As the regime in Iran continues its brutal crackdown against protesters, a coalition of 40+ organizations including HRW says enough is enough.
We published a letter to the UN Human Rights Council, asking member states to act immediately and hold a special session on the crisis in Iran, given the gravity of crimes under international law and other serious human rights violations.
“It is critical to establish an independent accountability mechanism,” writes my colleague Michael Page, a deputy director in HRW’s Middle East & North Africa division.
Protests erupted across Iran after the death of Mahsa (Jina) Amini (22) on September 16, following her arrest by morality police for “improperly” wearing her headscarf. Since then many videos posted online show schoolgirls protesting in schools and streets, chanting, waving, and burning their head coverings. The risk schoolgirls face can be deadly. Nika Shakarami was 16 when she burned her headscarf at a protest in Tehran. She was last seen alive on September 20 being followed by security forces. The government claims she fell from a building, the same fate of another protester, Sarina Esmailzadeh (16), who allegedly fell to her death on September 24. According to the Iran-based Society to Support Children, dozens of children have been killed during protests.
Human rights defenders and victims’ relatives are frustrated at the international community’s failure to take meaningful action to address successive waves of protest killings in Iran. The father of Milan Haghigi, a 21-year-old man killed by security forces on 21 September, says: “People expect the UN to defend us and the protesters. I, too, can condemn [the Iranian authorities], the whole world can condemn them but to what end this condemnation?”
Meaningful international action, in the form of the creation of an independent, investigative, reporting and accountability mechanism, is long overdue.