GENEVA - UN experts* today condemned the resumption of hostilities between the United States and Iran and their spread across the wider region, only weeks after the signing of a 14-point Memorandum of Understanding intended to end the war.
"Abandoning these commitments damages prospects for peace, harms the human rights of victims of war, and undermines the mutual trust in agreements that is necessary to permanently end conflict," the experts said.
Overnight on 12-13 July, military strikes and counter-strikes between the United States and Iran marked a significant escalation of the conflict, with reported impacts across several countries in the region, heightening concerns about further regional escalation. Commercial vessels have been attacked in the Strait of Hormuz, endangering civilian seafarers, and freedom of navigation and commercial transit through the strait has halted.
"Civilians across the region must not pay the price of this conflict. All parties must comply with international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution intended to protect civilians and civilian objects, including commercial vessels and their crews," the experts said.
Emerging reports indicate strikes on civilian infrastructure, including ports in southern Iran, as well as power outages in Chabahar, projectiles landing near the Bushehr nuclear power plant, and damage to railway lines, including the Agh Tekkeh Khan bridge. A desalination plant was also struck, reportedly leaving 10,000 people without water. Local authorities and Iranian media have also reported strikes on Semnan Airport, a wheat silo, a bottled water factory, and areas adjacent to a children's cancer hospital in Ahvaz, forcing the evacuation of patients. According to Iran's Ministry of Health, 50 people have been killed and more than 500 injured.
"Strikes on ports, power supplies and transport links sever communities from food, medicine and livelihoods in a country in deep economic precarity and have serious climate change implications. Projectiles landing near a nuclear power plant raise safety concerns. All these significant human rights concerns go well beyond Iran's borders," the experts said.
"The people of Iran are once again caught between renewed US strikes and their government's internal repression," they said. Since the beginning of the war in late February, external aggression has killed thousands and displaced millions. Simultaneously, Iranian authorities have continued to carry out executions, amid reported mass detentions, torture and enforced disappearances.
"Whether in war or under internal repression, the suffering of those in vulnerable situations - women, children, persons with disabilities, minorities, refugees and people living in poverty - too often remains invisible," the experts said.
"Those losing their lives include fishermen, night-shift workers caught in the strikes, and residents of informal settlements - people already living on the margins and long deprived of basic services," they said. Women and girls face heightened protection risks and often shoulder the social and economic consequences of violence whilst having the least access to protection and support.
"Minority communities, including the Baluch, whose areas were struck in the ongoing US attacks, are among the most marginalised in Iran, and their deaths must not go unseen or unacknowledged," the experts said.
"The protection of civilian lives and civilian infrastructure in Iran, the region and beyond must be an immediate priority. The disruption of vital maritime trade, which has harmed livelihoods worldwide, must end."
The experts urged all parties to de-escalate and return to negotiations.
