Iran: child protesters tortured and killed by security forces.

Iranian security forces have been torturing and killing children participating in the protests across the country since the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in September 2022, reveal reports from Human Rights organizations. The crackdown on protesters has been extremely violent from the outset of the social movement, “the authorities have not hesitated to extend the coercive power of the state to silence even children,” declared Tara Sepehri Far, senior Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch. 

Youth protesters and targeting of students: 

Despite state propaganda aimed at brainwashing Iranian kids, they have become essential actors in the uprisings. From elementary schools to universities, children and young adults are making their voices heard, demanding political and social changes. They are writing and chanting protest slogans, tearing off the pages of their books featuring leaders of the Islamic Republic, and young girls are removing their headscarves.

Sadly, university students are particularly vulnerable to state repression because of the collaboration of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards with the Student Basij, a student organization formed by Khomeini in 1988 to defend “Islam, the revolution, and the values of the ruling system” in universities. These voluntarily recruited students, who receive ideological training, gather information which they then pass on to the security forces to facilitate the arrest of student movement participants. They are loyal to the state and often occupy governmental and security positions after their studies. 

Arbitrary arrests and incommunicado detentions: 

In a report published in April 2023 and investigating abuses against 11 children between September 2022 and February 2023, Human Rights Watch refers to the use of incommunicado detention, defined as “a situation of detention in which an individual is denied access to family members, an attorney, or an independent physician”. Several Human Rights groups have drawn attention to the illegal procedures used by Iranian Security forces when arresting protesters. After being arrested, children are taken to unofficial locations or transferred to prisons for days, even weeks, without their families being informed. They are denied their right to a fair trial and tried outside of youth courts. 

Cases of child detainees tortured and coerced confession:

Amnesty International gathered testimonies from victims, their families, and co-detainees and revealed cases of tortured child prisoners in a report issued in March 2023. In addition to being held in inhumane conditions and incarcerated with adults in defiance of international law, victims have been subjected to beatings, floggings, electric shocks, sexual violence, and denied medical assistance. 

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards and Public Security Police use torture to obtain confessions and make people sign letters of repentance, even though Article 38 of the Iranian Constitution states that “Torture, of any kind, in order to obtain confession or information is forbidden. It is not permissible to force someone to testify, confess, or swear an oath. Such a testimony, confession, or oath is worthless”. 

These unlawful methods are part of the state’s strategy to crush uprisings by punishing, humiliating and intimidating children, causing traumas and long-lasting harm, which can lead to suicide attempts. 

Systemically denied killings and pressure on families:

According to Human Rights Watch, at least 68 children were killed during the protests or after being arrested between September 2022 and early April 2023. The victims were mostly boys, with a high proportion of Baluchi and Kurdish children (63% according to Amnesty), shedding light on the systemic persecution of these minorities and the trivialization of the use of lethal force against them. 

No impartial investigations are carried out into cases of torture or murder, and the state systematically denies any link between deaths and the repression of demonstrations. And further deprives families of their right to independent autopsies and changes the causes of death on certificates to suicides, attacks by rioters, drug overdoses, or crowd crushes. Lawyers are fighting these false narratives propagated by the state, like Mohammad Reza Sarvari, the lawyer of a 14-year-old boy who got shot during a protest in September, who shared on his Twitter account the boy’s burial certificate, which describes the cause of death as “bleeding and shattered brain tissue” after “being hit with a fast-moving projectile”.

Families are forced to put up with the authorities’ narratives and threatened if they complain. They receive “threats to bury child victims in unidentified graves, and threats to kill, rape or otherwise harm relatives or their surviving children if they refuse to “cooperate” with intelligence and security agents”, revealed Amnesty International.

Non-compliance with international law and impunity crisis

The lack of criminal responsibility highlights the crisis of impunity in Iran, with no accountability for public officials who severely violate Human Rights. The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution in November 2022 to implement a fact-finding mission, which began its mandate in March 2023, to “collect, consolidate and analyze evidence of such violations.” (Amnesty International)

Iran fails to meet its international commitments, particularly the Convention on the Rights of the Child ratified by the Islamic Republic in 1994. Article 37 (a) of the Convention states that “no child shall be subjected to torture”, Article 37 (b) prohibits arbitrary arrests and detentions, and Article 37 (c) refers to the special conditions of detention of minors, separated from adults, and their right to maintain contact with their families. Iran must protect children’s right to life and also respect their right to be heard and to peacefully protest.

ACHRS stance:

ACHRS strongly condemns the gross violations of children’s rights in Iran and joins other Human Rights Organizations in calling on the Iranian authorities to respect their International commitments and stop the outrageous repression of the demonstrations. The use of mass violence against all peaceful protesters must cease immediately. 

ACHRS also urges the Iranian authorities to investigate cases of killing and torture effectively and transparently. Iranian officials who have used their power to abuse children must be prosecuted under international law.