A/HRC/37/68/Add.1 continue the death penalty for serious drug traffickers and to regard it as serious crimes indicates the absence of effective alternatives and deterrences (to a large extent) of the punishment and the need to prevent the conversion of drug trafficking as a legitimate profession with high income, which was discussed in detail in previous sections. Regarding the necessity applying the death penalty for some drug offenders, it should be noted that due to the long eastern border of the Islamic Republic of Iran with the neighboring countries and the seperation of legal and police responsibilities, the legal confrontation with drug traffickers are carried out in several provinces. Traffickers usually carry drugs in large volumes and in most cases they use heavy weapons, such as shotguns, RPG guns and mortar 60, against the Iranian border guards. The following information reveals statistics of police performance in material discovery and statistics on clashes with armed gangs and smugglers. So, given the wide range of smugglers' actions, the use of capital punishment for serious offenders is expected. According to the deputy head of the Anti -Narcotics Headquarters, sixty-nine drug smugglers were killed last year, 94,000 smugglers and 26,000 drug addicts were arrested, 694 armed operations were carried out in this regard, and 87 industrial drug manufacturing units were dismantled. According to the source, six police officers were martyred and 16 were wounded. Also, last year, two million and 465,000 pills and opiate ampoules were discovered, which indicates an 11 percent raise from the same period last year. Most of the drug discoveries during this period were in Kerman province and the least in Kish Island and also 370 weapons were discovered. In addition to police operations, 251 thousand and 136 individuals have attended courses of life skills, child raising styles and drug abuse prevention, which has increased by more than 30%, compared to the same period last year. In the first three months of the year 2014, 4211 individuals were admitted to 17 centers, in accordance with Article 16, for the maintenance, treatment and reduction of drug addicts' harm. According to the approval by the social council of the country, 10% of the cultural credits of the municipalities of cities over 500 thousand population, has been allocated to the programs of prevention of addiction. Also, due to the lack of statistics of addicted infants in the country and the identification of 51 drug sale sites, the collection of street addicted women in the capital was also continued. Last year, the Headquarters managed to cover preventive education for 8% of the Ministry of Education's educational centers and seeks to integrate preventive education in partnership with UNODC, even starting from pre-school education. Note: A large number of documents and investigations in the area of drug offenses in the country have been made and are available on request, including the website of www.dchq.ir Drug Counter-Narcotics Research and Training Office. Reply to Paragraphs 18-19 As for the cases on the implementation of death penalty for offenders under the age of 18, the Islamic Republic of Iran, according to Islamic and human considerations, applies considerable flexibility to offenders under the age of 18, including the requirement for examination of the cases in special courts and the use of alternative punishments. Only in the case of murder cases, the perpetrators under the age of 18 are tried in the "Penal Court" court with three judges. According to law and the Islamic canon law, the punishment for the murderous crime is “Qisas” (retaliation). The duty of the State in this case is merely to examine and deliberate the murder, and execution of the sentence is only possible on the basis of the request of the owners of the blood. On the basis of the current practice, even after the court verdicts are finalized and endorsed by the Supreme Court, extensive efforts are made by the “Reconciliation Commission” to satisfy the requirements of the owners of the blood and convert the Qisas (retaliation) to “Diyeh” (blood money).Over the past few years, a considerable number of offenders have been released from the retaliation punishment. The principled policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in this regard is to encourage compromise, even with provision of cash assistance to realize the payment of the Diyeh, and this is the prevailing trend and the main course of dealing with this group of offenders. Among the actions of the judiciary was the establishment of a new task force on "Prevention of Deprivation of Life". This workshop is a subcommittee of the Executive Committee on the Protection of the Rights of Children and Adolescents in the General Justice Department of the Province of Tehran, which has now extended to all provinces of the country. The purpose of 6