Case Explained: UNICEF urges immediate release of children detained in Iran – JURIST – Legal Perspective

UNICEF published a statement Thursday outlining their deep concerns with the detention of children in Iran amidst ongoing public unrest.

The statement, by UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Edouard Beigbeder, stresses several key issues. First, the number and conditions of child detainees have not been available. Second, he details the widely-documented negative impacts of detention and incarceration on children. Beigbeder highlights in particular that “[c]hildren are not ‘little adults,’ they require special care.” Finally, Beigbeder summarizes the international legal obligations at stake, stating:

Children deprived of their liberty must be treated with humanity and dignity and enabled to maintain regular contact with their families. These are binding obligations under international law … The Islamic Republic of Iran is a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and has an obligation to respect, protect, and fulfil the rights of children.

The Iranian justice minister says that the youth are being held in juvenile centers. However, other reports suggest they are being held in facilities such as Vakilabad Prison and secret centers in Kerman and Mashhad.

For the former, previous documentation indicates overcrowding, “appalling” sanitation and health risks, and systematic torture. The latter use of secret facilities has also long been recognized, most extensively in a 2023 investigative report. At that time, more than 36 sites had been identified and several were tied to first-hand accounts of torture.

Further, some accounts suggest that detained children are being held in general crime wards, resulting in significant risk of sexual abuse. A former financial crimes prisoner who was released from Vakilabad Prison reportedly reached out to the family of a teenage detainee. He reported the child had been held in an unofficial center before being moved to the general crimes ward. He described the child as having visible injuries and difficulty walking.

This former prisoner said the boy was told, “You will not see your family again, and we will throw your corpse away.”

Amnesty International also corroborates these reports in their publication Friday, discussing how children are among a group facing the death penalty following “expedited grossly unfair trials.” Diana Eltahawy, Deputy Regional Director, highlighted the targeting of children, saying:

Children and young adults form the bulk of those caught in the machinery of state repression following the January protests, denied access to effective legal representation and subjected to torture or other ill-treatment and incommunicado detention to extract forced ‘confessions.’

These detentions are part of the ongoing crackdown on nationwide protests which began in December, triggered by economic instability and government corruption. The UN has called for an investigation into human rights violations perpetrated by the Iranian regime in their response.

UNICEF demands immediate, independent access to all the children to assess their condition, followed by their urgent release and an “end to the detention of children in all its forms.”