Norway deeply deplores planned execution of minor in Iran

“It is deeply regrettable that Iran now seems to be planning to execute 17-year-old Alireza Mollasoltani tomorrow,” said State Secretary Gry Larsen of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“I urge Iran to fulfil its international obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Both of these conventions, which Iran has ratified, prohibit the execution of minors and persons who were under the age of 18 when the offence was committed.”

Iran is among the countries that top the execution statistics every year. Norway has raised this matter with the Iranian authorities on a number of occasions and urged them to reconsider the issue of capital punishment.

“President Ahmadinejad himself has said that Iran does not execute minors. I therefore call on him to put his words into practice,” said Ms Larsen.

Norway is engaged in efforts to abolish capital punishment, both in multilateral forums and through active cooperation with human rights organisations and likeminded countries. We regularly raise the issue of capital punishment with countries where it is practised. We focus special attention on individual cases where we know that there are plans to carry out the death penalty in a particularly inhuman way or to execute minors, pregnant women or persons who cannot be deemed criminally responsible. In such cases Norway considers use of the death penalty to be a violation of international law. Norway also urges states that have not yet done so to ratify international agreements that prohibit capital punishment.