December 9, 2015
By Elise Auerbach, Iran country specialist, Amnesty International USA
In a very rare piece of good news in an otherwise bleak landscape, Iranian authorities recently postponed the scheduled execution of juvenile offender Salar Shadizadi at the eleventh hour. He was to be hanged on November 28 for a killing that occurred when Mr. Shadizadi was just 15 years old.
Iran is one of the very few countries in the world that continues to execute juveniles. At least four juvenile offenders -- including one female -- have been executed already in Iran in 2015. This is a blatant violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Iran has ratified; Article 37 of the Convention states: "Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without the possibility of release shall be imposed for offenses committed by persons below eighteen years of age."
Click here for ENTIRE article.
