Legal Assistance of a Lawyer to a Child in the Process of Criminal Proceedings (a Comparative Study of the Code of Criminal Procedure Approved in 2012 and International Documents)

The right to counsel is one of the main aspects of a fair trial. In the meantime, considering children's lack of full ability to defend, it is more important for them to have legal assistance. This study was conducted with the aim of investigating the level of attention of the Code of Criminal Procedure approved in 2012 and international documents regarding the legal assistance of a lawyer to a child in the process of criminal proceedings.

The present research was written using the descriptive method and the use of library resources consisted of related laws and legal documents.

Legislator in Iran, along with taking some innovative measures such as recognizing the right to visit a lawyer in the stage under supervision and paying attention to the role of a lawyer and his legal assistance for children in the stage of protesting the sentence, regarding the benefit of criminal children from a lawyer in the trial stage, adopted two different approaches. In this way, the existence of a lawyer during the proceedings is not mandatory, but can be applied as a matter of law, regarding crimes of degrees six to eight, as well as other crimes without the legal punishment of imprisonment. However, in crimes that are under the jurisdiction of the First Criminal Court, and in the crimes that require the payment of Diya or Arsh more than one-fifth of the full Diah, as well as in Tazeeri crimes of the sixth degree and above, the presence of a lawyer in the proceedings is assumed to be mandatory. The study of international documents regarding the effects of legal assistance of lawyers for children shows that these documents have paid attention to the role and position of lawyers in the protection of children in the three stages of pre-trial, trial and appeal.

In the Code of Criminal Procedure, in line with international documents, the domestic legislator has paid more attention to the role of lawyers and legal aids in dealing with children's crimes.