On March 18, the outcomes of an impartial worldwide United Nations fact-finding mission on Iran’s response to the nationwide protests have been submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council throughout its common session in Geneva.
In a greater than 300-page report, U.N. investigators detailed how the Iranian authorities carried out a brutal marketing campaign of repression towards protests, with Commissioner Salah Hossein saying that in some instances He mentioned it amounted to against the law towards humanity.
In November 2022, two months after the loss of life of 22-year-old Zina Marsa Amini sparked protests throughout Iran, the UN Human Rights Council established a fact-finding mission on Iran’s “deteriorating human rights scenario.” , documented. Potential crimes towards Iranian nationals.
“Against the law has been dedicated,” Hossein advised the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday. She cited extrajudicial killings, torture, rape, enforced disappearances and gender-based persecution as examples.
Iran has all the time denied being chargeable for Amini’s loss of life and mentioned she was not assaulted whereas in custody. The fact-finding mission assessed that Amini was bludgeoned to loss of life “whereas within the custody of the morality police.”
Over 100 eyewitness testimonies
Hossain advised DW that the UN committee investigated and evaluated quite a few sources for its report.
“We analyzed authorities paperwork and public statements by authorities officers. We additionally reviewed a lot of experiences ready by the Iranian High Council for Human Rights.”
Hossain, a barrister on the Bangladesh Supreme Court, added that the fact-finding mission evaluated 134 direct witness statements for the ultimate report. Investigators additionally analyzed huge quantities of open supply info, together with digital medical data and authorized paperwork.
“All of this shaped the premise of our materials, which allowed us to attract on each direct and corroborated proof from main and secondary sources, and which supplied the premise for our analysis and findings. We now have a stable basis,” Hossain mentioned.
Many witnesses who testified earlier than the committee nonetheless present proof of focused firing by safety forces.
Kosar Eftekari is considered one of them. A 24-year-old girl from Tehran was hit within the eye by a rubber bullet throughout a protest in 2022. Since then, she has been blind.
As if that wasn’t sufficient, she was introduced earlier than a revolutionary courtroom in Tehran on costs of “gathering and conspiracy towards the safety of the nation” and “propaganda towards the regime.”
“I fled the nation two months in the past due to the large retaliation,” she advised DW.
Eftekari at present lives in Germany and testified earlier than the fee in Geneva.
“I participated in a peaceable protest that was brutally suppressed by safety forces. They intentionally shot me out within the eye at point-blank vary. “It’s essential to inform the world how the protesters have been oppressed,” she mentioned.
“Organized assaults towards civilians”
According to the fact-finding report, 551 folks have been killed by safety forces, together with no less than 49 girls and 68 kids. Women, kids, and ethnic and non secular minorities have been notably uncovered to human rights violations.
Hossein advised a UN Human Rights Council assembly in Geneva that these strategies have been a part of a “systematic assault towards civilians.”
Fact-finding our bodies name on the Iranian authorities to halt executions of protesters, launch all detained in reference to the protests, cease harassing victims and their households, and supply reparations. Ta.
Iranian human rights lawyer Saeed Dehghgan mentioned the fact-finding mission’s work is of nice significance to Iranian civilians.
“For the primary time within the historical past of the Islamic Republic, crimes dedicated by these in energy towards the folks have been documented. This is the primary time that the time period “crimes towards humanity” has been utilized in an official report on the scenario within the Islamic Republic. .Iran. This has historic significance,” she advised DW.
Dehgan, who has been dwelling in Canada since 2022, has established a world community of Iranian legal professionals. He runs a authorized middle known as Parsi Law, which supplies authorized recommendation to Iranians. The authorized middle, which he heads, additionally helps worldwide organizations such because the United Nations in selling human rights in Iran.
Although Iran rejects the report’s findings, Iranian officers dwelling in Western international locations could possibly be placed on trial, have their property frozen or be denied entry primarily based on the report.
Indeed, Iran claims that the fact-finding mission’s actions are politically motivated and claims to be the sufferer.
The Iranian authorities strongly criticized the UN investigation, saying it was primarily based on “baseless claims” and “false and biased info with no authorized foundation.”
The mandate of this mission is scheduled to run out on April 5, 2024. Iran and worldwide human rights teams have known as for an extension of the mission. The Human Rights Council is scheduled to vote on the extension and all pending resolutions at its subsequent assembly in early April.
This article has been translated from German
Editor: Susie Van Brunersum