Overview
- Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in Tehran said on March 26 that its “For Iran” drive set a minimum age of 12 for volunteers to staff checkpoints, conduct patrols and provide support, with registration funneled through Basij bases in mosques.
- Residents now report teenagers stopping cars, checking phones and running street patrols in the capital, and local reports say 11-year-old Alireza Jafari was killed while on checkpoint duty.
- Human Rights Watch says recruiting or using children under 15 in hostilities is a grave violation that can be prosecuted as a war crime, and it urged Iran to cancel the campaign and bar all forces from enlisting minors.
- International scrutiny is rising as the U.N. Human Rights Council agrees to examine recent killings and child protection issues, and the Pentagon opens a formal investigation into the February 28 Minab school strike that a preliminary U.S. report linked to American fire.
- Iran’s laws and IRGC bylaws already allow youth involvement from ages 15–16 through the Basij and related roles, reflecting a history of mobilizing minors during the 1980s Iran–Iraq war that conflicts with global rules banning recruitment under 15.