UN report says repression of Iranian protesters and women is tantamount to “crimes against humanity”

Iran’s “suppression of peaceful protests” and “institutional discrimination against women and girls” have led to human rights abuses, some leading to “crimes against humanity”, according to the report. United Nations.

These abuses and crimes include “extrajudicial and unlawful killings and murders, the use of force and disproportionate use, deprivation of liberty, torture, rape, enforced disappearances, and gender-based harassment.” The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said. ) Said in a press release.

It cites a report by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran, a task force set up by the UN Human Rights Council to examine the demands of the deteriorating human rights situation in Iran.

The abuse took place in the context of the “Women of Freedom” protest, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini in September 2022 after she was raped. Arrested on charges of non-compliance with Iran’s obligations Hijab rules.

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She has become the face of women calling for greater rights and freedoms that have been curtailed since The 1979 Islamic Revolution. Demonstrations erupted across Iran again in September last year on the first anniversary of her death.

The mission said it found that physical violence while in custody by the ethics police, an organization dedicated to enforcing strict dress codes for women, such as wearing a scarf, led to “unlawful death”by Mahsa Amini.

The United Nations says in a government crackdown on protests across Iran, “all state security equipment has been mobilized” to suppress protesters, adding that up to 551 protesters were thought to have been killed. Killed by security forces. At least 49 women and 68 children.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has found evidence that forces used “unnecessary and disproportionate force” to cause “illegal killings and injuries of protesters,” the UN office said. Citing “examples of serious injuries to protesters’ eyes” that CNN has had in the past. Reported on.

A CNN report in November 2022 also found that Iranian security forces had used violence and rape to quell protests in the country.

The UN report found that state authorities at the highest levels “encouraged the punishment and support of human rights abuses through statements that justified the actions and conduct of the security forces.”

Authorities in Iran have also thwarted the repatriation efforts of the victims and their families, the United Nations said, adding that the mission had found that the victims were facing an “independent” justice system. Transparency and accountability “.

The head of the fact-finding mission, Sara Hossain, urged the Iranian government to end its peaceful crackdown on protesters, especially women and girls.

According to the OHCHR, “These actions are part of a broad and systematic attack targeting the civilian population in Iran, against women, girls, boys and men demanding equality.” Dignity and responsibility. ”