U.N. official: Iran should stop executing children

Associated Press
Mon. 17 Sep 2007

GENEVA (AP) — Iran should immediately halt the execution of children, the U.N.'s top human rights official said Monday.

Louise Arbour, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said she met with Iranian officials during a visit to Tehran earlier this month and urged them to impose a moratorium on the execution of minors.

"Even if the legislation in the books appears to permit the imposition of the death penalty on minors ... it would be imperative that they not be executed," she told journalists in Geneva.

Iran is one of the few countries in the world that executes minors, in violation of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.

On Sunday Iranian media reported that a 16 year old was among two teenagers sentenced to death for raping and killing two young boys earlier this year. Read More...