Image source: @Mh_Hemmatpour
Two years since the break out of the well-known “Women, Life and Freedom” revolutionary demonstrations in Iran, amidst the Iranian authorities continue to commit violations and crimes against protesters and their families, with fully coverage of impunity.
Amnesty International said that the Iranian authorities continue crack down on protesters in the “Women, Life and Freedom” uprising with systematic impunity for crimes under international law.
Amnesty’s report issued on 11 September 2024, Amnesty International considered that the Iranian authorities have not conducted any “effective, impartial and independent” criminal investigation into serious human rights violations and crimes under international law during the nationwide protests in September to December 2022, including the widespread and unlawful use of excessive force and firearms by security forces.
Iranian security forces have fired assault rifles, pistols with metal pellets and tear gas canisters, and severely beat protesters with batons, killing hundreds of protesters and supporters (including dozens of children) and injuring many others.
Two years after the demonstrations began, the Iranian authorities have stepped up their assault on human rights, waging a “war on women and girls” through increasingly violent repression against those who defied harsh forced Hijab laws and intensified their use of the death penalty to silence dissent.
Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said the anniversary of the Women, Life, Freedom uprising reminds us that countless people in Iran continue to suffer the consequences of the authorities’ “brutal repression”. Victims, survivors and their families continue to be denied truth, justice and reparation for crimes under international law and other serious human rights violations committed by Iranian officials during and in the aftermath of the uprising.
The Iranian authorities throughout the latest two years launched a propaganda campaign of “denial and distortion” to conceal evidence of the crimes they have committed, trying intimidate survivors and victims’ families to silence them, without any possibility of independent and impartial investigations domestically. Tahawy called on states, through local prosecutorial offices, to immediately initiate criminal investigations into crimes committed by the Iranian authorities “in accordance with the principles of universal jurisdiction”.
in the same context, On September 10, 2024, Human Rights Watch said that families of individuals killed or imprisoned during protests over the past two years had been arrested.
Iranian authorities continue to silence and arrest family members demanding accountability for abuses against their family members two years after the 2022 “Women, Life, and Freedom” protests erupted.
Nahed Naqshbandi, Human Rights Watch researcher, said that Iranian authorities torture people twice, “executing or killing a family member and then arresting their loved ones to demand accountability.”
Naqshbandi called on Iran’s judiciary to urgently release illegally detained family members and ensure fair trials and a transparent judicial process for anyone accused of committing a crime.
The report cited examples collected from Human Rights Organizations in Iran of arrests and prison sentences of Iranians including minors under the age of 15 who belong to participants in the 2022 demonstrations.
The report explained how the Iranian authorities have a long record of pressure on families whose loved ones were killed by security forces or executed by Iranian courts, as the Iranian authorities previously exerted threats and pressure on the families of victims of the 2019 protests, as well as the families of those killed in flight PS752, Ukrainian International Airlines flight shot down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in 2020, confirmed that they were deterred by the Iranian authorities from pursuing accountability.
According to Amnesty, 2023 recorded the highest rate of executions in 8 years, and the IHRNGO Human Rights Organization in Iran confirmed on August 3, 2024, that the Iranian authorities carried out 305 executions in the country, during 7 months of 2024.
On April 22, 2024, Human Rights Watch issued a report over Iranian security forces committing serious violations during their suppression of protests in 2022 and 2023, explaining that security forces “raped, tortured, and sexually assaulted female detainees during the 2022 and 2023 protests.
Since September 2022, Iran has witnessed widespread protests, based on the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, few days after she was arrested by the morality police in the capital, Tehran, during protests in Iran.
Same Justice Human Rights rejected these violations committed by Iranian security against demonstrators, detainees and their families. Same Justice Human Rights calls for the serious need to initiate criminal investigations, under the universal jurisdiction principle, as well as international law, in crimes committed by Iranian officials, regardless of the absence of the accused or their presence in its territory, and to hold all perpetrators of crimes accountable.
