UN Committee to review Iran’s record on children’s rights

GENEVA (6 January 2016) – Children’s rights in Iran will be reviewed by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on 11 and 12 January in sessions that will be webcast live. Iran is one of the 196 states that have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child and so is required to undergo regular examinations of its record by the Committee of 18 independent experts.

The CRC members will hold discussions with a government delegation from Iran on how the Convention is being implemented. The Committee will base its evaluation on the delegation’s replies, as well as information from civil society groups.

These are among the possible issues to be discussed:  Ensuring all legislation defines those under 18 as a child; people on death row for crimes committed when they were under 18; impunity of fathers and grandfathers for killing their children; discrimination against girls, children born out of wedlock, refugee and migrant children, LGBTi children and children belonging to ethnic and religious minorities; torture and cruel treatment of children in the criminal justice system, including floggings, amputation and stoning; child marriage; sexual abuse and exploitation of girls, including marital rape; very low age of criminal responsibility, especially for girls.

The full list of issues and Iran’s submitted written report can be found here: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=924&Lang=en

The CRC’s meetings with the Iranian delegation will take place in Room XXV at Palais des Nations at the following times:
Monday 11 January: 15:00-18:00 (17:30 – 20:30 in Tehran)
Tuesday 12 January: 10:00 – 13:00 (12:3015:30)
The sessions are public and will be webcast here: http://www.treatybodywebcast.org/.

The CRC will hold a news conference to discuss its findings on Iran and the other countries being reviewed - Senegal, Oman, Latvia, France, Ireland, Haiti, Peru, Maldives, Zimbabwe, Maldives, Zambia, Benin, Brunei and Kenya – at 12:00 on 4 February at the Palais des Nations. The findings, officially called concluding observations, will be published on 4 February here: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=924&Lang=en

ENDS

For more information and media requests, please contact Liz Throssell (+41 (0) 22 917 9466/ +41 79 752 0488 ethrossell@ohchr.org

To learn more about the Committee on the Rights of the Child, visit: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CRC/Pages/CRCIndex.aspx

For your news websites and social media: Multimedia content & key messages relating to our news releases are available on UN Human Rights social media channels, listed below. Please tag us using the proper handles:
Twitter: @UNHumanRights (we changed handles in Jan 2016)
Facebook: unitednationshumanrights
Instagram: unitednationshumanrights
Google+: unitednationshumanrights
Youtube: unohchr