World day against the death penalty

October 10th was the world day against the death penalty. The focus this year was on abolishing the death penalty for juveniles (aged 14 to 18). The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty was also celebrating the 20th birthday of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The use of the death penalty for crimes committed by  people younger than 18 is prohibited under international human rights law. Protecting children implies protecting them from any act which could damage their basic rights. 

With the adoption by the UN of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1966, the international community expressed its intention to prohibit the death penalty imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age (...) (Article 6.5).

The prohibition was strengthened by Article 37 of the international Convention on the Rights of the Child: "States Parties shall ensure that no child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age".

However, Amnesty International recorded 46 executions of juveniles between 2001 and 2008 in 7 countries which are  party to the international Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), including Iran which is way out in front with 29 juveniles executed. In a few other countries, children sentenced to capital punishment are still on  death row.

In the United States (which has still not ratified the CRC) some States were still executing juveniles until March 2005 when the Supreme Court declared that the punishment was unconstitutional. Twelve States still judge 16 or 17 year old juveniles as adults.

Although the death penalty for juveniles is becoming relatively rare outside Iran, there are still ambiguous cases and problems where juveniles sentenced to death risk execution because their juvenile status cannot be proved due to a lack of civil status or any other tangible official documents. In other cases, those over 18 are sentenced to death for crimes committed when they were still under age.

Finally, some countries renounce the death penalty for children but replace it with life imprisonment without parole, something which is also prohibited by the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The death penalty applied to juveniles is a nonsense. Even people on death row themselves can think of more efficient ways to address the issue of juvenile offenders. One of them, sing a specialized institution for troublesome youngsters has said:

"Those who sentence juveniles to the death penalty egregiously deprive mentally undeveloped minds time to be rehabilitated and molded into being constructive and productive.
Talk to kids, encourage kids, and teach kids, If I can reach a few from in here on death row, how much more can others do who are in a better position? Sentencing children to the death penalty and years later executing them is only accomplishing what the goals of law aims to prevent – the murder of a human being."