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28/11/2022 Dr. Javaid Rehman, FFMI, Human Rights Council, Independent International Fact-Finding Mission, Special Session

#SS35: Statement from Javaid Rehman – UNSR on the human rights situation in Iran

Find a Persian translation of the statement here.

24 November 2022

Mr. President, Distinguished Delegates, Representatives of civil society,

It is my honour to be with you today and to deliver a statement on behalf of the Coordination Committee of the Special Procedures and my own mandate.

On 26 October, given the gravity of the human rights situation in Iran, ten Special Procedures mandates called for a special session to be convened. I would like first and foremost to thank States Members of the Human Rights Council who enabled this historical moment for the people of Iran.

Mr. President,

On 16 September 2022, for a few locks of her hair reportedly appearing under her hijab, Jina Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish 22-year-old woman died in the custody of the so-called morality police. This tragic event was not an isolated one, but the latest in a long series of extreme violence committed by Iranian authorities against women. It happened only a month after President Raisi signed a decree ordering further repressive measures for ‘improper hijab’.

Jina Mahsa’s death sparked nationwide outrage and moved the world’s conscience.

Following the path of brave women human rights defenders such as Nasrin Sotoudeh, and Narges Mohammadi, women and girls took to the streets, demanding accountability for the death of Jina Mahsa and seeking an end to decades of systemic and systematic gender discriminatory laws, policies, and practices which have sought to erase them from the public sphere and control every aspect of their private lives.

In an unprecedent movement, fathers, sons and brothers joined women and girls under the banner of one slogan “Zan, Zendegi, Azadi”, “Women Life, Freedom”. Overcoming fear, Iranian people united across class, geographic and ethnic lines to demand a life in peace and dignity, in a country respectful of rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms, a country where their lives matter, where chanting, dancing, showing hair do not lead to flogging, jail or death.

Mr. President,

Since the first days of the protests, and in line with long standing violent practices, top State officials have instructed security forces to violently repress people at any cost to human life. At no point did the Iranian authorities show any genuine willingness to engage in any discussion with demonstrators.

Anyone taking part in the protests was quickly labelled as “enemy to confront”, as “terrorist” or as “foreign agent attempting to destabilize Iran”. Both the head of the Judiciary and the President emphasized the need to act “without leniency” against protesters.

Mr. President,

The figures just provided by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, (at least 300 reported deaths including at least 40 children and 20 women and girls) speak for themselves and provide evidence of how these deadly instructions were literally followed, especially in Sistan and Baluchistan and in Kurdish areas. As always, oppressed religious and ethnic minorities have been paying the heaviest price.

In the past seven days alone, crackdown on protests has intensified with at least 60 to 70 persons killed including five children, most of them from Kurdish areas. The situation in the Kurdish cities of Piranshahr, Javanrood and Mahabad is alarming.

Even children and youth have not been spared. Last week, three young boys were shot dead during a demonstration in the city of Izeh. Kian, a 10-year-old boy who had imagined a God of rainbows, a colourful future for the children of Iran was one of them. At least four girls aged 16 and 17 were beaten to death. Security and plainclothes forces raided universities and students gatherings and unlawfully fired tear gas, metal pellets, and live ammunition at students.

With over 15 000 persons arrested since the protests started, prisons are now bursting with all those who had dreamed of and worked for a better future for Iran.

Since 13 November, at least six persons have been sentenced to death and at least 21 including one woman have been indicted on vague and broadly formulated criminal offences carrying the death penalty through grossly unfair summary trials conducted behind closed doors by Islamic Revolutionary courts. These courts, which are issuing most of the death sentences have been used for decades to sentence political activists, journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders on the basis of forced confessions extracted through torture and other forms of ill treatment.

On 11 November, 227 parliamentarians in blatant violation of the separation of powers, called on the judiciary to act decisively and pronounce severe punishment including sentences carrying the death penalty. As Special Procedures we urged the Iranian authorities to stop using the death penalty as a tool to squash protests reiterating our call to immediately release all peaceful protesters.

Mr. President,

Those who defend human rights and fundamental freedoms endanger their lives and safety inside but also outside Iran. Reporting human rights violations lead to smear campaigns, threats, surveillance, arbitrary arrests, detentions, torture and ill-treatment in detention, including sexual abuse.

Over the past two months, we have received numerous testimonies of victims’ relatives providing detailed harrowing accounts of how officials refused to return the bodies of their loved ones until they committed in writing not to hold a funeral and how they were cruelly forced to bury them in remote burial sites, often during the night and in the presence of intelligence agents.

On 17 October, Committee on the Rights of the Child publicly expressed concern over families being pressured to absolve security forces by declaring that their children had died as a result of suicide and making false confessions. Parents were threatened that their other children would be killed or harmed if they did not make such false public statements on State TV.

Intimidation expands beyond Iranian borders. Staff of major media outlets have been receiving death threats while their family members in Iran remain subjected to interrogations, arbitrary arrests, detentions and travel bans.

Mr. President,

Let me now turn to the structural impunity that prevails in Iran for serious human rights violations which merits a forceful response from the international community.

On 22 September, together with seven Special Procedures mandate holders, I denounced the deadly crackdown on protests and urged the Iranian authorities to undertake an impartial, and prompt investigation into Ms. Amini’s death, to make the findings of the investigation public and to hold all perpetrators accountable.

However, the Iranian Government has consistently presented unsubstantiated ‘reports’ and reiterated assertions claiming that Jina Mahsa did not die as a result of any violence or beatings. In other reports, the Government refutes the killings of children by security forces, claiming that they committed suicide, fell from a height, were poisoned or killed by anonymous “enemy agents”.

Not only do these so-called investigations fail to meet the basic standards of impartiality, independence and transparency enshrined in international law, but they constitute further evidence of the fabrication of untruthful scenarios aimed at covering up crimes and ensuring the impunity of perpetrators. They are also an affront to families’ right to truth and justice.

Mr. President,

In my March 2022 report to this Council, I concluded that there is a complete absence of accountability for crimes under international law and other serious human rights violations in Iran, with no prospects that it could be achieved at the domestic level.

While the legislature and executive block and negate all avenues of accountability, the judiciary acts as a repressive organ instead of an independent body from which victims can seek recourse. Persons seeking justice are systematically subjected to intimidation, imprisonment, and other forms of reprisals.

Emblematic examples include the secret summary and arbitrary executions of thousands of political dissidents in 1988, the unlawful, lethal use of force in nationwide protests in 2009, 2017 and 2019, and downing of Ukraine Airlines flight PS752 in 2020: None of these events have ever been the subject of any independent investigation, let alone prosecutions and punishments.

Structural impunity has fuelled widespread patterns of unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, torture and other serious human rights violations in Iran.

It is in this context that I would like to reiterate the call issued by Special Procedures mandate holders on the Human Rights Council to fulfil its duty, hear the prolonged cries of victims for accountability, and to establish an international independent investigative mechanism in the events leading up and since the death of Jina Mahsa Amini.

I thank you.

UPCOMING EVENTS

(all times in EST)

26 09 23
  • International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons

    26 09 23

27 09 23
  • World Tourism Day

    27 09 23

28 09 23
  • International Day for Universal Access to Information

    28 09 23

  • World Maritime Day

    28 09 23

  • World Rabies Day

    28 09 23

30 09 23
  • International Translation Day

    30 09 23

01 10 23
  • International Day of Older Persons

    01 10 23

02 10 23
  • International Day of Non-Violence

    02 10 23

  • World Habitat Day

    02 10 23

05 10 23
  • World Teachers’ Day

    05 10 23

09 10 23
  • World Post Day

    09 10 23

10 10 23
  • World Mental Health Day

    10 10 23

11 10 23
  • International Day of the Girl Child

    11 10 23

13 10 23
  • International Day for Disaster Reduction

    13 10 23

15 10 23
  • International Day of Rural Women

    15 10 23

16 10 23
  • World Food Day

    16 10 23

17 10 23
  • International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

    17 10 23

24 10 23
  • United Nations Day

    24 10 23

  • World Development Information Day

    24 10 23

27 10 23
  • World Day for Audiovisual Heritage

    27 10 23

31 10 23
  • World Cities Day

    31 10 23

02 11 23
  • International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists

    02 11 23

05 11 23
  • World Tsunami Awareness Day

    05 11 23

06 11 23
  • International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict

    06 11 23

10 11 23
  • World Science Day for Peace and Development

    10 11 23

14 11 23
  • World Diabetes Day

    14 11 23

16 11 23
  • International Day for Tolerance

    16 11 23

  • World Philosophy Day

    16 11 23

19 11 23
  • World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims

    19 11 23

  • World Toilet Day

    19 11 23

20 11 23
  • Africa Industrialization Day

    20 11 23

  • Universal Children’s Day

    20 11 23

21 11 23
  • World Television Day

    21 11 23

25 11 23
  • International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

    25 11 23

29 11 23
  • International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People

    29 11 23

01 12 23
  • World AIDS Day

    01 12 23

02 12 23
  • International Day for the Abolition of Slavery

    02 12 23

03 12 23
  • International Day of Persons with Disabilities

    03 12 23

05 12 23
  • International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development

    05 12 23

  • World Soil Day

    05 12 23

07 12 23
  • International Civil Aviation Day

    07 12 23

09 12 23
  • International Anti-Corruption Day

    09 12 23

  • International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime

    09 12 23

10 12 23
  • Human Rights Day

    10 12 23

11 12 23
  • International Mountain Day

    11 12 23

12 12 23
  • International Day of Neutrality

    12 12 23

18 12 23
  • Arabic Language Day

    18 12 23

  • International Migrants Day

    18 12 23

20 12 23
  • International Human Solidarity Day

    20 12 23