Celebrating November 20th, World Children’s Day
November 20th designated as World Children’s Day. After the end of World War II, millions of children killed, injured, or orphaned due to the war. In 1946, the United Nations established UNICEF to support children worldwide. In 1953, this organization recognized as a permanent part of the United Nations. Since then, November 20th named World Children’s Day by UNICEF.
Children in Iran are deprived of their most basic rights from the beginning of their lives. Their share from this government can only be summarized in poverty, illness, oppression, losing their parents, execution, deprivation from education, and also childhood deprivation. Due to the plundering of the country’s assets by the government officials, millions of children are identified only by terms such as “child laborers”, “children deprived of education”, “addicted children”, “sold children”, “burned children” and also “child smugglers”. Many of them do not even reach adolescence and die due to various reasons.
Children Out of School
According to the former Minister of Education, there are more than 800,000 surviving children out of school in the country. This figure should increase by more than 160,000 children who not admitted to elementary school. Thus, in less than five years, nearly one million children deprived of education.
This is while the government leaders annually spend millions of dollars on providing the expenses of suppressing forces domestically and interfering in the affairs of other countries. Expenses that one item is less than one percent of it is enough to equip all schools in Iran.
Child labor
According to the report of the Iran Research Center, the number of children under 17 years old in the country is slightly over 9 million. Of this number, more than 400,000 identified as child laborers. It is clear that there is no accurate statistics on child labor. Many children forced to leave school due to extreme poverty and enter the labor market. These children, due to their young age, work illegally in workshops and receive very low wages.
The exact statistics of child labor not known. However, it is said that their number exceeds 2 million children. Street-working children are only the tip of the iceberg of child labor, and the main part of them are working secretly and illegally in workshops. Due to the above reasons, there is no statistics on child labor accidents and if they go to the hospital, they must hide the main cause of the accident at work.
Among these children, child laborers and street vendors have a more critical situation. Because at any moment, they may lose their lives due to the shooting of security forces or accidents. The government officials try to hide their role in creating the phenomenon of child labor by portraying them as members of mafia gangs and so on, but it is clear to everyone that the high statistics of child labor are only due to the plundering policies of the ruling government and the theft of the people’s assets in Iran.
November 20th and execution of Children
The Iranian government is one of the few countries that sentences child criminals to execution, and more than anything, it carries out this sentence. According to statistics published in the past decade from 2010 to present, more than 68 children executed by the judiciary. According to human rights organizations, over 70% of executions of children in the world in the past three decades carried out by the Iranian government.
In the Convention on the Rights of the Child, it explicitly emphasized that the imposition of capital punishment and also life imprisonment without the possibility of parole should not applied to children. Although the leaders of the government are signatories to this convention, they still carry out the execution of children. It should noted that the implementation of capital punishment for children solely aimed at creating an atmosphere of fear and terror in society in order to suppress popular protests.
Killing and Suppression of Children in the Nationwide Uprising of 2022
The nationwide uprising of 2022 began simultaneously with the reopening of schools in the country. Students, like other segments of the population, expressed their strong opposition to Khamenei and the dictatorship by actively participating in this uprising. The suppressive forces also attempted to silence these protests by shooting at student children. The high number of children killed in the 2022 uprising indicates their significant participation in this uprising. At least 70 children killed during the uprising and as a result of the shooting by the suppressive forces. Their age range includes children as young as 2 years old to 17 years old.
The tragedy of Kianoush Pirflak and the fate of his parents continue even after one year. The death of their leader has only been able to temporarily silence their calls for justice by imprisoning his family.
November 20th, and children crossing the government to build a better tomorrow
Children, like other segments of society, have declared their big “no” to this government by participating in protests. Their courage and fearlessness is seen in the statistics of casualties and also injuries in this uprising.
They are willing to pay any price to achieve freedom and a desirable life. Children have understood well that only by overthrowing this government can they have hope for a brighter future.
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