A/HRC/40/67 1. Patterns of convictions based upon confessions 55. The sentencing of children to death is particularly alarming, given their specific vulnerability as children amidst documented patterns of violations related to the lack of access to a lawyer and the reliance on confessions obtained through coercion or torture in judicial proceedings. 91 The Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights require that a child cannot be compelled to confess guilt or acknowledge guilt.92 The Committee on the Rights of the Child further states that children may be led to a confession that is not true because of their age, their development, the length of the interrogation, their lack of understanding, the fear of unknown consequences, or the suggested possibility of imprisonment, as well as the promise of possible release or lighter sanctions.93 The inherent vulnerability of children is further increased because if they are charged with crimes involving the death penalty they cannot choose their own lawyer during the initial investigation phase. They are instead limited to a lawyer approved by the Head of the Judiciary. Information received indicates that numerous children have been convicted on the basis of confessions compelled during this phase. In 2018 for example, Zeinab Sekaanvand was reportedly coerced into confessing that she had killed her husband when she was 17 years old.94 She recanted her confession but was nevertheless executed. Alireza Tajiki was executed in 2017, after confessing to murder at the age of 15 after reportedly being tortured. He also later recanted his confession but no investigation was undertaken into his claims.95 2. Practices amounting to torture and other ill-treatment 56. The treatment of children on death row is of deep concern. Government representatives have claimed that the Islamic Republic of Iran does not execute children.96 In practice, this means that the State imprisons the convicted child on death row for years until they reach the age of 18 and executes them thereafter. Reports received also indicate that the executions of numerous child offenders were repeatedly postponed, often at the last minute.97 In this respect, in June 2018 the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights raised the case of Abolfazi Chezani Sharahi, a child offender whose execution was postponed four times before his eventual execution. 98 Similarly, the executions of Alireza Tajiki and Omid Rostami were postponed four times. They were executed in 2017 and 2018 respectively after spending numerous years on death row. The Special Rapporteur is concerned that the combination of circumstances, with respect to repeated postponements, the practice of waiting until the child reaches the age of 18, and the inherent vulnerability of the child given his or her age, inevitably leads to severe mental trauma and physical deterioration. 99 The Special Rapporteur accordingly contends that the policy and practice of sentencing children to death in the Islamic Republic of Iran amounts to a pattern of torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment contrary to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the Islamic Republic of Iran is a party. The Special Rapporteur emphasizes that the way to address this is to immediately prohibit the sentencing of children to death and to commute the death sentences of all child offenders on death row. 3. Circumstances of children sentenced to death 57. Reports received indicate that many children sentenced to death on the basis of qisas, along with their families, have lower levels of economic and social standing, education, and 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 See para. 13 above. Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 40; and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 14. See the Committee’s general comment No. 10 (2007) on children’s rights in juvenile justice, para. 57. See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23689&LangID=E. See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21958&LangID=E. See the statement made by the Head of the Judiciary in 2014, available at https://bit.ly/2LE4dGY. A/67/279, para. 48. See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23279&LangID=E. See A/67/279, pp. 9–14 on the “death row phenomenon”. 13