Five countries account for all child executions
Five countries, led by Iran, account for all executions of children in the world, Human Rights Watch said yesterday, urging an end to the practice.
Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen are the only countries that continue to impose the death penalty on people younger than 18 when they committed a crime. The United States outlawed execution of juvenile offenders in 2005.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the United Nations, which holds its annual General Assembly next week, to pressure for greater protections for children.
"We are only five states away from a complete ban on the juvenile death penalty," said HRW's Clarisa Bencomo. "These few holdouts should abandon this barbaric practice so that no one ever again is executed for a crime committed as a child."
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