last updated July 25, 2007

General Information

• Country Name: Islamic Republic of Iran
• Type of Government: Theocratic Republic
• U.N. Membership:  Since Oct. 16, 1945
• Population: 65,397,521 (July 2007 estimate)

The World Factbook: Iran, CIA, last updated July 19, 2007.

Applicable International Human Rights Instruments

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Signed Dec. 10, 1948
• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: Ratified June 24, 1975
• Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: Not Signed
• Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment: Not signed
• Convention on the Rights of the Child: Ratified July 13, 1994

History

After the overthrow of the Shah in 1979, Iran instituted Shari’a as the basis of all law.  Shari’a law provides for the death penalty as punishment. The most recent version of the Iranian Penal Code was approved by the Islamic Consultancy Parliament on July 30, 1991 and ratified by the High Expediency Council on November 28, 1991. Book Five of the Penal Code, pertaining to deterrent punishments, was ratified on May 22, 1996.

A 2002 moratorium on stoning ended in December, 2005 with the stoning death of a man convicted of armed robbery.

Despite Iran’s statement on January 20, 2005 to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child that a moratorium on executing child offenders was in place, Iran executed Iman Farrokhi that same day. He was 17 at the time of the crime.  In 2005, after an international outcry regarding death sentences carried out against women and juvenile offenders, Iran suspended or lifted some sentences.

Death Penalty Eligible Crimes

The death penalty is a haad punishment in Iran.  Haad punishments are the most severe in Shari’a and are proscribed by the Qur’an.

Three lesser forms punishment are for jinayat crimes, or crimes against private individuals. They are:

1. qiyas (retaliation, literally applied “an eye for an eye”)
2. diyeh (blood money)
3. ta’zir (left to the discretion of the adjudicative officer, may include lashes, chastisement and/or banishment).

Official punishments in Iran include all Shari’a punishments and deterrent punishments. Hadd punishments are applied to crimes against Islam, including adultery, robbery, apostasy, and sodomy. Iran also expanded the definition of crimes against Islam to include those involving attacks on the state and criticism of Imams and the Ayatollah, as they are viewed as insulting the Prophet Muhammad. Iran also condones and carries out retribution killings (qiyas) although family members of the victim may elect that the defendant pay blood money (diyeh) and perform kaffara (expiation) instead. Qiyas is a family’s private right on behalf of a murdered relative to retaliate against the person responsible for their family member’s death.

Methods of Execution

Stoning and hanging are routinely used as methods of execution in Iran.  Other methods are also used as determined by the Shari’a judge.

Relevant Statistics

The number of executions in Iran almost doubled from 2005 (94) to 2006 (177) (figure excludes extra-judicial killings).  Iran is one of only five countries to execute people by stoning.

In 2005, Iran executed eight juvenile offenders. In 2006, four juvenile offenders were executed.  As of September 23, 2006, twenty-three juvenile offenders remain on death row.

Current Concerns

International human rights groups are concerned about the treatment of abolitionists in Iran. The Revolutionary Guard has broken up several peaceful protests by means of tear gas, rubber bullets and gunfire. On March 4, 2007, thirty-three activists protesting the prosecution of five women demonstrating for changes in laws that discriminate against women were arrested and detained.  In Iran, the death penalty disproportionately affects women and ethnic minorities.  Women often face death by stoning for adultery.  See: IRAN: Stoning for Adultery - More a Women's Issue, Kimia Sanati, Inter Press Service, December 4, 2006.

Compiled from:

Amnesty Int’l, Report, Facts and Figures on the Death Penalty, available at http://web.amnesty.org/pages/deathpenalty-facts-eng.

United Nations Treaty Data Base; available at http://untreaty.un.org/English/bible/englishinternetbible/partI/chapterI/treaty1.asp.

U.S. Department of State, Country Reports 2006, Iran, available at http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78852.htm.

Amnesty Int’l, Annual Report 2006, Iran, available at http://web.amnesty.org/report2006/irn-summary-eng.

Human Rights Watch, Iran: Juvenile Offenders Face the Hangman’s Noose, Sept. 23, 2006, available at http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/09/22/iran14247.htm.

Anti-Stoning Women Activists Held Indefinitely, Inter Press Service News Agency, March 15, 2007, available at http://www.ipsnews.org/news.asp?idnews=36935.

Iran sentences men to stoning, amputation of fingers, Iran Focus, Dec. 27, 2005, available at http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=5038.

Amnesty Int’l, Iran: Further information on death penalty/legal concern, Mar. 27, 2007, available at http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE130382007?open&of=ENG-IRN.

Country Profile: Iran, BBC News, Jan. 22, 2007, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/country_profiles/790877.stm.

Joseph Schacht, An Introduction to Islamic Law, 181 – 85 (1982).