Amnesty International protests execution of teenager in Iran
Amnesty International protested the execution of a teenager in Iran in a Twitter message.
The message, published on Wednesday, July 26, states: "We are saddened and outraged by the news of the execution of an Iranian teenager named Abolfazl Chazani by Iranian authorities this morning. This act is a complete violation of human rights and international law. We will publish more reports on this later."
Abolfazl Chazani was arrested at the age of 14 on charges of murder, and his execution violates all conventions to which Iran is a signatory.
Iran is a party to the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, which protects individuals under the age of 18 from the death penalty. However, some judges in the Islamic Republic do not consider individuals between the ages of 15 and 18 to be children, citing “legal adulthood.”
In February of last year, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, citing the increase in the number of executions of minors in Iran at the beginning of this year, called on the Iranian government to halt the execution of those convicted of crimes under the age of 18.
Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein announced at the time that three people in Iran who were 15 or 16 years old when they committed crimes were executed in January, while about 80 others who were minors at the time of the crimes are facing the death penalty.
The UN's top human rights official continued in a statement he issued on the same subject, emphasizing that "the execution of juvenile offenders is prohibited under international law, without any ambiguity, regardless of the circumstances of the case and the nature of the crime they have committed."
According to him, in 2017, five convicts in Iran who were under the age of 18 when they committed crimes were executed, an act that violated international human rights law.
Source: Voice of America
