Factsheet · Historical & structural impunity in the Islamic Republic of Iran

1. Background 

A crisis of impunity has long prevailed in Iran. Emboldened by laws and structures that, instead of ensuring accountability perpetuate impunity, Iranian authorities and security forces have repeatedly committed gross violations of human rights on a wide scale and crimes under international law, in particular in the context of successive violent crackdowns on protests. 

In November 2022, amid a lethal crackdown on the nationwide protests that had started on 16 September and against a backdrop of pervasive impunity, the UN Human Rights Council established the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran (FFMI) to investigate the violations and to collect, analyse and preserve evidence of such violations, including with a view  to cooperate with any future legal proceedings. Immediately after the establishment of the FFMI, Iran’s authorities publicly rejected its mandate and announced that they would not cooperate with the Mission. The authorities left unanswered repeated requests by the FFMI to visit the country and did not provide any response to over 20 letters sent by the FFMI requesting information and access to the country. 

Recommendation

Immediately and fully cooperate with the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran including by allowing the Mission unhindered access to all of the country to thoroughly and independently investigate violations of human rights and crimes under international law committed in connection with the protests that started on 16 September 2022.

2. Refusal to investigate

Despite repeated calls by UN bodies and experts, human rights organisations and the UN member states over the past decades, the Iranian authorities have failed to conduct prompt, independent, impartial and transparent investigations into gross human rights violations and crimes under international law in line with its international obligations. 

During the country’s last UPR, Iran did not accept recommendations to investigate human rights violations and crimes under international law, including those committed in the context of protests. Similarly, a recommendation to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court was rejected.  

The authorities’ refusal to abide by their international obligation to conduct international law compliant investigations and ensure accountability has been persistently documented by UN bodies and experts. 

“Available information suggests that measures taken by State authorities to prevent human rights violations and provide effective remedies are largely non-existent or, at best, insufficient,”UN Secretary General, 2021

In his 2022 report focusing on the theme of accountability, the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran reported that “institutional impunity and the absence of a system for accountability for violations of human rights permeate the political and legal system of the Islamic Republic of Iran” and that “[t]he authorities’ denial of this problem… in itself constitutes an obstacle to accountability”. 

In 2023, the UN Human Rights Committee raised concerns about credible reports pertaining to a lack of impartial and independent investigations into human rights violations.  It further stated that it was concerned about “the apparent lack of independent, impartial and transparent investigations into deaths and injuries following incidents of excessive and lethal use of force and firearms by law enforcement officers, by the lack of prosecution of, and sanctions handed down to, perpetrators and by the lack of remedies for victims, which create a de facto climate of impunity.”

In February 2024, in a report reflecting on his six-year mandate, the Special Rapporteur on Iran concluded that he “regrets that none of his recommendations relating to ending institutional impunity and ensuring accountability for serious violations of human rights has been implemented.” 

Ultimately, in its March 2024 report, the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Iran found that the Iranian authorities had committed gross violations of human rights and crimes against humanity, including of murder, torture, rape and sexual violence, and persecution on the grounds of gender intersecting with ethnicity and religion and highlighted “entrenched” and “pervasive impunity” in the country. The Mission concluded that it found “no evidence of effective domestic remedies for victims of human rights violations” and that it “established that the authorities had failed to investigate allegations of human rights violations, or to prosecute or punish those responsible, and had deliberately and systematically obstructed any efforts by the victims and their families to obtain redress and establish the truth.”  

Recommendation

Immediately take steps to address the systematic failure in fulfilling obligations under international law to conduct prompt, thorough, independent and impartial investigations into violations of human rights and crimes under international law and to prosecute all individuals against whom there is sufficient admissible evidence in fair trials.

3. Structural barriers to accountability

The impunity enjoyed by perpetrators of human rights violations and crimes under international law in Iran is not sporadic, incidental, or isolated to certain periods or types of violations. Instead, as stated by UN bodies and experts, impunity in Iran is institutional, systemic and systematic. Iran’s very legal and judicial structures are in themselves sources of impunity as they sanction human rights violations and are designed to shield perpetrators from facing justice and accountability. 

The findings of UN bodies and experts affirm the structural and historical nature of impunity in Iran. In 2021, the Special Rapporteur on Iran found that “[c]onditions for ensuring accountability are missing at the legislative and executive levels” and that the “absence of accountability derives from various deficiencies within State structures.” The Special Rapporteur referred to a lack of separation of powers; constitutionally established governance bodies that are not subject to popular elections or are elected based on strict criteria not compatible with international law; the manner in which judges and higher judicial officials are appointed exacerbating the lack of independence of the judiciary; and laws that instead of protecting human rights sanction violations, as structural impediments to accountability. He highlighted  how “[t]he judiciary acts as a repressive organ instead of an independent body towards which individuals can seek recourse.”

“Within the above-mentioned system of governance, it is clear that obtaining accountability for human rights violations becomes arbitrary at best and impossible at worst. The system of governance, and with it the absence of accountability, is one of the reasons,”Special Rapporteur on Iran, 2022

In 2024, the Special Rapporteur once again highlighted that “[c]ontinuing impunity and the absence of accountability remains a noticeable but unfortunate feature of the constitutional, political and legal system of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”  

These findings have been echoed by the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Iran. In its March 2024 report, the Mission found that Iran’s “domestic law in and of itself falls short of international human rights standards, thereby failing to fully protect fundamental human rights.” The lack of independence of the judiciary and prosecutors and the lack of transparency and accountability of the judicial system were further highlighted as impediments to accountability. The Mission concluded that “mechanisms and procedures for investigating potentially unlawful deaths and torture, rape and ill-treatment are either lacking or are not consistent with international human rights law and standards.”

The Iranian authorities have refused to take any steps to bring the country’s domestic laws and its political and judicial structures in line with international law. As the Special Rapporteur has stated, laws, structures, and policies that give precedence “to the maintenance of the system of governance and the political ideology … over protecting and respecting the rights of individuals” have given rise to “a culture of impunity that perpetuates the cycles of violence, since violations of human rights have no consequences for the State or for individual perpetrators.” 

Recommendation

Urgently overhaul all laws and institutions that enable impunity and prevent independent, impartial, transparent, and effective investigations into human rights violations and crimes under international law.

4. Persecution of those seeking justice 

Iranian authorities have systematically concealed the truth about violations and subjected those seeking accountability to sustained harassment in an apparent effort to silence them. They have arrested, detained, forcibly disappeared, tortured or otherwise ill-treated survivors, families of victims, human rights defenders, and lawyers, tried them in grossly unfair trials and subjected them to heavy punishments, including long prison terms and flogging, which constitutes torture under international law. In the context of protest crackdown, state harassment of families of victims have started in the immediate aftermath of the unlawful killings. The authorities have denied families of victims killed during the 2019 and 2022 protests the right to give their loved ones a dignified burial, hold funerals and mourn their loss in accordance with their cultural and religious beliefs. They have threatened them with secret burials, harming or killing their surviving relatives, and arrest, if they continue to speak up or pursue criminal accountability. 

Numerous family members of victims were arrested in connection with their activism seeking truth and justice for their loved ones including through giving media interviews, speaking up on social media platforms, and visiting the graves of their relatives and that of other victims to commemorate them. 

“Families of those killed and injured are being threatened into silence and harassed after speaking, including to the media, holding memorials, or lodging official complaints,”UN Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, 2022

Iran supported a recommendation to ensure that lawyers are not subject to intimidation and arbitrary arrest but did not support recommendations calling for an end to their harassment and the release of those detained.  Persecution of lawyers have continued with them facing heightened risk of severe reprisals in connection with their professional work. Authorities have summoned, arrested, detained, tortured, convicted, sentenced, and disbarred lawyers in connection with their work representing victims of human rights violations, including protesters and families of those killed during protests.  

The UN Fact-Finding Mission on Iran reported that at least 159 lawyers were subjected to various forms of harassment, including summons, and criminal investigations following the protests that started in September 2022. At least, 57 of them were arrested and detained.  Authorities conducted mass summoning of lawyers in relation to their professional work and/or expressions of solidarity with victims of human rights violations. 

Recommendation

Immediately cease the harassment of those seeking truth, justice and reparations for human rights violations, including survivors, families of victims, lawyers, and human rights defenders and unconditionally release all persons detained in connection with their peaceful activism.