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HRW: Iranian Children Inflicted “Horrific” Abuses in Protest Crackdown

April 25, 2023
3 min read
HRW quoted an Iranian lawyer as saying that he was aware of 28 children who had been charged with vague crimes that can be punished by death or amputation of the right hand and left foot
HRW quoted an Iranian lawyer as saying that he was aware of 28 children who had been charged with vague crimes that can be punished by death or amputation of the right hand and left foot

Over the past seven months, Iranian security forces have “killed, tortured, sexually assaulted and disappeared children” as part of a brutal crackdown on protests and dissent by people demanding fundamental change in the country, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.

The authorities have also arrested and detained minors without notifying their families, sometimes for weeks, and interrogated and prosecuted them in violation of legal safeguards, the New York-based group said on April 25

Judges have barred children’s families from hiring lawyers of their choice to defend them, convicted the children on “vague” charges and tried them outside of youth courts, it said.

And students released from detention have been barred from returning to school, or the authorities have cut off their families’ social welfare, forcing the children to go to work.

“Iranian leaders have unleashed their brutal security forces to sexually assault and torture children, and have not spared children from ludicrously unfair trials,” said Tara Sepehri Far, senior Iran researcher at HRW. 

The watchdog said it had investigated abuses against 11 children between September last year and February 2023, and documented new details about two previously reported cases.

It cited a relative of a detained 17-year-old boy as saying that the authorities beat and sexually assaulted him, causing bruises all over his body and bleeding from his anus. 

A high school student said that security forces pushed her onto a lit gas range during arrest, setting her clothing on fire, and beat and whipped her during interrogation. 

Interrogators tortured another boy by shoving needles under his nails, while two other under-18s were tortured to provide the whereabouts of family members. 

A 16-year-old teenager has tried twice to take his own life after being beaten, electroshocked, and sexually assaulted, HRW also said.

The group added that the authorities have failed to provide medical treatment to injured children, including a 13-year-old boy whose rib was broken during a beating, and threatened family members to keep quiet about abuses. 

The Iranian authorities have cracked down hard on months of nationwide anti-government protests sparked by the September 2022 death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, in police custody. 

Security forces have killed more than 520 people, including dozens of children, and unlawfully detained over 20,000, activists say. Following biased trials, the judiciary handed down stiff sentences, including the death penalty, to protesters.

In one case, a revolutionary court judge, a cleric, sentenced three boys to 25 years in prison, HRW said. The Supreme Court overturned the convictions, citing a lack of evidence, and ordered retrials by the same judge, who sentenced the children to 3, 5 and 10 years in prison.

HRW quoted an Iranian lawyer as saying that he was aware of 28 children who had been charged with vague crimes that can be punished by death or amputation of the right hand and left foot.

“Children who have experienced horrific abuses in detention and at trial risk long-lasting harm,” said Bill Van Esveld, associate children’s rights director at HRW. 

He said the fact-finding mission on Iran that was set up by the UN Human Rights Council “should prioritize investigating these abuses and recommend a path to accountability.”

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