Iranian authorities are brutally cracking down on nationwide protests with lethal force, killing at least 27 protesters and bystanders, including children, and injuring many more in just over a week, while carrying out mass detentions of protesters. Human Rights Watch is investigating the government’s violent repression of the protests and related human rights violations.
Protests began on December 28 in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar and rapidly spread to at least 27 provinces across the country. While the protests were triggered by severe economic pressures, deteriorating living conditions, and pervasive government corruption, protesters’ demands are much broader and encompass fundamental and structural change, including a full transition to a democratic system that respects rights and human dignity.
The protests are the latest in a series of nationwide protests in Iran against the ruling system over the past decade. The authorities’ response has consistently been deadly repression, fueled by systematic impunity.
Reports by the media and Iranian human rights organizations show that security forces have used lethal force, including military grade weapons and metal pellets fired from shotguns, as well as tear gas and batons against unarmed protesters. Violent repression has included security force raids on Imam Khomeini Hospital in Ilam on January 4 and 5 in an apparent attempt to arrest injured protesters and confiscate the bodies of those killed.
Iran Human Rights, an independent group, reported on January 6 that at least 27 protesters had been killed and hundreds more injured. The authorities have arrested and detained over a thousand people, including children as young as 14. Torture and enforced disappearance have been reported.
As during previous protests, authorities, including senior officials, have vilified protesters by labeling them as “rioters” and threatened a harsher response if they continue to take to the streets. On January 3, Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, said: “There is no use in talking to rioters; rioters must be put in their place.”
Peaceful assembly and public dissent are fundamental rights. The authorities’ use of lethal force in circumstances that do not meet the strict threshold of an imminent risk of death or serious injury and arbitrarily detaining people for exercising their basic rights are violations of international human rights law.
The Iranian authorities should immediately halt the unlawful use of force and release all those arbitrarily detained. The United Nations and concerned governments should urgently pursue accountability measures, including criminal accountability, against those responsible for serious violations of human rights and crimes under international law.
