On 1 May 2009, human rights activists and supporters around the world joined the family of Delara Darabi in mourning when the alleged juvenile offender was hanged at Rasht Prison in northern Iran.

At 7am that day Delara's family received a call from the young woman telling them she was about to be executed and pleading with her parents to save her. Then a man took the phone receiver away from her and told her parents that their child would be killed and there was nothing they could do about it. Despite rushing to the prison, Delara Darabi's family had no further contact with her before her execution.

Unfortunately, the case of Delara Darabi is not unique.

Despite being party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child - both of which prohibit the death penalty for juvenile offenders - a number of countries continued to carry out child executions in 2009.

But there is hope

Globally there is a strong and growing call - endorsed by the United Nations - for all states to cease the use of the death penalty.

It appears that leaders are getting the message.

In 2008 Amnesty International recorded only 25 out of 59 countries that then retained the death penalty actually carried out executions (see Amnesty International's report, 'Death sentences and executions in 2008'). Aside from Belarus, Europe and Central Asia is now virtually a death penalty free zone. In the Americas, only one state - the USA - still practices the death penalty. And the shift away from the death penalty continues in 2010, with Mongolia becoming the most recent state to declare a moratorium on executions in January.

But the death penalty itself will also continue in 2010. And deploringly, despite the fact that all countries that retain the death penalty have banned the execution of juvenile offenders, a small number - such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Sudan - continue with thre practice.

What's being done?

To coincide with World day against the death penalty - 10 October 2009 - tens of thousands of people around the world came together to tell the countries still carrying out child executions that enough is enough. Execution of juvenile offenders - as with execution of all people - is completely unacceptable everywhere, for any reason.

Along with scores of other organisations, Amnesty International Australia mobilised our supporters to sign a World Coalition Against the Death Penalty (WCADP) petition demanding that countries still executing child offenders ban this deploring practice. Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Sudan - the four countries that had put juvenile offenders to death in the previous year - were targeted.

How did we go? The signatures of Amnesty International Australia supporters contributed 10,518 names to a global total of 90,708 collected by the Coalition - that's 12% of the global total, a proportion that staff, volunteers and activists at our action centres nation-wide were proud of. The petition was delivered to Iranian, Saudi, Yemeni and Sudanese embassies in France on 20 November 2009, the 20th birthday of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Each embassy received a quarter of the petitions. Sudan and Yemen met and accepted the WCADP delegation and petitions. Saudi Arabia would not meet with the delegation but accepted the petitions. Iran refused to meet or accept the petitions - so we got them into the embassy by mail.

We will continue in 2010 and beyond to campaign for an end to child executions, as part of our campaign to end the death penalty universally.

Delara Darabi was a talented artist and had expressed a desire to continue with her education if she got out of prison. Under international law, Delara Darabi had a right to such an education, as well as a right to life.

All children should enjoy these rights - thank you to all of our supporters who stood up to defend them in 2009.