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

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