The UN Human Rights Council on Friday passed a motion extending an independent probe into human rights abuses in Iran and called for an urgent inquiry into the violent crackdown by authorities on protesters.
The session was held at the request of Iceland, Germany, North Macedonia, Moldova, the UK, and Northern Ireland, following weeks of repression in Iran. Cuba, Pakistan, Egypt, and China opposed the proposal, prompting a vote. The request was supported by 21 member states and 30 observer states.
Sara Hossain, chair of the Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic, told the UN Human Rights Council that witness testimonies and digital evidence pointed to “severe” human rights violations in Iran, including the use of torture, sexual violence, and the broadcast of forced confessions on state television.
Hossain, speaking at the special session in the Palais des Nations in Geneva, warned that violence by the regime forces had left hospitals overwhelmed by the mass casualties. In at least one city, she added, hundreds of protesters were forced to seek medical attention after the regime fired metal pellets into unarmed crowds, causing injuries to their eyes.
The approved proposal will extend the mandate of a UN investigation set up in 2022 following a previous wave of protests in response to the regime’s murder of Mahsa Amini for two more years. It will also launch an urgent investigation into violations and crimes linked to the latest unrest “for potential future legal proceedings.”
Anne Herzberg, a prominent human rights lawyer and UN representative for NGO Monitor, told The Jerusalem Post that the UN Human Rights Council’s failure to meet for weeks was a notable contrast to how quickly the council convened to discuss flare-ups in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“The council is always immediately ready to act, yet when we have a murderous regime that routinely abuses human rights, killing thousands and thousands of protesters in the street and completely blocking out their Internet, it took weeks for the council to even hold a session,” she noted.
“We will have to see how many states actually speak out against the atrocities going on in Iran and how many will side with the mullahs,” Herzberg said. “We will also have to see how many NGOs stand up against the human rights abuses by the Iranian regime, or if they will give very weak statements, given that they have barely said or done anything about the protests leading up to now.”
Although the Islamic Republic initially began with a promising tone, focusing on a need for dialogue, its response “devolved into increasing violence” in a manner seen in the past when there were demands for social, economic, and political change, she added.
Iran continues to deny responsibility for the deaths in Iran and rejects the legitimacy of the UN rights session.
Ali Bahreini, an Islamic Republic representative at the UN, has asserted both that the regime does not recognize the session’s legitimacy or its outcome, and that of the recognized 3,117 people killed in the unrest, 2,427 were murdered as a “direct result of terrorist operations.”
The representative also strongly rejected that the session was held out of concern for the Iranian people, saying that if the council had cared about civilians, it never would have “imposed inhumane sanctions” nor have “supported Israel’s war of aggression” in June.
Tehran supported people’s right to protest in response to economic turmoil, the regime’s official added, but the protests from January 8-10 had devolved into violence. Terrorist attacks, property destruction, and armed assault against both civilians and law enforcement forced restrictions, Bahreini said.
Iran’s allies reject UN intervention on Tehran's human rights violations, continue to point fingers at Israel
Those supporting the administration say that Tehran can restore social order and that UN intervention is unnecessary. Some of those backing Iran, who deny the legitimacy of the UN council, accused the agency of double standards, taking the opportunity to condemn Israel’s strikes against Iranian nuclear sites and personnel in the June war.
Cairo pushed for Iran’s state mechanisms to be responsible for monitoring and ensuring human rights, and for appropriate accountability for those who violate them. Egypt – along with Qatar, China, Cuba, Brazil, Pakistan, Mexico, Iraq, South Africa, and Burundi – had earlier refused to endorse the request for the UN session.
Brazil, saying that it was concerned over the violence and Internet shutdown, added that it encouraged Iran to deepen its cooperation with UN human rights bodies and to thoroughly investigate the accusations of violations.
Bahreini went on to condemn the “unilateral coercive measures against Iran,” saying that such measures exacerbate the economic crisis and further threaten the human rights situation in the country.
China’s representative Jia Guide, while asserting that it did not support the session, said that the handling of human rights developments in Iran was an internal affair. The international community, Guide added, should support Iran’s sovereignty, territory, and security.
Experts condemn internet blackout, atrocities
Experts, including the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, Mai Sato, condemned the ongoing internet blackout and the atrocities committed against peaceful protests.
Sato, who Tehran has not allowed to enter Iran since her appointment, warned that the shutdown was being used to prevent the international community from witnessing the regime’s brutality and to disrupt the organization of peaceful protests.
She also noted that the “state control of information flow” had caused great distress to families both inside and outside of Iran, leaving them unable to verify the safety and well-being of their loved ones.
“I call on the Iranian authorities to reconsider, to pull back, and to end their brutal repression,” High Commissioner Volker Turk told the emergency session, while calling the crackdown “a pattern of subjugation and overwhelming force that can never address people’s grievances and frustrations.”
While an Internet shutdown has created difficulties for the international community in understanding the scale of rights violations in Iran, human rights groups have reported that thousands were killed and arrested by regime forces.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council issued a statement on Wednesday acknowledging that 3,117 people were killed during the unrest – the same figure parroted by the Iranian representative on Friday despite groups reporting further deaths and violence.
“The scale of the crimes is unprecedented,” Payam Akhavan, a former UN prosecutor with Iranian-Canadian nationality, told Reuters ahead of the session.
“We are trying to set the stage for transitional justice in Iran, for the country’s Nuremberg moment, should that come to pass,” he said, referring to the international criminal trials of Nazi leaders following World War II.
The right to peaceful assembly is protected by both the 1948 adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the UN and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
“Due to the veto power of China and Russia, the UN Security Council is blocked from taking action on Iran,” Hillel Neuer, the executive director of UN Watch, said last week.
“But we know from past experience that if EU states take the lead at the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council – where there is no veto – they can adopt a strong condemnation of the Iranian regime’s massacre of protesters, and establish mechanisms of investigation, accountability and justice.”
Reuters contributed to this report.