[IHRDC, 28 Feb. 2012] Dear friends and supporters,
Following the approval of legislation by Iran’s Guardian Council for a revised Islamic Penal Code, the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC) has become increasingly concerned by the circulation of false and misleading claims about the nature of these changes in Farsi language media and social networks. Some of these claims include assertions that the new Code abolishes the death penalty for juveniles and eliminates the punishment of stoning to death for the crime of adultery.
Over the course of the last month, in an effort to provide accurate information about the nature of these changes, IHRDC has published several legal essays from Iranian lawyers and commentators that analyze the limitations in the revisions to the Code
Analysis of the Code as it pertains to juvenile executions
In this legal essay, Iranian lawyer Mohammad Hossein Nayyeri debunks the false claim (made by a member of Iran’s Parliament and rapidly disseminated) that the amendments abolish juvenile execution:
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Click here for Farsi
This simple, easy-to-read chart shows which punishments are accorded to boys and girls under the new Code. It further demonstrates that the assertion that the death penalty for juveniles has been abolished from the Code is inaccurate:
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Click here for Farsi
Analysis of the Code as it pertains to stoning and the execution of women
In another commentary from Iranian lawyer Mohammad Hossein Nayyeri, he explains why, contrary to popular reports, the silence of the new Islamic Penal Code on what punishment applies to the crime of adultery does not in fact mean that stoning has been abolished from the Code:
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Click here for Farsi
Also, in this legal commentary, Maryam Hosseinkhah—writer and women’s rights defender—analyzes the role of gender in the application of the death sentence as a punishment in both the old and new versions of the Islamic Penal Code:
Click here for Farsi
In addition to these analyses of differences between the old and the new Code, IHRDC also published Iranian lawyer Behnam Daraeizadeh’s commentary on the theoretical basis on which the Iranian penal system is founded, and the extent to which these principles contradict international human rights norms:
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Click here for Farsi
In the coming weeks, look out for new legal commentaries published by IHRDC that address the revisions in the new Code as it relates to the laws against apostasy and homosexuality, as well as other criminal offenses punishable under Iranian law.
In solidarity,
Gissou Nia
Executive Director
Iran Human Rights Documentation Center
Iran Human Rights Documentation Center
129 Church Street Suite 304
New Haven, CT 06510 |
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