to carry out executions in the Americas region with 20 people executed in 2016 (eight fewer than in 2015). This was the lowest number of executions recorded in a single year since 1991. This rate of executions is half that of 2007, a third that of 1997. 
 
 Five states executed people in 2016 compared to six the previous year. The number of executions carried out in Georgia almost doubled compared to the previous year (from 5 to 9); while the figure almost halved in Texas (from 13 to 7). Together these two states were responsible for the 80% of all executions in the country during the year. However, 2,832 people were still on death row in the USA at the end of 2016. 
 
 The number of death sentences in the USA also decreased from 52 in 2015 to 32 in 2016 (38% decrease). This is the lowest number recorded since 1973. 
 
 Only three other countries in the region, Barbados, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, imposed death sentences in 2016. Two Caribbean countries –Antigua and Barbuda and Bahamas— commuted their last remaining death sentences. 
 
 Asia-Pacific 
 
 At least 130 executions were carried out in 2016 in 11 countries, down from at least 367 executions in 12 countries in 2015. This was mainly due to Pakistan, where executions decreased by 239 (73%). The figure for Asia-Pacific does not include executions carried out in China, where executions were still in the thousands. But the true extent of the use of the death penalty in China is unknown as this data is treated as a state secret. 
 
 New information about executions in China, Malaysia and Viet Nam exposed the extent to which governments are keeping their use of the death penalty secret. Pressured by parliament, Malaysia revealed that it had executed nine people in 2016, and that, as of 30 April 2016, 1,042 people were under sentence of death. 
 
 New data from Vietnam showed that it was one of the world’s biggest executioners. According to a report of the Viet Nam’s Ministry of Public Security which became public in February 2017, 429 prisoners were executed between 6 August 2013 and 30 June 2016. Only China and Iran executed more people during that period. 
 
 At least 1,224 new death sentences were imposed in 18 countries across the region, a noticeable rise from at least 661 in 2015 (a 85% increase). This is linked to considerable increases in these figures for Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Thailand, with the Thai authorities providing Amnesty International with a full figure of 216 new death sentences for the first time in recent years. 
 
 Maldives and the Philippines took steps in the wrong direction towards the resumptions of executions after more than six decades and the reintroduction of the death penalty, respectively. 
 
 Sub-Saharan Africa 
 
 The use of the death penalty in Sub-Saharan Africa was mixed. Whilst fewer executions were recorded, the number of death sentences logged rose by 145%. At least 22 executions were carried out in five countries – compared to 43 executions in four countries in 2015. 
 
 Death sentences rose from 443 in 2015 to at least 1,086 in 2016, mainly due to an increase in Nigeria (from 171 to 527) which handed down more death sentences this year than any other country except China. The danger of people being executed for crimes they did not commit remains ever-present: half of the exonerations recorded around the world in 2016 were in Nigeria (32). 
 
 Europe and Central Asia 
 
 In Europe and Central Asia, Belarus resumed executions after a 17-month hiatus. Belarus and Kazakhstan are the only two countries in the region to use the death penalty. 
 
 Middle East and North Africa 
 
 The number of executions recorded in the Middle East and North Africa decreased by 28% against the previous year, from 1,196 executions in 2015 to 856 in 2016. 
 
 Iran alone accounted for 66% of all recorded executions in the region. The overall number of executions carried out in Iran, however, dropped by 42% (from at least 977 to at least 567) compared to the previous year. 
 
 Saudi Arabia executed at least 154 people – maintaining the high level set in 2015 (158) which was the highest number recorded for Saudi Arabia since 1995.
– More than 20 years ago, Iran promised it would stop executing convicts under the age of 18. But a new report by Amnesty International shows that not only has the practice continued into the present day—it's given Iran the dubious distinction of being "one of the leading executioners of juvenile offenders," the New York Times reports. At least 73 youngsters have been executed in Iran between 2005 and 2015, per the report, and at least 160 juveniles are now on the country's death row, and those are probably conservative numbers (the report notes actual figures are probably higher but unknown because info about the death penalty is "shrouded in secrecy"). And it's apparently much worse for girls than for boys, a deputy director for the group says. "Iran continues to lag behind the rest of the world, maintaining laws that permit girls as young as 9 and boys as young as 15 to be sentenced to death," says Said Boumedouha. This in spite of supposedly significant changes to the country's Islamic Penal Code—changes meant to offer judges "alternative punishments" to the death penalty when juveniles are involved. In fact, the need for those changes in the first place shows what a dismal failure Iran has been in dealing with this issue, since in 1994 it ratified its participation in the UN's Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that "neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed [on] … persons below 18 years of age." "The report debunks recent attempts by Iran's authorities to whitewash their continuing violations of children's rights and deflect criticism of their appalling record as one of the world's last executioners of juvenile offenders," the Amnesty report reads. (The Guardian features heartbreaking photos of female juveniles in Iranian prisons.)