Victimization of Mountainous Fields: Facets and Challenges

Mountain regions are environmentally valuable, as they are home to almost twenty percent of the world’s population and many species of animals and plants. Although there is not a special criminal law concerning the protection of mountains, one can find three international conventions about them. Various international instruments have emphasized their importance. Iran is also a mountainous country. As mountains cover more than half of its area, this fact makes the protection of mountain regions one of the necessities in Iranian criminal and environmental law. But, what are the challenges of Iranian laws in relation to the protection of the mountains? According to the findings of this research, done in descriptive-analytical method and based on documentary research, there is no specific protection for mountains in the Iranian legal system. However, there are three types of crimes against these regions in that system: damages to the mountain areas in environmentally protected lands, damages to the mountains with historical and cultural identity, and illegal converting of the mountainous fields. Iranian criminal law also faces some challenges in relation to the protection of mountains, including the ambiguity of the definition of the mountain, lack of detailed criminalization, lack of intrinsic appreciation, lack of criminal responsibility in mining activities, neglecting the geoparks and inattention to the special parts of the mountainous fields.