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National law and policies on minimum ages – Iran (Islamic Republic of)

 

According to the CRC, laws and policies must be directed to the best interest of the child. This is especially so in provisions that aim to safeguard the child against exploitation or an early end to childhood, i.e. in the instances where children are most vulnerable and at risk. Yet such safeguards are often ignored and different areas of legislation found to clash with each other. What happens if the age for the end of compulsory education is 14 but the minimum age of employment is 12? Or vice versa? What if a girl can be married before school leaving age - will she then return to school? And who ensures schooling in prisons, when in reality education should protect children from incarceration?

 

 

 

 

With 192 parties to it, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most widely ratified UN treaty. Each State Party must submit periodic reports to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which uses this process to monitor State compliance with the treaty. The vast majority of the information on minimum ages presented on these pages is taken directly from such reports (occasionally, if these failed to include relevant information concerning minimum ages, other components of the reporting process - such as the Committee’s Concluding Observations - were consulted). States Parties’ reports constitute self-assessment by governments and are therefore authoritative sources, emanating directly from those empowered to make decisions. Using this type of sources also permits a range of actors to hold governments accountable for the standards which they report under the CRC. The sections of these reports have been reproduced faithfully, and readers are encouraged to make use of the full original text, available here.

 

Individual country reports are often written by diverse parts of the government, and frequently run to more than 100 pages. Moreover, within some states’ legal systems there are various recognised sources of law, which frequently generate conflicting minimum ages. Distilling precise numbers out of such documents is therefore a precarious task. While we would encourage cross-country comparison, we would also stress the danger that those countries with a more honest engagement with the reporting process might come off worse when compared with those which would mis-represent the degree of compliance, whether wilfully or not. For a full explanation of the principles that guided us in our analysis, please visit the introductory pages here.

 

Sources:
Concluding Observations: CRC/C/15/Add.254, 31 March 2005
2nd periodic report: CRC/C/104/Add.3, 1 December 2003
Initial report: CRC/C/41/Add.5, 23 July 1998
 
Minimum age for the end of compulsory education
From initial report
4. (d) According to laws and regulations, education of Iranian children and adolescents is compulsory and no one can deprive them from education (article 1 of the Act on Providing Means and Possibility of Education for Iranian Children and Adolescents, 1974). Compulsory education begins at the age of 6 […]
130. The education system of the Islamic Republic of Iran is divided as follow: primary school (five years), orientation or guidance school (three years) and secondary school (four years). In 1992 the new system of secondary education, consisting of three years replaced the previous system. After the completion of three years of secondary education, students go through one year of pre-university courses. The primary school takes five years to finish and children six years of age enter this phase. In accordance with specific rules and criteria they can remain in the primary level up to age 15 at the most. Schools are open six days a week and primary education in Iran is compulsory and free.
 
Minimum age for admission to employment
From concluding observations
68. The Committee […] notes that although article 79 of the Labour Code sets the minimum age of access to employment at 15, other legislation, including the Agricultural Code, sets that age at 12.
From 2nd report
170. Based on article 79 of the Labour Law, employment of individuals under 15 years is forbidden, and the employers of individuals under 15 years not only have to resolve this act of violation, but are also liable to be fined.
From initial report
4. (a) According to article 79 of the Labour Act persons under the age of 15 are forbidden to be employed. Regarding agricultural work, although this kind of work is considered to be lighter than other work and is usually done as part of family work, the Law on Agricultural Work sets the minimum age at 12 years. (These age limits are in conformity with ILO standards.) […]
189. In Iran there are special provisions in the Labour Code for the protection of children. The minimum age for employment, according to article 79 of the Labour Code, is 15 full years. Sanctions are envisaged in the law for employers who hire children under 15 years of age (article 176 of the Labour Code).
 
Minimum age for marriage
From concluding observations
22. […] The Committee notes the increase in the age of marriage for girls from 9 to 13 years (while that of boys remains at 15) and is seriously concerned at the very low minimum ages and the related practice of forced, early and temporary marriages.
From 2nd report
49. […] Efforts are under way […to] increase the minimum marriage age for girls and boys. Early and forced marriages should also be stopped.
From initial report
2. According to figh (religious jurisprudence) and the law a child or minor is a male or female offspring that has not attained maturity. Maturity is a natural and instinctive matter. One of the signs of attaining maturity is age. In figh and the law a person who has not reached the age of majority is called a minor. A minor cannot dispose of his/her property. Iranian law does not offer any definition of a child and only the age of maturity is defined.
According to the provisions of article 1210 of the Civil Code, the age of maturity for male children is full 15 lunar years. The legislator in Iran has stipulated that a person has to prove his/her maturity before being able to exercise his legal rights. If two conditions, that is, physical growth and mental development, are combined in an individual then it could be said that the age of minority has ended.
3. According to the Civil Code, a mature person has the right to dispose and possess his/her property. Therefore, according to the provisions of the law, in legal actions by the child in relation to transactions or other affairs that require rational decisions, the maturity of the person needs to be proven. Since in accordance with the Civil Code marriage before age of maturity is forbidden (art. 1041) and the age of maturity, determined by law, is not compatible with the realities of the society, some jurists have proposed revision of the Civil Code provisions relating to the age of maturity.
 
Minimum age for criminal responsibility
From 2nd report
203. The legal age for criminal responsibility is one of the problems that needs to be resolved by Iranian religious jurists and lay lawyers, as it is in other legal systems as well. To resolve this problem and find a satisfactory solution in this matter, meetings are being held at the research centre of the Justice Department, under the title “Compilation of a draft psychiatric health law, and a review of the legal age for criminal responsibility”. Religious jurists and laymen lawyers and psychologists have been invited to comment on this matter. These meetings are still in progress, and it is hoped that the fruits of these meetings will be used in compilation of the Law of Psychiatric Health and the fixing of the boundaries of criminal responsibility and the necessary attention to maturity age.
From initial report
4. (c) In accordance with article 49 of the Islamic Penalties Act passed in 1982, ‘‘children shall be free from criminal responsibility and the responsibility for correction, education and disciplining is given to the guardian, and if necessary the court will instruct a correction house to carry out this task’’.
 
Sources:
Concluding Observations: CRC/C/15/Add.254, 31 March 2005
2nd periodic report: CRC/C/104/Add.3, 1 December 2003
Initial report: CRC/C/41/Add.5, 23 July 1998