Unconfirmed reports from Iran are today suggesting that a young woman has been sentenced to death by hanging.  According to IranPressNews.com (Persian only),  her name is Delaraam and she was 17 when she allegedly committed the crime.   It is not clear if the execution has taken place.

It is not reported what crime she has been found guilty of committing – or even whether the lesbian ‘factor’ is involved.  But she is said to have been kept in prison for two years.

[Update - December 28:  Report from Iran says that the young woman was convicted of murdering another woman in 2003., a charge she has repeatedly denied.]

The International Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by resolution 44/25 on November 20, 1989 at the Forty-fourth session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, signed by Iran 14 years ago and subsequently ratified,  clearly states:

Article 37.  “States Parties shall ensure that: (a) No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age; …”

IranPressNews also reports that two other Iranians are to be hanged in public tomorrow (Wednesday) in the city of Ahvaz in the southern province of Iran at 7 am.  The place of hanging is said to be near a terminal in the Se Rahe Tapeh (the Tapeh three-ways). Again, the conviction are not known.

■  Iran has executed several gays this year, including two teenagers in July.