World News /12 Feb 2016
Vanessa Thevathasan
Iran: Children of Death Row
Iran leads as the world’s largest user of the death penalty and tops any country in the execution of offenders under 18. In the first half of 2015 alone, Iran executed nearly 700 young offenders. This is the highest it’s been in the last 25 years. So while more countries reject capital punishment, Iran continues to sentence girls as young as nine and boys aged 15 to death. A disturbing new report by Amnesty International has revealed state sanctioned execution of 73 offenders under 18 between 2005 and 2015 and at least 160 young Iranians are currently awaiting execution. Iran finds plenty of company with countries like China, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and United States that carry out the largest number of executions in the world.
The report reveals the litany of minor offenses that the state sees as worthy of ending a child’s life. Like Janat Mir, from Afghanistan, who was arrested for drug offenses after his friend’s house, where he was staying, was raided. Mir did not have access to a lawyer or consular services. He was believed to be 14 or 15 when he was executed in 2014.
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