Comparative Study of Children and Adolescents’ Protection Law in Iran and Egypt

This study was conducted by reviewing the laws and regulations of Iran and Egypt concerning children and adolescents, and also international standards such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Beijing Rules as well to compare and analyze issues including children and adolescents protection rules in Iran and Egypt, the minimum and maximum age of criminal responsibility, type and extent of criminal responsibility in different age groups in both Iran and Egypt. Then, the extent of compliance of two countries rules with international rules was assessed. Our results revealed that Iran has not complied with the principles of legislation in drafting the protection laws for children and adolescents. The adoption of numerous and dispersed laws in the pre and post revolution has undermined the principle of accessibility of the law, then these circumstances make it difficult to protect children and adolescents with It is a problem and finally prevent the realization of access to justice. In Egypt, the minimum and maximum age for criminal responsibility is 12 and 18 years, respectively, also the minimum age of civilian custody is 21 years, while in Iran’s law, there is not the same approach regarding minimum and maximum age of criminal responsibility due to punishments of crimes are classified into discretionary, retaliate. This result has controversy with international regulations.