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Iran Focus
 Tehran, Iran, Oct. 20 – A
top international human rights organisation
condemned Iran
on Thursday for handing down death sentences to minors and continuing to
issue sentences of stoning to death.
Amnesty International said that it was “outraged” at the sentences.
“Iran
has executed at least seven juvenile offenders in 2005 including two minors
who were under 18 at the time of their execution”, Amnesty said in a statement.
Amnesty said that a draft law currently under consideration fell “far short”
of the measures which Iran had to fulfil to meet
its international obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
Amnesty International also expressed concern at a stoning to death sentence
recently handed down to a woman called Soghra.
“Amnesty International opposes the death penalty as the ultimate cruel,
inhuman and degrading punishment, in violation of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights and the ICCPR, to which Iran is a state party. Article 6
of the ICCPR states: ‘Sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes
committed by persons below eighteen years of age’. Methods of execution such
as stoning, which are specifically designed to cause the victim grievous pain
before death are of particular concern to Amnesty International, as the most
extreme and cruel form of torture”, the statement added.
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