IRAN: Statement by Catherine Ashton on the recent execution of juvenile offenders

Summary: Catherine Ashton, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the Commission, made today the following statement on 29 April 2011:

"I deplore the public execution of four young men in Bandar Abbas, Iran, last week. At least two of the men were under 18 at the time of their alleged offences. This stands in clear contravention to Iran's international obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The EU has already expressed its concern over the alarming rate of executions in Iran this year and condemns the practice of carrying them out in public or by suspension hanging. I reiterate the EU's call on Iran to declare a moratorium on the death penalty in line with the growing global trend towards abolition of this punishment."

Further Information:

• Inhuman Sentencing of Children in Iran (CRIN, November 2010)
• CRIN's campaign to stop the inhuman sentencing of children 
• DEATH PENALTY: Iran set to execute 18-year-old on false charge of sodomy (9 August  2010)
• Iran to review juvenile executions (Reuters, June 2010)
• Death Sentences and Executions in 2009 (Amnesty International, April 2010)
• CRIN's information page on children and the deah penalty
• Human Rights Watch campaign to end death penalty
• More on children's rights in Iran