- UN Watch, the Geneva-based non-governmental human rights organization, today welcomed the expected convening of a special session of the UN Human Rights Council on the Iranian regime’s mass killings of protesters, crediting its 22-day global campaign for shaming the UN into action. However, the group strongly criticized the decision to delay the session until Friday, January 23, despite over three weeks of ongoing atrocities that according to CBS News have claimed the lives of possibly up to 20,000 demonstrators.
“For 22 days, the UN’s top human rights body has stood silent as Iran’s Islamic regime unleashed a brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters, resulting in thousands of deaths, arbitrary arrests, and widespread torture,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.
“Our relentless campaign-highlighting the UNHRC’s zero resolutions, zero emergency sessions, and utter inaction-has finally forced the Council to convene this critical meeting. This is a victory for the brave Iranian people and for human rights advocates worldwide who refused to let the UN look the other way.”
Neuer pointed to UN Watch’s viral social media posts, petitions, and advocacy efforts that garnered millions of views and pressured key member states, including the “Core Group” led by the UK, Germany, Iceland, Moldova, and North Macedonia, to request the session.
“We shamed the UN into acting, but the delay to January 23rd is inexcusable and sends a dangerous message of indifference,” he added. “In 2022, during the Woman, Life, Freedom protests, Germany and others delayed a similar session by 13 days. History is repeating itself, and lives are being lost in the interim.”
UN Watch demanded that the special session be held no later than Tuesday, January 20, to reflect the urgency of the crisis. “Every hour of delay emboldens the regime and betrays the victims,” Neuer said. “The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, and Secretary-General António Guterres must answer for the world body’s appalling lack of urgency, and explain why there has been no swift response to this slaughter.”
UN Watch outlined clear demands for the upcoming special session:
- Strong Condemnation: Adopt a resolution unequivocally condemning the Iranian regime’s systematic use of lethal force against protesters, including mass shootings, executions, and enforced disappearances.
- Independent Investigation: Establish a full Commission of Inquiry, by upgrading and expanding the existing fact-finding mission, to investigate the atrocities, collect evidence, and identify perpetrators for future accountability, building on the 2022 mandate.
- Accountability Measures: Call for targeted sanctions on Iranian officials responsible for the crackdown, endorse designation of the IRGC on the EU and other terrorist lists, referral to the International Criminal Court, and support for universal jurisdiction cases against regime leaders.
- Support for Victims: Urge immediate access for UN monitors and humanitarian aid to Iran, and provide protection for human rights defenders, journalists, and protesters facing reprisals, as well as full and immediate restoration of internet access in Iran.
- Emergency Monitoring Mechanism: Mandate continuous public reporting by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on killings, arrests, torture, and executions in Iran, including weekly briefings to the Human Rights Council.
- Immediate Prison Access & Releases: Demand immediate access for UN agencies to all detention facilities and call for the release of all arbitrarily detained protesters, journalists, lawyers, and human rights defenders.
- Halt Executions Immediately: Demand an immediate moratorium on executions and death sentences linked to protests and condemn the use of the death penalty as a tool of political repression.
- End Digital Repression: Condemn internet shutdowns, surveillance, and censorship used to suppress protests, and call for accountability for officials responsible for digital repression.
- Name the Chain of Command: Require the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to identify specific Iranian officials, security forces, and commanders responsible for ordering or enabling lethal force, in accordance with the principle of command responsibility.
- Automatic Escalation: Establish a clear timeline requiring follow-up action-including a further special session or referral to the UN General Assembly-if the Islamic Republic fails to comply within 30 days.
- Preserve Evidence Now: Call for urgent measures to secure forensic, digital, and testimonial evidence before it is destroyed, including protection for witnesses and families of victims.
“The world cannot afford another token gesture from the UNHRC,” Neuer concluded. “This session must deliver real action to hold the Iranian regime accountable and prevent further bloodshed. The Iranian people deserve nothing less.”
About UN Watch UN Watch is a Geneva-based human rights organization founded in 1993 that monitors the performance of the United Nations by the yardstick of the UN Charter. Over more than three decades, UN Watch has been one of the leading voices at the United Nations fighting for the cause of human rights in Iran
