Girl 13, stoned to death in Somalia. Her crime? Reporting that she had been raped.

The stoning was public and a boy in the crowd was shot dead as militia opened fire to halt witnesses who were attempting to save the girl's life.

In another recent case, an Iranian woman has avoided the death penalty after a pardon was given.

The 13 year old Somali girl was publicly stoned to death on 27 October after attempting to report to officials that she had been raped by three men. First reports stated that the 'woman' was 23 years old and that she had committed adultery. Yet both of these statements were refuted by the girl's father. See Amnesty International's latest update on the case.

Under Sharia law the girl was found guilty of adultery and is reported to have 'confessed' to this charge. As is often the case, reporting rape can lead to an outcome that is not aimed at protecting the woman or girl involved and in some cases, like this, it is the survivor who is framed as the guilty party and the perpetrator left unpunished. While the family of the young boy killed has received an apology, the family of the 13 year old child executed did not receive an apology. Nor is there any mention of attempting to find and charge the men accused of raping the girl.

Iran has the second highest rate of executions per capita in the world. Iran is known to execute many women, and cases of child execution similar to the Somali one outlined above are not uncommon.

Iranian woman Soheila Ghadiri had been sentenced to death for the murder of her five-day-old son. This was overturned last month after a pardon from the child's father.

According to the newspaper E'temad, during her trial Sohelia refused to name the father of her son as the couple were not married. The case against her was made by the Tehran prosecutor, and she was sentenced to qesas (retribution). Sohelia still faces imprisonment and will be sent back to court for a retrial.

In Iran the family of the victim of a murder have the right either to insist on execution, or to pardon the person convicted of the murder and receive financial compensation. A person convicted of murder has no right to seek pardon or appeal to the state for a different penalty. This violates the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which Iran has chosen to sign.

If the child's father had not been located or did not give his pardon, Sohelia would have been killed this month.

Worldwide trend

Opposing the death penalty universally is essential. The UN passed a Global Moratorium on the abolition of the death penalty in 2007. Countries such as Somalia and Iran are very much in the minority on this issue.

Cases such as those above highlight how inhumane the penalty is. It is very likely that each year innocent people are executed, that fair trials have not taken place, that appeals have not been permitted. The death penalty is the ultimate cruel and inhuman punishment, and cannot be reversed once carried out.

Find out more or get involved in our campaign to end the death penalty.

Read Amnesty International's latest report on the death penalty.