Human Rights Watch Report: Iranian Security Forces Violate Children’s Rights

On Tuesday, April 25, 2023, Human Rights Watch issued a new report entitled Iran: Security Forces Kill, Torture, and Abuse Children, talks about the violations committed by the Iranian security forces during their “suppression of the protests” that erupted in the country recently. The report talked about the exposure of children.of acts of murder, torture, sexual assault and enforced disappearance,” accusing the Iranian authorities of not abiding by their domestic laws related to the protection of children, nor the international covenants on their rights.

The report stated that the Iranian authorities arrested, interrogated and tried children without heeding the legal guarantees against that, and “prevented their families from hiring lawyers to defend them.”

Among the charges faced by these children “Enmity against God and corruption on earth,” vague and overbroad accusations, could lead to death or amputation of the right hand and left foot. However, children were tried outside the scope of juvenile courts, “which is the only body authorized to hear cases involving child defendants,” According to Iranian law.

The report stated that in the context of increasing pressure on children and their families, “they were detained, sometimes for weeks, without notifying their families, and they were prevented from returning to their schools, and their families were also prevented from benefiting from social assistance, which forced them to go to work” and to drop out of school.

Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other human rights organizations have documented the authorities’ use of violence against demonstrators, including children. Rights Watch had called on previous occasions for “the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission in Iran to investigate these grave violations against children as part of its broader reports on the Iranian government’s serial human rights violations.”

“Children who experience horrific abuse in detention and at trial risk long-term harm,” said Bill Van Esveld, associate director of the Children’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch. “The UN fact-finding mission should prioritize investigating these abuses and recommend a path toward accountability.” .

Beatings, electric shocks and sexual assault

Tara Sepehrifar, Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch, said, “Iranian leaders have unleashed their brutal forces to sexually abuse and torture children, and have not spared them from unfair and absurd trials. Over the past seven months, the authorities have not hesitated to expand the state’s coercive power to silence Everyone, even children.

The human rights organization stated in its report that it had investigated 11 cases in which it occurredviolations against childrenbetween September 2022 and February 2023. In these cases, it was established that the security forces handcuffed, blindfolded, and tortured children while in detention.

According to the testimony of a relative of one of the children (17 years old), he was beaten and sexually assaulted, leaving him with bruises all over his body and causing him anal bleeding. He added, “When he was released, he was bleeding from the rectum, bruises were covering his body… He was not in a good psychological condition…”.

“In the second hearing, the judge acquitted the young man, but threatened him with execution if he was arrested again,” according to the testimony holder.

Another student said that during her arrest, security forces pushed her over a burning stove, setting her clothes on fire, and then beat and whipped her during interrogation. Another testimony spoke of the torture of another boy by sticking needles under his nails, and the torture of two other children until they revealed the whereabouts of their relatives. Another boy, 16, attempted suicide twice after being beaten, electrocuted and sexually assaulted.

Depriving children of medical care

The Iranian journalist, Fatemeh Fanayan, had talked about two cases in which two boys were detained with adults, and this is contrary to the Iranian laws themselves. One of them is a 17-year-old who was severely beaten during arrest in November, threatened with rape by other prisoners, and later released on bail. The other, also 17 years old, was forced to sign papers without knowing what they were and was held with adults.

Persian-language media and social media accounts reported additional testimonies of torture and sexual abuse of children in the city of Zahedan. News Agency “Hal Fash” talked about the resurrection Revolutionary Guard forces On December 30, 2022, three children (between the ages of 16 and 17) were arrested and tortured in a detention center, including with electric shocks.

Unfair judgments

The Human Rights Watch report confirmed that the authorities did not provide medical care to the children, but rather threatened their family members to keep them silent about the violations, which was consistent with dozens of other accounts reported by activists and human rights groups.

Under Iranian law, children may only be questioned by specialized prosecutors, and they may only be tried in juvenile courts. In one case involving three children, the head of the judiciary in Iran was involved in appointing a judge from revolutionary court, as a juvenile judge. None of the defendants were granted the protection of the juvenile courts, nor were they allowed to appoint or choose lawyers. In the end, the judge (a cleric) sentenced the children to 25 years in prison, but the Iranian Supreme Court overturned those sentences under the pretext of lack of evidence, and ordered them to be re-tried “before the same judge”, who sentenced them to 3, 5 and 10 years in prison.

As of early April 2023, Iranian human rights groups have recorded the killing of 537 people at the hands of security forces in the context of the protests that began in late August 2022 following the death of Mahsa Amini, including at least 68 children.

And she was Human Rights Watch has reported on previous occasions about the deaths of children, including Nika Shkarami (16 years old), whose body was found by her family ten days after she disappeared during protests in Tehran on September 20, 2022, and Sarina Ismailzadeh (16 years old), who died after being beaten By security forces on September 23, 2022 in Gohardasht district. AndThe Iranian authorities claimed at the time that both girls died from “jumping or falling” from high places, and they also detained members of their families.

Sharif Baby