According to a UN-mandated expert report published on Friday, March 8, the crackdown on the protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in Iran in September 2022 led to crimes against humanity.
The violent repression of peaceful protests and discrimination against women and girls by Tehran led to serious rights violations, many amounting to crimes against humanity, a UN expert probe said on Friday.
Iran was rocked by widespread demonstrations sparked by the September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd who had been arrested for allegedly violating the strict dress code for women based on Islamic sharia law.
Anger over her death rapidly expanded into weeks of taboo-breaking protests, which saw women tear off their mandatory headscarves in an open challenge to the Islamic republic’s system of government under supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The UN Human Rights Council held a special session on the situation in November 2022 and voted to create a high-level investigation into the deadly crackdown.
In its first report, the independent international fact-finding mission on Iran said many of the violations “amount to crimes against humanity, specifically those of murder, imprisonment, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, persecution, enforced disappearance, and other inhumane acts.”
It said the commission of such crimes, in the context of a deprivation of fundamental rights of victims, inflicted with discriminatory intent, “leads the mission to the conclusion that the crime against humanity of persecution on the grounds of gender has been committed.”
The three-member mission comprises Sara Hossain of Bangladesh, Shaheen Sardar Ali of Pakistan, and Viviana Krsticevic of Argentina.
“These acts form part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against the civilian population in Iran, namely against women, girls, boys, and men who have demanded freedom, equality, dignity, and accountability,” Hossain said in a statement.
“We urge the government to immediately halt the repression of those who have engaged in peaceful protests, in particular women and girls.”
With AFP
