UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : HRC 63- Human Rights in Iran

Mr Vice President, Excellencies and colleagues, I'm honoured to address the Human Rights Council today on behalf of the independent International Fact Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran and on behalf of my fellow members Viviana Kristychevich and Max du Plessy.

Today, the rights of people in Iran are being trampled by their government's extreme ongoing repression following the protests that started in December 2025 and the ongoing and large scale military campaign by the United States of America and Israel which started on the 28th of February this year.

These combined have destroyed the lives of Iranians and are depriving them of security.

The hostilities have also been instrumentalised by the Government of Iran to further intensify persecution of protesters and as a pretext for and accelerator of repression.

The report we present today reflects the devastating impact of these activities on the people of Iran and presents our findings on the suppression of the 20252026 protests, the continuing hostilities and the ongoing repressive acts by the Government of Iran.

It consolidated our findings to date on violations of international human rights law, international humanitarian law and on crimes under international law.

A report draws upon interviews conducted with 73 witnesses, satellite imagery, video and photographic material, and information from experts.

We've also examined 75 documents received from the Government of Iran since the 1st of January this year.

Our investigations have been held despite encountering serious operational constraints, including including continuing lack of access to the country, the Government of Iran's communication restrictions, and their new and increased repressive measures, which have exacerbated the fear of reprisals and prevented victims and witnesses from coming forward in greater numbers.

The hostilities have further severely disrupted access to information.

The present findings should be understood, therefore, as capturing only part of the scale and extent of violations and crimes.

Further investigation is needed.

As you would be aware, we've just marked the 4th anniversary of the death of Jina Masa Amini in custody and the ensuing Women Life Freedom protests which were triggered in 2022 that had triggered large scale repression resulting in gross human rights violations, some of which the mission found amounted to crimes against humanity by the government of Iran.

Four years on, there's been no accountability, with repressive laws and practises remaining entrenched once again.

On the 28th of December 2025, people took to the streets across the country, first in reaction to mounting economic grievances and then in calls for political change.

A massive mobilisation by people across the country was met with an extraordinary brutal response by the Iranian authorities.

The scale and breadth of this response have left Iranian people in agony and shock.

The government's response marked a clear and extreme escalation in their use of lethal force and of mass arrests, with the 8th and 9th of January this year being the deadliest.

Security forces used lethal force to kill and injure protesters and bystanders, including children, although none of them posed an imminent threat of death or serious injury.

Protesters sustained severe wounds to the head, the chest, and eyes from metal shotgun pellets, causing permanent blindness.

In many cases, security forces also used less lethal weapons and ammunition outside of less lethal parameters to kill or injure protesters.

The government of Iran has itself published a list of 3038 names of people killed.

It is also reported that 25,000 people were injured, with more than 50% of them requiring surgery.

These numbers are already staggeringly, horrifyingly high, however, we believe the actual numbers may be significantly higher and are continuing to investigate.

With regard to boys and girls killed and injured in the context of the protests, it has been reported that at least 221 children were killed.

Witnesses of reported child victims being shot, with the youngest now reported as having been only 4 1/2 months old.

Many of those injured were unable to access healthcare.

Security forces present in and around healthcare facilities used unnecessary, forced against and detained injured protesters, their family members and medical staff inside hospitals.

The mission found that authorities carried out large scale arrests and detention during the protests and in their aftermath.

This included the arrests of children and summons just to lawyers representing protesters.

Security and intelligence forces also tortured detainees and subjected them to your treatment.

Families suffered torments and trying to determine the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones.

The mission also found that Iran intensified its use of the death penalty against protesters.

Between March to 31st August this year, the government of Iran executed at least 29 men in connection with the protests, 5 of them publicly.

More than 70 people, including at least five women and three boys, remain at imminent risk of being sentenced to death or executed in relation to the protests.

Some of those sentenced or executed had been charged under the broadly and vaguely formulated 2025 Espionage Act.

Death sentences and executions followed trials marked by violations of due process and fair trial guarantees, forced confessions and the denial of access to lawyers of 1's own choosing.

These are all well established patterns documented earlier by the Mission, which continue in flagrant disregard of calls from UN human rights bodies and in violation of Iran's obligations under international human rights law.

We were deeply perturbed by the unprecedented scale of the restrictions on digital space imposed during the protests and their aftermath, including the start of the hostilities, with the government imposing the longest nationwide Internet shutdown on record from the 8th of January onwards for more than five months.

This prevented victims from seeking help and families from locating loved ones.

It also critically prevented documentation of the crackdown.

Disruptions of digital communications deepened people's isolation inside Iran and from the outside world.

The mission is gravely concerned by draft legislation now before the Iranian parliament that threatens to make this isolation worse.

It proposes imprisonment of any person, including a journalist, an academic or an activist for up to 30 years simply for, quote, communicating, unquote with, quote, foreign persons and entities, unquote, from designated states.

If enacted, this law would curtail freedom of expression further, including to share and receive information and possible UN possible cooperation with UN human rights bodies.

The Iranian government's repression of the recent protests has led the mission to find Iran responsible for gross human rights violations, many of which amount to the crimes against humanity of murder, imprisonment and other severe deprivation of physical liberty, torture, and other humane acts.

[Other language spoken]

President, Excellencies, the missions mandate requires us to investigate and report on any human rights violations committed in Iran to reflect the totality of the violations to which people in Iran have been subjected during this.

I will now speak about two emblematic incidents in relation to the ongoing hostilities.

The first incident is the US air strike on Shajaret Tayebe Primary School in Minab, Hormuzgan Province in southern Iran.

This building, a readily identifiable primary school, was struck by two cruise missiles, resulting, we have found, in 157 people killed, including 123 boys and girls.

According to credible sources, we found reasonable grounds to believe that the air strike conducted by the United States amounted to the war crime of making a civilian object the object of an attack.

The second incident is another US air strike against a sports centre in a residential area of L Ahmed in Farz Province.

Local authorities determined that this air strike killed 22 people, including ten women and 12 men.

We found reasonable grounds to believe that this US air strike amounted to the war crime of launching an indiscriminate attack resulting in loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects.

We are gravely concerned by the repeated air strikes and threats of air strikes on Iran, which continue to put civilians lives at risk and exacerbate civilian suffering by destroying homes and livelihoods and disrupting access to basic services, including education and health.

We are also alarmed by reports of Iranian strikes in the region that have struck residential buildings, civilian airports and other civilian infrastructure, injuring and killing civilians, including migrant workers.

The Mission is also concerned about the reported impact of the ongoing hostilities and recently imposed unilateral sectoral sanctions on deteriorating living conditions and sharply rising prices for basic goods inside the country, severely impacting the enjoyment of people to their rights to education, health and adequate food and housing Excellencies.

The sufferings of people in Iran, rooted in intensified repression and violence by their government, the continuing hostilities and growing economic hardship compounded by unilateral sexual sanctions, must come to an end.

First, we call on the Government of Iran to seize all human rights violations and crimes against humanity.

It must immediately halt executions, release all individuals arbitrarily detained, promptly withdraw the Countering Foreign Infiltration Bill and repeal the Espionage Act, and undertake effective, independent and impartial investigations into these violations and crimes.

Iran must ensure accountability, provide reparations and guarantees of non recurrence, including structural reforms.

Further, considering the reservations many victims have been expressed on the prospects of effective justice and accountability within Iran, we call on Member States to pursue third state accountability for such violations and crimes through universal jurisdiction, while ensuring emergency support to victims.

Secondly, we call on the parties to the conflict to immediately seize hostilities and on all Member States to take urgent diplomatic action to this end.

Thirdly, we call on all parties to the conflict to conduct prompt, independent and impartial investigations into allegations of violations of international humanitarian law, including on the US with respect to the findings made by the Mission, and to ensure accountability, guarantees of non reparation and reparations for victims and their families.

In conclusion, Mr Vice President and Excellencies, the increasingly brutal cycles of repression, violence and impunity faced by the people of Iran require urgent action to address their structural drivers and to ensure truth, justice and transformative reparations.

[Other language spoken]

Mr Vice President, today I wish to speak on behalf of the of a nation that over the past year has endured profound consequences arising from a blatant and brutal aggression prepared by the United States and Israeli regime.

Most of the crisis that we suffered from, from war to economic hardship, were shaped, fueled and externally instigated by the United States.

28th February 2026 was a historic moment for the people of Iran.

The acts of aggression by the United States and Israel, following multiple documented violations of international humanitarian law and human rights mark one of the darkest pages of human history.

Our people found themselves standing before some of the most criminal and reckless foreign states.

We showed utter disregard for international law and demonstrated no restraint in their brutality.

We here openly expressed wishes to destroy our civilization and reduce our country to the Stone Age, seemingly without regard for the history, heritage and resilience of the Iranian people.

Yet those who make such threats overlook the fundamental truth that Iran has endured countless trials throughout its long history, and our courage in standing firm in the face of such adversity is precisely what has shaped us as a resilient people and preserved the greatness of Iranian people.

It was due to such greatness that the dark pages of aggression were transformed into glorious chapters written through the bravery of our soldiers, the unwavering loyalty of our people to the motherland, and the steadfast determination of children who witnessed their classmates being torn apart by the missiles of aggressors in their classrooms.

Determination to build a greater Iran.

During this asymmetric war, our people stood in the face of some of the most sophisticated war crimes.

The aggressors sought to strike at the very foundations of our civilization, bombing our schools, destroying our power plants, assassinating our officials, and targeting innocent civilians.

Now the urgent task before the international community is to make the perpetrators of those crimes accountable.

Iran has firmly resisted acts of aggression and externally driven efforts to undermine its security and stability, but our collective action today is holding the perpetrators of aggression accountable is an investment in the collective future of all of us.

Mr Vice President, people of Iran are caught between foreign invasion and economic impacts of Ucms, confronted with the most systematic and inhuman coercive measures committed by the United States.

What sustained our nation was our people's understanding of the adverse adversities confronting us, confidence in our own capabilities, and reliance on the strengths and resources of our own people.

We demonstrated resilience in the face of sanctions, yet our resilience should not be construed as absolving the international community of its responsibility.

Condemned the criminal nature of such measures imposed upon on on our nation.

Mr Vice President, the January protest in Iran was peaceful at the beginning but immediately evolved into violent unrest amid external interferences.

[Other language spoken]

officials publicly acknowledged the transfer and smuggling of weapons into Iran for distribution among protesters.

The transfer of weapons, together with external provocations, played a significant role in the escalation of the unrest in the broader sequence of events that preceded the subsequent aggression.

To conclude, Iran maintains that the deliberate use of economic coercion against a whole nation, coupled with the external manipulation and militarisation of internal unrest amounts to crimes against humanity.

The fact that fact finding mission fails to address.

I thank you, Mr Vice President.

HRC 63- Human Rights in Iran - 21 September 2026