Iran: Repression continues two years after nationwide protests

Addressing the Human Rights Council in Geneva, the International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran – a group of Council-appointed independent experts – said that Ms. Amini’s death in September 2022 was “unlawful and caused by physical violence” for which the State is responsible.

Chairperson Sara Hossain told the forum’s 47 Member States that after Ms. Amini’s death, young women and schoolchildren “were at the forefront” of nationwide protests.

“The entire State apparatus was mobilised with security forces using firearms, including AK-47s and Uzis as we documented in some areas, resulting in injuries and deaths,” she said.

Acts of defiance

There are “credible figures” that indicate there were 551 deaths, at least 49 women and 68 children, “and we found that those occurred in 26 out of the 31 provinces of Iran over multiple months”, the Mission found.

Ms. Hossain explained that many protesters “removed their hijab in public places as an act of defiance against long-standing discriminatory laws and practices”.

Men and boys joined in the protests in solidarity too, the Council heard, along with minorities who demanded equality.

”What we found was that security forces shot at protesters and also at bystanders at very short distances in a targeted fashion, causing injuries to their heads, necks, torsos, genital areas, but particularly to the eyes,” reported Ms. Hossain. “We found hundreds of protesters had these life changing injuries, with many of them now blinded and branded essentially for life marked as dissidents.”

Challenges gathering evidence

Despite the many challenges the Mission was facing, such as total lack of access to the country and no cooperation on the part of the Iranian Government, it was able to collect and preserve over 27,000 items of evidence.

It conducted a total of 134 in-depth interviews with victims and witnesses, including 49 women and 85 men, both inside and outside the country, and gathered evidence and analysis from experts on digital and medical forensics and on domestic and international law.

The human rights probe noted that 30 September 2022 had become known as “Bloody Friday” in Zahedan city after credible sources indicated that security forces had killed 104 protesters and bystanders, mostly men and boys.

The probe also took note of the Iranian Government’s claim that 54 security officers had been killed and many others injured.

Spike in executions, including children

The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran also presented his report to the Human Rights Council on Monday.

Addressing the Geneva-based UN rights body, Javaid Rehman offered an overview of the most grave violations registered, which include a spike in death penalty sentences and executions, including children, and a continuous clampdown on women’s rights.

Now, at the end of his six-year tenure, Mr. Rehman has never been granted access to the country, despite frequent requests.

The Special Rapporteur stated that 834 people were executed in 2023, marking a 43 per cent rise from the previous year, with a significant portion related to drug offenses.

“Despite serious concerns expressed by my mandate and by the international community, children continued to be executed in Iran with at least one reported execution in 2023,” he said, adding that at least 23 women were executed last year.

He also raised concerns about the persecution of ethnic and religious minorities and the harassment and detention of human rights defenders, journalists and trade union activists.

Citing the violent suppression of protests in 2022 following the death of 22-year-old Ms. Amini, he described how public protests had grown into the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement.

State authorities had behaved “with complete impunity” and unlawfully killed hundreds of people, including dozens of women and children.

‘Chilling’ use of AI

Ms. Hossain told the Human Rights Council that the Fact-Finding Mission had received “chilling reports on the use by the State of artificial intelligence (AI), including through new mobile apps, to monitor and enforce compliance by women and girls with mandatory hijab rules,” explained Ms. Hossain.

The Special Rapporteur, too, criticized Iran's enforcement of “gender segregation and draconian measures”, such as threatening unveiled women with vehicle confiscation and imposing harsh punishments, including flogging, for “improper veiling”.

Gains overshadowed by violations

Despite some positive steps, such as amendments to drug trafficking laws, widespread human rights violations persist, overshadowing progress. Urgent action is needed for Iran to uphold its international obligations, underscored the Special Rapporteur.

Rapporteurs and other rights experts appointed by the Human Rights Council are not UN staff and are independent of any government or organization. They serve in their individual capacity and receive no salary for their work.