When it comes to international law, Iran’s leadership talks a good fight. Sanctions, the assassination of Iranian officials, generals and nuclear scientists, as well as attacks by Israel and the US are all routinely denounced by Tehran as illegal. At the same time, Iran's own egregious attacks on its neighbours are framed – wrongly – as excusable.
But those familiar with Tehran's modus operandi in the region know its adherence to international norms is hypocritical at the best of times. Now, amid a war that is already killing thousands of their compatriots, Iranian authorities are flouting one of the world's most widely recognised prohibitions – a ban on enlisting children in military activities. This week, an Iranian newspaper reported the death of an 11-year-old boy, killed in an alleged Israeli drone strike while manning a Tehran checkpoint alongside his father. Both were said to be assisting members of the notorious Basij militia at the time.
This tragedy is the consequence of the irresponsible and illegal dragooning of Iran’s young people into Tehran’s security apparatus. On Monday, Human Rights Watch released a report that accused the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of recruiting minors as “homeland defending combatants”.
The report quoted an official from the IRGC’s 27th Mohammad Rasulullah Division seeking to enlist civilians, with the minimum age of recruitment set at 12. Although extra manpower is being sought to help provide food, give medical aid and deal with damaged property, HRW says an IRGC official told Iran’s Defa Press News Agency that patrolling, manning checkpoints and intelligence work could also be among the duties of these child recruits. Placing children in such military roles clearly puts them in harm’s way.
For many people in the Middle East, this campaign will revive chilling memories of the tens of thousands of Iranian children killed in combat during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. That conflict saw the human rights of Iranian children frequently abused, with reports of minors being handed plastic “keys to heaven” before being sent on suicidal missions against Iraqi forces.
Sweeping children up into a war through a toxic combination of indoctrination, coercion and family pressure also draws parallels between the Iranian government and some dubious company. ISIS, Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Kurdish paramilitaries in Turkey and Syria have all been credibly accused of having children within their ranks. The effect this has on young people is severe, leaving them with considerable trauma, intermittent education and a long road back to normal society.
Children are always victims of war - and the strike on a school in Minab at the start of this war is a clear example - but recruitment into the military is putting children directly in harm's way. This recruitment campaign by the IRGC reflects the Iranian state’s disregard for the welfare of its people. While its military and political leaders take shelter in well-fortified bunkers, there is little such protection for Iran’s civilians.
