Executions of Juveniles Outside of the U.S.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights — one of the three International treaties collectively referred to as the International Bill of Human Rights — mandates that the death penalty “shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age.” Despite that express requirement, a number of countries around the world continue to execute prisoners for crimes they are said to have committed under age eighteen.

Iran is the most prolific executioner of juveniles in the world. The August 2015 Report of the United Nations’ Secretary-General on human rights in Iran expressed ongoing concern “at the frequency of executions, especially for drug-related offences and of juvenile offenders.” The U.N. report said that, while no official data was publicly available, 160 juveniles were reportedly on death row in the country as of 2014. UN Secretary-General, Report to the General Assembly, Situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, A/70/352, p.30 (August 31, 2015). Amnesty International recorded 73 executions of juvenile offenders by Iran between January 2005 and November 2015, and believes “[t]he real number is likely to be much higher as many death penalty cases are believed to go unreported.” None of the 73 juvenile executions recorded by Amnesty was officially announced by the Iranian government. Amnesty International, Growing Up on Death Row: The Death Penalty and Juvenile Offenders in Iran, p.28 (2016).

Iran, however, is not the only country in which juveniles are executed. Amnesty International reports that military tribunals in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region continue to carry out executions of children. Five boys, all between ages 14 and 17, were executed on April 8, 2017 for their alleged involvement in the armed group Al-Shabaab’s killing of three senior government officials. Michelle Kagari, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, said “These five boys were executed following a fundamentally flawed process during which they were tortured to confess, denied access to a lawyer and additional protections accorded to juveniles, and tried in a military tribunal.” At the time, Amnesty called on Puntland authorities to spare the lives of two other boys, Muhamed Yasin Abdi, 17, and Daud Saied Sahal, 15, who were facing imminent military execution. Amnesty International, “Somalia: Halt execution spree of children in Puntland,” April 28, 2017. The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office reports that Puntland state authorities had more than 50 juveniles in custody whom the European Union believes had been forced to participate in fighting by Al Shabaab. The children were captured during a successful government operation against Al Shabaab in March 2016. United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office, “Human Rights Priority Country status report: January to June 2016,” updated February 8, 2017.

The human rights organization, Reprieve, reports that Saudi Arabia executed at least four juveniles in January 2016 during a mass execution of 47 people. According to Reprieve, one of the four, Ali al-Ribh, had been arrested in school, tortured into a falsely confessing to involvement in anti-government protests, and executed. Reprieve, “Global executions in 2016,” December 29, 2016. Reprieve reports that three other Saudi juveniles—Ali al-Nimr, Dawoud al-Marhoon, and Abdullah al-Zaher—who were arrested following pro-democracy protests in 2012 face execution after having been “tortured into signing false ‘confessions’, which were used in a secretive counter-terrorism court to convict them, and sentence them to death.” Reprieve, “Trump in Saudi Arabia as juveniles face execution,” May 15, 2017.

“The death penalty for juvenile offenders appears to have been abandoned by nations everywhere in large part due to the express provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and of several other international treaties and agreements. Since 1990, juvenile offenders are known to have been executed in only seven countries: China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Pakistan, Yemen, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.”
- Victor L. Streib, “The Juvenile Death Penalty Today: Death Sentences and Executions for Juvenile Crimes January 1973 - September 30, 2003” (2004)

Reported Executions of Juvenile Offenders in Other Countries Since 1990

Updated through November 2019

Country-Specific Conditions