United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon has voiced "deep sadness" at Iran's recent execution of two child offenders, in breach of international law, a statement issued by his spokesman said on Tuesday.
The executions this month of Fatemeh Salbehi and Samad Zahabi came amid a worrying spike in executions in Iran, most of which have been for drugs-related offences, the UN said.
“Over 700 executions are reported to have taken place so far this year, including at least 40 public, marking the highest total recorded in the past 12 years," said the statement.
"The majority of executions were imposed for drug-related offences – crimes that do not meet the threshold of the ‘most serious crimes’,” it continued.
Iran is continuing to executive juvenile offenders despite having ratified two international conventions that prohibit the death penalty for crimes committed by minors aged less than 18, the UN statement underlined.
Ban urged the Iranian Government to halt executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty, which is strongly opposed by the UN.
Iranian authorities have put to death at least 16 juvenile offenders since 2014 and the number of the executions this year are the highest in more than 25 years, according to the Iran Human Rights monitoring group.
Salbehi was hanged on 13 October in Adelabad prison in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz for murdering her husband when she was 17 while Zahabi was hanged a week earlier in Kermanshah's Dizel Abad prison in western Iran for killing a fellow shepherd when he was 17.
Both Salbehi's and Zahabi's trials were "deeply flawed" according Amnesty International and other rights groups.
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