UN Human Rights Council Renews Mandates For Fact-Finding Mission, Special Rapporteur On Iran

human rights council session 2021
File photo
Sedighe Shahrokhi

In a closely watched session held in Geneva, Switzerland, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has voted to renew the mandates of the Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) on Iran and the Special Rapporteur on Iran. The decision passed on Thursday.

#HRC55 | Le projet de résolution A/HRC/55/L.6 sur la situation des droits de l’homme en République islamique d’Iran est ADOPTÉ. pic.twitter.com/9vJBHmfGhp

— United Nations Human Rights Council | #HRC55 (@UN_HRC) April 4, 2024

The renewal of the mandates comes after the Fact-Finding Mission, established in November 2022 during the Iran uprising, released its first report on March 8th. The report detailed widespread and sustained human rights violations perpetrated by the Iranian regime during the 2022 protests. Notably, the violations were found to have disproportionately targeted women and girls, children, as well as ethnic and religious minorities. The findings of the FFM raised significant concerns globally, prompting calls for further investigation and accountability.

The Iranian Resistance has declared that the extension of the mandate of the UN International Fact-Finding Mission and the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran by the UN Human Rights Council and its member states is an urgent necessity in the fight against crimes against humanity and a requirement for loyalty to universal human rights values.

The first report of the Fact-Finding Mission, published last month, confirms that the regime committed “crimes against humanity” during the 2022 uprising in Iran. The mullahs’ regime has systematically committed crimes against humanity over the past four decades, the most flagrant of which was the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988, which the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran described as an ongoing crime against humanity in February. The massacre of Kurds, the mass executions of the early 1980s, the massacre of 1,500 protesters in 2019 and 750 protesters in 2022, and the systematic blinding of protesters are all examples of crimes against humanity.

The extension of the mandates of the @UN_HRC International Fact-Finding Mission and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in #Iran is a necessary step in confronting the systematic violations of #HumanRights and crimes against humanity committed by the Iranian… pic.twitter.com/MgogzNIm0F

— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) April 4, 2024

The massacre of protesters in 2022 is one in a series of interconnected crimes against humanity over the past four decades, and as Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the NCRI, has stated from the outset, the Fact-Finding Committee must investigate the crimes of the regime, especially the 1988 massacre, and identify the perpetrators and accomplices. The perpetrators of that massacre, including Ebrahim Raisi, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i and Ali Khamenei, are responsible for the 2022 massacre.