The Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, which is meeting in session until July 14, will change its agenda to stage an urgent debate, following a request from Pakistan.—File Photo
GENEVA:
The UN Human Rights Council decided Friday to deepen its scrutiny of Iran over its crackdown on protests that left thousands dead, including children, amid demands it end its “brutal repression”.
The 47-member body voiced alarm about “the unprecedented scale of the violent crackdown on peaceful protests by security forces” in Iran.
With 25 votes in favour, seven opposed and the rest abstaining, it decided to extend and broaden the mandate of independent investigators gathering evidence towards ensuring accountability for rights violations in the country.
“A climate of fear and systematic impunity cannot be tolerated,” Iceland’s ambassador Einar Gunnarsson said as he presented the text to the council before the vote. “Victims and survivors deserve truth, justice and accountability.”
Stressing the need for “accountability”, the adopted text extends the mandate of a special rapporteur on Iran for another year.
It also extended for two years the work of a separate fact-finding mission set up in November 2022, following Iran’s crackdown on a wave of protests sparked by the death in custody of an Iranian Kurdish woman named Mahsa Amini.
The resolution empowers the investigative body to probe “allegations of recent and ongoing serious human rights violations and abuses, and crimes perpetrated in relation to the protests”.
The vote came at the end of an urgent session of the rights council, requested by Britain, Germany, Iceland, Moldova and North Macedonia, but harshly criticised by Iran.
In his opening remarks to the council, UN rights chief Volker Turk described how security forces used “live ammunition” against protesters, decrying that “thousands” had been killed, including children.
“I call on the Iranian authorities to reconsider, to pull back, and to end their brutal repression, including summary trials and disproportionate sentences,” he said.
