Iraq - Compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child - Death Penalty - April 2025
Country: Iraq
Partners: World Coalition Against the Death Penalty
Issues: Children's Rights, Death Penalty
Mechanism: UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
Report Type: Stakeholder Report
This report examines Iraq’s compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, focusing on the death penalty’s impact on children. Iraq fails to uphold its obligations, both with respect to children of people sentenced to death and regarding children in conflict with the law who are themselves at risk of being sentenced to death.
Iraq is one of the world’s leading executioners1 and carries out secret mass executions. Authorities deny crucial information about legal proceedings and outcomes to families (including children) of people who are sentenced to death, exacerbating their distress and violating their rights. There are significant gaps in the availability of information regarding proceedings in Iraq’s judicial system, leaving children uncertain about their parents’ fates. The Iraqi Parliament recently lowered the legal age of marriage to allow girls as young as nine to marry, placing them at risk of coming into conflict with the law as criminalized survivors of gender-based violence.
Furthermore, Iraq does not disclose the number of individuals sentenced to death or executed, nor does it disclose whether juvenile offenders are among them, raising serious concerns about its compliance with article 37(a) of the Convention. Reports indicate that authorities subject some child offenders to coerced confessions and limit their access to legal representation, and courts do not consistently make reliable age determinations. Courts overseeing counterterrorism cases sometimes overlook protections for juvenile offenders, potentially leading to unjust sentences and other violations of the Convention.
