Geneva - The execution of a man in Iran for a murder committed when he was still a minor drew criticism Tuesday from the United Nations human rights chief who also said the authorities should review death penalties handed down to participants in the unrest following the June elections. Behnoud Shojaie, who was executed Sunday, was convicted of killing another boy in 2005 when they were both 17 years old.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called on Iran to change its laws and "end execution of juvenile offenders once and for all."
"The juvenile death penalty is a negation of the essential principles of juvenile justice accepted by all States, including Iran," said separately Philip Alston, the UN expert on executions.
Both officials said they had been given assurances this summer than the death penalty would not be carried out.
Iran is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibit the death penalty for juvenile offenders, the UN said.
Pillay also expressed concern over reports from Tehran that three people have been sentenced to death in relation to the protests which followed the recent presidential election.
"There are also major concerns about the way the recent trials of opposition activists were conducted," she said in a statement, noting that "the death penalty can only be applied when very strict conditions are met ... and only after scrupulously fair trials."
Pillay also said she remained opposed in principle to the death penalty in all cases.
