The life-altering eye and head accidents suffered by protesters in the course of the 2022 Iranian anti-government protests have been “systematic, premeditated and widespread” inflicted by Iranian safety forces, in line with a September 29 investigation by the US-based Center for Human Rights and IranWire Media Group.
The report additionally discovered that safety forces used weapons produced by a number of Western arms producers in direct violation of worldwide legislation and sanctions.
The year-long investigation, which included graphic pictures and detailed proof of accidents, was carried out by the US-based Iranian Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC) and Iranwire information company. It investigated incidents of violence towards demonstrators following the loss of life of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was in police custody for not complying with the legislation on obligatory hijab-wearing.
Martha’s loss of life in September 2022 sparked nationwide anti-government protests and led to the Women, Life, Freedom gender equality motion. Hundreds of individuals, together with youngsters, died in the course of the demonstrations, and hundreds suffered life-changing accidents.
The research documented the testimonies and medical information of 141 protesters who suffered everlasting disabilities from the usage of so-called “less-lethal” weapons. Of these protesters, 97 have been injured by shotgun hearth, 12 by paintball weapons, and 9 by tear gasoline canisters. The remaining 14 protesters died from their accidents.
The researchers used authorized and courtroom paperwork and consulted with eye and authorized specialists to look at whether or not the usage of pressure by safety forces fell right into a sample of intentional focusing on.
“Demonstrators have been deliberately focused within the head, face, and different very important organs with direct hearth from shotguns, paintball weapons, and tear gasoline canisters,” a lawyer for the investigation mentioned. “Although these weapons are labeled as ‘much less deadly,’ they have been used to kill, incapacitate, and inflict most struggling.”
The findings verify a 2024 investigation by the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran, which discovered that “safety forces used pointless and disproportionate pressure, ensuing within the illegal killing and damage of protesters.”
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“This systematic act of blindness quantities to torture aimed toward instilling worry in society,” the IHRDC investigation workforce mentioned in a press release on September 29.
IHRDC additionally documented the usage of Western weapons by safety forces in the course of the protests. Although worldwide sanctions prohibit numerous types of commerce with the Islamic Republic, together with sure kinds of army supplies, the report discovered that middleman firms are enabling arms transfers, together with to Iranian firms at present topic to sanctions.
“This crackdown was facilitated by worldwide provide chains,” the report mentioned. “Equipment provided by Turkish protection producers (Hassan, Akkar, Sarsilmaz) and North American leisure tools suppliers (Tipman, DYE Precision), in addition to ammunition components from the French and Italian firm Chedit, have been diverted to be used by Iranian safety forces.”
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While the report famous that a number of worldwide legal guidelines impose restrictions on arms gross sales to the Islamic Republic, it claimed that Iranian firms circumvented these restrictions, with one firm receiving at the very least $11,398,069 in international change lately.
Additionally, the report acknowledged, “The Islamic Republic of Iran Paintball Association seems to play a central position within the provide of paintball weapons to Iranian safety forces.”
“At least one mannequin of paintball gun, the Empire BT-4 Combat Marker manufactured by the US-Canadian firm Tippman, is on sale on the affiliation’s official web site,” it added.
“The 2022 protests revealed a transparent sample of violence and human rights violations by the Islamic Republic towards peaceable protesters, leading to lasting hurt. The documented indiscriminate and extreme use of pressure is a violation of the appropriate to life and constitutes a prohibition on merciless or inhuman remedy,” the report mentioned. “Evidence from arms commerce information additional signifies that weapons have been being repurposed for crowd management, elevating severe issues below worldwide arms commerce and humanitarian legislation.”
The IHRDC investigation concluded that “the geographical unfold of victims throughout a number of states highlights the organized and coordinated nature of those operations.”
“Such actions violate Iranian legislation, inside safety provisions, and worldwide requirements, together with the United Nations Fundamental Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms and the United Nations Guidance on Less-Lethal Weapons in Law Enforcement.”
The report’s suggestions embody the necessity for full transparency all through the availability chain, the necessity for acceptable safeguards to be put in place by producers of dual-use tools to make sure that their merchandise are usually not used to commit human rights violations, and the necessity for shotguns and paintball weapons to be labeled as dual-use merchandise and controlled as such as a result of they’ve the potential to trigger severe hurt.