A UN fact-finding mission reporting to the Human Rights Council in Geneva supplies dependable estimates that 551 individuals have been killed by safety forces, most of them by gunfire, as a part of a widespread and systematic crackdown on protests. It is quoted as being. lady. The casualties included a minimum of 49 ladies and 68 youngsters.
“Many of the intense human rights violations outlined on this report quantity to crimes towards humanity, significantly homicide, imprisonment, torture, rape, different types of sexual violence, persecution, enforced disappearances, and different acts of inhumanity. “It is a part of a widespread and systematic assault on civilians,” the staff stated in its report. The Human Rights Council is scheduled to debate the report subsequent week.
“The investigating staff is happy that Ms. Amini suffered bodily violence that led to her loss of life,” it stated, drawing consideration to proof of trauma inflicted on her physique whereas in police custody. “Therefore, the state is accountable for her wrongful loss of life.”
“The Islamic Republic’s violent repression of peaceable dissent and extreme discrimination towards ladies and ladies in Iran has been confirmed as nothing lower than against the law towards humanity,” stated Hadi Ghami, government director of the Iranian Center for Human Rights. Stated.
“These violations disproportionately impression essentially the most weak in society, together with ladies, youngsters and minorities,” he added.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York didn’t instantly touch upon the report.
A fact-finding staff arrange in late 2022 was denied entry to Iran. He stated many individuals had been deterred from giving proof, dealing with obstacles reminiscent of digital surveillance by the federal government and harassment and intimidation of some witnesses and victims. But via in-depth interviews with others and entry to impartial experiences, medical photos and official paperwork, the mission stated it was in a position to collect sufficient proof to ascertain the case.
The report particulars a sample of safety forces utilizing deadly and less-lethal power to disperse protests, together with using weapons geared up with birdshot and This consists of systematically concentrating on the top, face, neck, and genitals of an individual, typically inflicting everlasting and life-altering accidents.
But the mission additionally uncovered proof of torture and sexual violence directed at detainees to extract confessions and knowledge and to punish and humiliate victims. Physical abuse consists of beatings, burns, electrical shocks, and being held in a compressive place. Investigators stated the sexual violence perpetrated towards ladies, males and youngsters included rape and threats of rape, electrical shock to the genitals, pressured stripping and groping.
Investigators reported that youngsters had been held for days and even weeks with out figuring out the explanation for his or her detention and with out contact with their households. “Like adults, they had been subjected to extreme bodily, psychological, and sexual torture, together with rape.”
Investigators discovered that the worst abuses passed off in unofficial detention facilities run by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and the Ministry of Intelligence.