Sara Hossain, Chair of the Iran Fact-Finding Mission, 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.
Hossein, 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, hundreds of protesters were forced to seek medical attention after regime forces fired metal pellets into unarmed crowds, causing injuries to their eyes.
The proposal before the Geneva body seeks a two-year extension to the mandate of a UN investigation set up in 2022 after the previous wave of protests in response to the regime’s murder of Mahsa Amini. The proposal also seeks to 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 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 1000s and 1000s of protesters in the street and completely blocking out their internet, and it took weeks for the council to even hold a session,” she noted.
“We will have to see tomorrow how many states actually speak out against the atrocities going on in Iran and how many will side with the mullahs? 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?”
While the regime initially began with a promising tone, focusing on 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 deaths in Iran while denying the legitimacy of the UN rights session
Iran’s representative to the UN, while asserting the regime did not recognize the session’s legitimacy or its outcome, claimed 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, arguing 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.”
The regime official claimed that Tehran supported people’s right to protest in response to economic turmoil but that the protests evolved from January 8-10 into violence. Terror attacks, property destruction, and armed attacks on both civilians and law enforcement forced restrictions, the representative alleged.
H3: Iran’s allies reject UN intervention on Tehran's human rights violations, continue to point fingers at Israel
Those arguing in support of the regime argued that Tehran was capable of restoring social order, investigating accusations of human rights violations, and claimed that UN intervention was unnecessary. Some of those backing Iran, and denying either the legitimacy of the UN council or the legitimacy of concerns which led to the meeting, accused the UN of double-standards and took the opportunity to condemn Israel’s strikes against Iranian nuclear sites and personnel in the June war.
Egypt pushed that Iran’s state mechanisms should be responsible for monitoring and ensuring human rights and appropriate culpability for those violating said rights. 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, acknowledging its concern for the violence and internet shutdown, said it encouraged Iran to deepen its cooperation with UN human rights bodies and to investigate the accusations of violations thoroughly. The representative condemned 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, while asserting that it did not support the session, argued that the handling of human rights developments in Iran was an internal affair. The international community, the representative said, should support Iran’s sovereignty, territory, and security.
The session was held at the request of Iceland, Germany, North Macedonia, the Republic of Moldova, and the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, following weeks of repression in Iran. The request was supported by 21 member States and 30 observer States.
UN officials concerned over human rights violations in Iran
Experts, including 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.
Sato 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 killed and arrested by regime forces. The Islamic regime has also acknowledged the deaths of thousands of protesters, though has repeatedly denied responsibility for the large majority of deaths, pointing instead to terrorist groups and foreign influence.
Iran’s Supreme Council of National Security issued a statement on Wednesday acknowledging that 3,117 people were killed during unrest, a 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 Two.
The right to peaceful assembly is protected both by the 1948 adoption by the UN of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
“Due to the veto power of China and Russia, the Security Council is blocked from taking action on Iran, 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,” Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch, said last week.
Reuters contributed to this report.