Committee on the Rights of the Child

List of issues in relation to the combined fifth and sixth periodic reports of the Islamic Republic of Iran *

1.The State Party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information, of 10,700 words maximum, by 15 October 2026. The Committee may take up all aspects of children’s rights set out in the Convention during the dialogue with the State Party. In the present document, the Committee uses the term “child” to refer to a person who is under 18 years of age.

Part I

2.Please explain the measures taken or envisaged:

(a)To review the general nature of the reservation under the Convention with a view to withdrawing it within a clear time frame;

(b)To revise the legislation to ensure that all persons below the age of 18 years, without exception, are considered as children and are provided with all the rights under the Convention, given that the age of majority in the State Party remains set at predefined ages of puberty, namely 9 lunar years (8 years and 9 months) for girls and 15 lunar years (14 years and 7 months) for boys;

(c)To ensure that all domestic laws and regulations are in compliance with the Convention, including by repealing laws and regulations that are discriminatory against girls and children belonging to religious and ethnic minorities. Please also clarify the enforcement mechanisms of the 2020 Child and Adolescent Protection Act and explain the measures taken or envisaged to ensure that its provisions are in line with the Convention;

(d)To adopt a comprehensive child rights strategy and corresponding action plan that will cover all areas under the Convention. Please also explain the scope and nature of the Comprehensive Plan of Action for Child Rights in 2025 Horizon, as mentioned in paragraph 3 of the State Party report;

(e)To provide the National Body on the Convention on the Rights of the Child with a clear mandate and sufficient authority to coordinate all activities related to the implementation of the Convention at the cross-sectoral, national, regional and local levels;

(f)To assess the budget needs of children and to ensure an increase in the budgetary allocation for social sectors, in particular education, health and social protection, specifically for children in marginalized and disadvantaged situations, including children and families with children displaced because of the ongoing conflict;

(g)To ensure the systematic collection and analysis of quality and complete data – disaggregated by age, sex, geographical location and ethnic, religious, national and socioeconomic background – on the implementation of children’s rights and to make statistical data public, including by unifying the existing databases and increasing the data literacy of professionals involved in this process;

(h)To provide children with access to independent complaint mechanisms in all settings to report violations of their rights and with access to legal counselling and remedies;

(i)To establish, in compliance with the principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (the Paris Principles), an independent mechanism for monitoring human rights, including a specific mechanism for monitoring children’s rights that is able to receive, investigate and address complaints by children in a child-friendly manner;

(j)To raise the awareness of the public, including children, of the provisions of the Convention and to provide regular and systematic training activities on the provisions of the Convention for professionals working with and for children;

(k)To establish and implement regulations to ensure that the business sector, especially the oil and gas industries, complies with international and national human rights, labour, environmental and other standards, particularly with regard to children’s rights.

3.Please provide updated information on the measures taken by the State Party:

(a)To revise its legislation in order to ensure that girls enjoy the same rights and entitlements as boys in all aspects of life, especially in family relations, the criminal and civil justice system and property rights, and to take measures to eliminate any forms of discrimination in practice;

(b)To put an end to discrimination against children belonging to religious, ethnic and linguistic minorities, children of unmarried parents, asylum-seeking and refugee children and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex children and to bring those responsible for any forms of discrimination to justice;

(c)To revise its Civil Law to ensure that the best interests of the child is the primary consideration in decisions concerning the custody of children and to ensure that the right to have the best interests of the child taken into account as a primary consideration is appropriately integrated and consistently interpreted and is applied in all legislative, administrative and judicial proceedings and decisions affecting children.

4.Please clarify the measures taken or envisaged:

(a)To investigate the killings of children by the State Party’s police and security forces resulting from the use of excessive force during several protests that took place in the State Party in the reporting period, including in 2022 and, most recently, in January 2026, and to bring those responsible to justice. Please also provide information on the measures taken to prevent such killings and the existing policies with regard to policing protests, especially those attended by children. Please explain how the 1995 Law on the Use of Weapons by Armed Forces in Necessary Cases complies with international standards, particularly whether it prohibits the use of chemical agents and weapons of war, including against children;

(b)To organize basic civilian protection during hostilities, including by ensuring that schools, hospitals and other civilian objects are protected from attack, and to establish functional air-raid sirens and bomb shelters throughout the territory of the State Party;

(c)To end the execution of children and persons who committed a crime while under the age of 18 years, to take legislative measures to abolish the death sentence for persons who committed hudud or qisas crimes while under the age of 18 years, including by reviewing article 91 of the Islamic Penal Code, which leaves discretion to the courts regarding exemptions, and to commute all existing sentences for offenders on death row who committed a crime while under the age of 18 years;

(d)To repeal article 301, combined with article 612, of the Islamic Penal Code, and to ensure that all perpetrators of murders against girls under the age of 18 committed in the name of so-called honour receive penalties commensurate with the gravity of their crimes. Please also provide information on the status of the bill prepared by the Vice Presidency for Women and Family Affairs in this regard.

5.Please clarify:

(a)How children’s views are taken into account in judicial decisions concerning custody or divorce and in administrative decisions in practice, as well as in the family, at school and in society;

(b)If measures have been taken to remove all remaining barriers to implement the 2019 Law Amending the Nationality Law and facilitate access to nationality to all children who would otherwise be stateless.

6.Please provide more information on whether measures have been taken by the State Party:

(a)To review its legislation in order to define the content-based offences such as “propaganda against the State” or “insulting Islam” and to ensure that children are exempted from criminal responsibility for such offences;

(b)To ensure that children can freely exercise their rights to peaceful assembly without fear of threats, intimidation and arrests;

(c)To review the Islamic Penal Code in order to decriminalize the non-observance of rules on the hijab and to review other laws and regulations to ensure respect for the rights of girls to religious freedom and to decide whether or not to wear hijab;

(d)To promote tolerance of and respect for all religions and beliefs, including through legislative measures, and to prevent and eliminate discrimination, persecution and exclusion on the grounds of religion or belief, in particular with regard to Baha’i children;

(e)To provide children with uninterrupted access to age-appropriate information and to put an end to censorship in media and shutdowns to Internet and social media.

7.Please update the Committee on the measures taken:

(a)To adopt a national plan to protect children from all forms of violence and to repeal all legal provisions that authorize, condone or lead to child sexual abuse and exploitation, including article 1108 of the Civil Code, obliging women to fulfil the sexual needs of their husbands, and article 630 of the Islamic Penal Code, which exempts husbands from liability and qisas if they commit murder or battery against their wife for a zina offence. Please also provide information on whether there is an integrated and child-friendly child protection infrastructure at the local level and whether all cases of child sexual abuse, including those within the circle of trust, are investigated and prosecuted;

(b)To review legislation with a view to prohibiting all forms of corporal punishment, irrespective of its purpose, in particular article 1179 of the Civil Code, which allows for the punishment of children, and article 158 (d) of the Islamic Penal Code, which provides for the disciplining of children by parents or guardians “within customary and religious limits”;

(c)To raise the minimum age of marriage for girls and boys to 18 years without any exceptions and to eliminate the practice of child marriage, especially of very young girls;

(d)To prevent and combat the torture and ill-treatment of children by the security forces and the police to extract confessions, in particular against children detained in relation to anti-government protests, and as punishments for qisas and hudud offences.

8.Please inform the Committee about the measures taken by the State Party:

(a)To revise its Civil Code and all other relevant legislation to ensure equal rights for women and men in family relations and to provide girls with the right to inherit on equal terms with boys;

(b)To prevent family separations, including through family support services, parenting programmes, social protection measures, early identification of families at risk and community-based services;

(c)To promote family-type and community-based alternative care for children deprived of parental care, in order to reduce reliance on institutional care, and to establish a clear regulation on alternative care for children, including provisions for quality care standards and periodic review of placements. Please provide information on whether there is access to safe, confidential and child-friendly complaint mechanisms within alternative care settings;

(d)To prepare children leaving alternative care for independent living, including by providing access to housing, education, vocational training, psychosocial support and social protection, as well as to support the family reintegration of children leaving alternative care, including through assessment, preparation of the child and of the family, follow-up support and monitoring of reintegration outcomes;

(e)To revise the Act on the Protection of Children and Adolescents with No Guardian or Abusive Guardians of 2012 in a way that prohibits marriage or other sexual relationships with an adopted child;

(f)To uphold the best interests of children during the arrest of parents, especially those linked to the events in January and February 2026, including by adopting child‑sensitive arrest protocols, ensuring the right to information about parents’ whereabouts in decisions concerning the deprivation of liberty of parents with young children and ensuring appropriate visitation rights and adequate standards of living for children living in prisons with their mothers.

9.Please provide information whether the State Party has taken measures:

(a)To provide children with disabilities with access to all services available to children, including healthcare, education and social protection, throughout its territory and to implement the Protection of the Rights of the Persons with Disabilities Act of 2018;

(b)To adopt a national strategy for children with disabilities and to combat the stigmatization of and prejudice against children with disabilities by promoting a positive image of such children;

(c)To provide access to primary healthcare service for all children, especially children in remote and rural areas and refugee and migrant children from Afghanistan, to address malnutrition and obesity and to improve access to water and sanitation services for all children throughout the country;

(d)To provide access to mental health services, sexual and reproductive health services and education to all adolescent girls and boys and contraception and safe abortion services and counselling for adolescents throughout its territory;

(e)To guarantee an adequate and sustainable standard of living for all children within the territory of the State Party, with a particular focus on children in the most marginalized and disadvantaged situations, and to extend access to social benefits and cash transfer programmes to such children and their families;

(f)To address the adverse effects of environmental degradation and climate change on the enjoyment of children’s rights.

10.Please update the Committee on the measures taken:

(a)To ensure access to free and compulsory primary education and free secondary education for all children, in particular girls, including married girls, asylum-seeking and refugee children and children belonging to minority groups, especially in Sistan and Baluchestan Province and among Arab communities;

(b)To improve the quality of education and to provide quality training and incentives for teachers, with a particular emphasis on rural and remote areas;

(c)To provide access to education based on the national curriculum also in the native languages of ethnic minorities, in particular Azeri, Kurdish, Arabic, Baluchi and Turkmen;

(d)To end the continuous intimidation and harassment of Baha’i children in the education system and the discrimination against and bullying and expulsions from schools of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex children;

(e)To improve inclusive education and ensure that all children with disabilities have access to inclusive education by improving facilities and the accessibility of schools;

(f)To ensure children’s rights to rest, leisure, play, recreation and participation in cultural and artistic life, including for girls, children with disabilities, children living in rural areas, children affected by conflict and children belonging to ethnic, religious and linguistic minority groups.

11.Please clarify the measures taken by the State Party:

(a)To provide adequate support and shelter to children and families with children who are internally displaced due to the ongoing conflict;

(b)To provide long-term solutions to asylum-seeking, refugee and migrant children, especially those from Afghanistan, and to provide them with access to all available services, including access to the social protection system;

(c)To identify and support unaccompanied and separated children, including refugee, asylum-seeking, migrant and internally displaced children, and to ensure their access to guardianship, documentation, family tracing and appropriate care arrangements;

(d)To uphold the principle of non-refoulement and stop the deportations, arrests and detention of Afghan children, which subject them to high risks of rights violations and exploitation, especially at border points;

(e)To guarantee the economic, social and cultural rights of children belonging to ethnic and linguistic minority groups, in particular the Ahwazi Arab, Azerbaijani Turkish, Baloch and Kurdish minorities, including the rights to register their names in their native languages;

(f)To protect children in street situations, children affected by labour exploitation and children affected by displacement or conflict from trafficking, sexual exploitation, forced begging and other forms of exploitation;

(g)To combat the high prevalence of child labour, including in hazardous conditions such as in waste management, through effective labour inspections, expanding social safety nets and amending the 2003 law that exempts small businesses with fewer than 10 employees from labour regulations;

(h)To implement its existing initiatives, develop a comprehensive strategy to protect children in street situations and carry out an assessment of the scope and extent of the phenomenon.

12.Please explain the measures taken or envisaged:

(a)To increase the age of criminal responsibility for girls and to ensure that girls and boys are treated on equal terms throughout the criminal justice system;

(b)To prevent arbitrary arrests of children and to ensure fundamental safeguards for children in detention, including immediate contact with a family or a legal representative;

(c)To implement the specialized juvenile courts, to adopt the bill on specialized police for children and adolescents and to ensure qualified and independent legal aid for children in conflict with the law;

(d)To implement non-custodial measures to deprivation of liberty, such as diversion, probation, counselling, mediation, community service or suspended sentences;

(e)To establish a limited time frame for pretrial detention of children while establishing mechanisms to ensure that detention is used as a measure of last resort and that children are never detained together with adults.

13.Please clarify reports of a recent call by the Government for the recruitment of children as young as 12 years of age as “combatants defending the homeland” to be engaged in patrols and checkpoints.

Part II

14.The Committee invites the State Party to provide a brief update, of no more than three pages, on the information set out in its report with regard to the following:

(a)New bills or laws, and their respective regulations;

(b)New institutions and their mandates or institutional reforms;

(c)Recently introduced policies, programmes and action plans and their scope and financing;

(d)Recent ratifications of human rights instruments.

Part III

Data, statistics and other information

15.Please provide consolidated information for the past three years on the budget lines regarding children and the social sectors, indicating the percentage of each budget line in terms of the total national budget and the gross national product. Please also provide information on the geographical allocation of those resources.

16.Please provide updated statistical data, for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, religious affiliation, geographical location and socioeconomic status, on:

(a)Children killed by the police and security officials during protests, the investigations carried out and the sentences imposed on the perpetrators;

(b)Children killed or injured as a result of the ongoing armed conflict;

(c)Cases of imposition and execution of the death penalty on persons under the age of 18 years at the time of the alleged offence;

(d)Children and persons under the age of 18 years at the time of the alleged offence on death row;

(e)Cases of so-called honour killings of children, the investigations and prosecutions carried out and the sanctions imposed on the perpetrators;

(f)Children convicted for content-based offences such as “propaganda against the State” or “insulting Islam” and the sentences imposed for such children;

(g)Children arrested and detained during protests, including the protests in January 2026;

(h)Children convicted for not observing the rules related to the wearing of the hijab;

(i)Investigations and prosecutions carried out and sanctions applied for perpetrators, including among security officials, of the torture, ill-treatment and enforced disappearance of children;

(j)Cases of abuse and violence perpetrated against children, including all forms of corporal punishment, domestic violence, sexual violence and abuse, sexual harassment, marital rape and crimes committed in the name of so-called honour, as well as investigations and prosecutions carried out and sentences handed down in such cases;

(k)Cases of child marriage and prosecutions carried out and sentences handed down in such cases;

(l)Children living in poverty;

(m)Children displaced as a result of the ongoing armed conflict;

(n)Asylum-seeking, refugee and migrant children, including Afghan children subjected to deportation;

(o)Children in street situations;

(p)Cases of child labour and prosecutions carried out and sentences handed down in such cases;

(q)Cases of recruitment of children as combatants, including in patrols and at checkpoints.

17.Please provide data, for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, religious affiliation, geographical location and socioeconomic status, on the number of children:

(a)Separated from their families, including data on the duration of the separation;

(b)Placed in institutions, as well as the number of institutions and data on children disaggregated by institution;

(c)Placed with foster families;

(d)Children living with relatives;

18.Please provide data, for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, type of disability, ethnic origin, national origin, religious affiliation, geographical location and socioeconomic status, on the number of children with disabilities who are or who have been:

(a)Living with their families;

(b)Living in institutions;

(c)Attending regular primary schools;

(d)Attending regular secondary schools;

(e)Attending special schools;

(f)Out of school;

(g)Abandoned by their families.

19.Please provide updated statistical data, for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, type of offence, ethnic and national origin, religious affiliation, geographical location and socioeconomic status, on children alleged to have or accused of or recognized as having infringed criminal law who have been:

(a)Arrested;

(b)Referred to diversion programmes;

(c)Placed in pretrial detention;

(d)Sentenced to detention. Please also provide the length of the sentence.

20.Please provide information on how a children’s rights-based approach is integrated into the planning, implementation and monitoring of measures for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, including with regard to the participation of children and data collection, and on how these measures promote the realization of children’s rights under the Convention and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

21.Please provide the Committee with an update of any data in the report that may have become outdated by more recent data collected or other new developments.

22.In addition, the State Party may list areas affecting children that it considers to be of priority with regard to the implementation of the Convention.