Request for Immediate Action to Prevent the Arrest, Torture, and Killing of Children in Iran
To the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)To the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
By Sayeh Rahimi
The Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the signatories of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, it has openly violated children's rights for the past four decades. Encouraging children to marry, lack of equal educational opportunities, neglecting child laborers, not protecting children exposed to sexual assault, imposing ideological education on children in schools, and exploiting them in armed conflicts are only a part of the systematic violence against children in Iran. But what is happening now is a clear example of a horrible crime against children.
In the recent protests of the Iranian people, which started with the government killing of Mahsa Amini, 22, in Tehran's morality police detention center, many teenagers came to the streets to protest the murder of Mahsa and shout for their right to freedom. But the government of Iran, with the direct order of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, responded to the protesting children with widespread arrests, torture, disappearances, and killings. On Monday, October 3, 2022, Ali Khamenei explicitly asked the authorities to "punish" the protesting teenagers.
There are evidence and documents that prove that a large number of detainees are children and teenagers. Some of the detainee children are deprived of treatment despite being injured. Others are under intense pressure to obtain forced confessions. Severe beatings of security officers have killed several children with batons and direct gunfire.
In recent protests, high school girls held peaceful rallies and demanded their right to choose their clothing but were met with violence by security forces, beatings, and expulsion from school.
On the other hand, the Islamic Republic of Iran has recruited many children to Basij student bases with ideological propaganda to use them as a force of repression in times such as the recent protests. Children's rights activists have obtained documents that show that some of these children, who were deployed to suppress the protesters, are from poor and deprived families. The government has called them to the streets with meager financial incentives.
Iranian children's souls, bodies, and minds are exposed to serious dangers in the current situation, and they need the international community's help more than ever.
United Nations should demand the government of Iran stop systemic violence against children. The IRI must unconditionally release detained children, comfort and compensate the families of killed children, end the use of children in conflicts, and heal the injuries suffered by children in protests.
We, the signatories of this letter, ask the United Nations and UNICEF to support the children of Iran and use all their means to hold the Iranian government accountable.
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