Iran Rejects the Wisdom of CRC's Ban on Child Executions
According to the High Council for Human Rights’ Information Center, Mohammad Javad Larijani (secretary of the judiciary’s Human Rights Council) stated in comments made at the Conference on the Outlook for the Rights of the Child in the Islamic Republic of Iran: “Iran’s Islamic Revolution was a major historic event and one of its important accomplishments is the [establishment] of a civil and political system based on human rationality.”
He emphasized: “Naturally, our 36-year experience has had significant successes; less attention has been given, however, to the part of it that has to do with civic life. The mechanism of democracy that has taken root in Iran today is definitely a great experience. Today, we must forge ahead with the Islamic way of life and interaction and conquer new horizons for its [advancement].”
The Secretary of the Human Rights High Council reiterated: “One of the important [issues] in a way of life is the issue of children. Attention to the rights of the child in liberal democracy goes back to the 18th century, where three areas were addressed: rearing, protection, and education. These are liberal democracy’s three areas as far as the rights of the child are concerned.”
Larijani commented that the first articles written about the rights of the child go back to the time when the issue had not yet become international. He added: “The first international document regarding children goes back to 1924, when the United Nations had not yet been established.”
“The next step in this regard was taken in 1954, after the establishment of the United Nations, when the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, containing 10 principles, was published. These principles became the foundation for international activities regarding the rights of the child” Larijani said.
The Secretary of the High Council on Human Rights stated: “Then, in 1989, the Convention on the Rights of the Child came into being, which is the most important document we’ve had thus far. We also have UNICEF, which is considered a vehicle for the advancement of the Convention’s objectives.”
Alluding to Principle 2 of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child, he added: “This principle deals with the protection of children through policy, governance, and other mechanisms, to enable them to develop physically, mentally, morally, spiritually and socially.”
Larijani emphasized: “From the perspective of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child, a child is an independent person - regardless of whether he or she has parents present- with certain rights which must [not] be violated and must be observed. Therefore, from this perspective, a child is an independent person with independent rights.”
The Secretary of the Human Rights High Council added: “Up until 25 years ago, homosexuality was considered a sickness and a violation [of the law] in most western countries; today, however, it is a sign of intellectualism in the West. In other words, if one wants to be an intellectual in the West, one must first insult God and the Prophet and after that, become a homosexual. Today, therefore, the most important objective of international conventions in the West regarding the rights of the child is faced with a challenge.” Larijani asserted that we must study the West’s experience regarding civil development of the child with deeper attention since a new generation of international documents is presently being drafted: “International documents about the rights of the child are generally divided into three groups: the first generation of these documents were of a philosophical nature, the second generation had good protection mechanisms, and the third generation introduced new concepts into conventions and [other] documents.”
Affirming that we have the background to innovate carefully [based on] our own experience, Larijani said: “Of course I’m not saying we ought to disregard the West’s experience, but that we must understand the West’s experience well and build our own Islamic experience. The truth is that children in this day and age are in a worse position than before in terms of lacking the ability to choose what they want: children are some of the biggest victims of the new information industry.” He emphasized: “The environment in which children live has changed greatly. According to McLuhan’s theory, the world was to be transformed into a small global village. Not only did that village fail to materialize, but smaller houses have turned into independent islands and the members of each family are each doing their own thing. On that basis, I believe that McLuhan’s prediction has been one hundred percent wrong.”
Larijani alluded to Islam’s perspective regarding the rights of the child and said: “Islam looks at “walad” (“offspring”) and therefore, in the Koran, indebtedness to parents is mentioned significantly more than instances of recommendation for the child. “Walad” is different than the entity that was once in the mother’s womb and has now been born.”
The Secretary of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights deemed Iran’s judicial apparatus among the world’s noteworthy organizations in the field and stated: “Our judges, especially Family Court judges who adjudicate juvenile crimes cases, have [issued] very interesting decisions in this area which indicate their sensitivity to violations committed in that age [group].”
He emphasized: “On the international scene, we have no issues with conventions on the rights of the child, though the area dealing with the death penalty for people less than 18 years of age is still an excuse to attack us. I believe the position our laws have adopted in this regard is much more rational since our law [concentrates] and is based on the concept of maturity and our legal bases are defensible.”
In conclusion, Larijani stated: “In this very regard, the new Law on the Rules of Criminal Procedure lays down the principle that individuals under 18 are not to be handed harsh sentences unless the judge determines otherwise. Generally speaking, the Convention on the Rights of the Child looks at the child from a biological standpoint whereas, from our perspective, the child is a social issue.”