Amidst widespread criticism of how the Iranian government treats children, Amin Hossein Rahimi, the Minister of Justice, announced that a report on the status of Iranian children has finally been sent to the United Nations after a “several-year delay.”
Rahimi, speaking on a television program on November 20, did not mention the date of the report’s submission, nor did he specify the exact length of the delay in sending the report.
Rahimi also did not provide any details about the content of the report. The news of the several-year delay in preparing and submitting this report comes as the Minister of Justice himself stated in his remarks on Monday that the “most important international duty” of the Ministry of Justice as the “national reference for children’s rights” is to prepare this very report for submission to the United Nations.
This Iranian regime official added that this report should be submitted to the United Nations every five years, but the “latest report has been completed and submitted after a several-year delay.”
Over the past year, due to the suppression of nationwide protests, both domestic and international criticism of the Iranian government’s treatment of children has increased. In December of last year, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) condemned the violence against children during the crackdown on protests, which resulted in the deaths of dozens of children and adolescents.
At least 70 children under the age of 18 were killed during the protests in Iran in 2022 by the security forces of the Iranian regime.
During the nationwide protests, numerous reports were published about the arrest, interrogation, reprimand, and search of students’ belongings, and in some cases, “security forces’ attacks on schools,” followed by various reports of poisonings in girls’ schools.
Before UNICEF, more than 620 specialist doctors in the field of children’s health had demanded an “immediate halt” to any violent treatment of children in a statement in mid-November of last year.
While the Iranian regime denies these violent actions, Amin Hossein Rahimi, the Minister of Justice of the Islamic Republic, did not address this issue on Monday. The majority of his remarks in this conversation were about the situation of children in Gaza.
Rahimi did not provide an explanation for the delay in reporting on Iranian children, but he announced that his ministry, by inviting UNICEF representatives to Tehran, has sought support for the children of Gaza and has had separate correspondence with the Secretariat of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child and UNICEF regarding this matter.
Facilitating the Temporary Custody of Orphaned and AbandonedChildren
The Minister of Justice also announced on Tuesday the facilitation of the temporary transfer of custody of orphaned and abandoned children to interested families.
Rahimi stated, “Considering the special circumstances and time-consuming process of adoption, based on the proposal of the Ministry of Justice, the regulations of the law on the protection of orphaned and abandoned children were revised, allowing the Welfare Organization to temporarily place children with qualified families after assessing their suitability.”
He had previously stated, “As soon as an orphaned or abandoned child is placed under the custody of the Welfare Organization by the order of the prosecutor, the organization can deliver the child to families willing to provide temporary care.”
However, the Minister of Justice did not provide further details or conditions regarding the temporary guardianship of these children.
Additionally, the Iranian regime has not publicly presented a report on the status of children under custody.
Around ten years ago, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, the former Minister of Justice, had announced the possibility of marriage between adopted children and their guardians.
Prior to that, the representatives of the regime’s parliament approved a bill on the protection of orphaned and neglected children, which allowed the possibility of marriage between adopted children and their guardians, subject to court approval.
It is worth mentioning that children under the age of 12 make up one-fifth of the country’s population. However, an examination of the “health” and “well-being” of this group indicates that approximately 10% suffer from malnutrition and around 15% are underweight. In the most optimistic scenario, out of the population of 88 million in Iran, according to regime media statistics, there are at least 500,000 child laborers.
