Urgent press release for publication
The international community must work to end the bloodshed and police crackdown on peaceful protests in Iran
The Iranian police authorities brutally suppressed the protests that erupted across the country due to the death of the citizen (Mahsa Amini), in the custody of the (Morality Police) in Tehran.
On September 13, 2022, the Iranian Kurdish woman (Mahasa Amini) was arrested in Tehran by the so-called “morality” police in Iran.
Eyewitnesses reported seeing her being violently beaten in a police car.
Within hours, she was taken to hospital in a coma, and three days later, specifically on 16 September, the 22-year-old woman died.
The “morality” police routinely subject women and girls to arbitrary detention, torture, and other ill-treatment for failing to comply with Iran’s coercive, abusive, degrading, and discriminatory laws.
The Iranian news agency “Etimad” reported that the morality police arrested Mahsa, who was with her brother, in front of the Haqqani metro station in Tehran because of what the authorities described as an “inappropriate” veil.
They told her brother that they would take her to the morality police headquarters for an “instruction class”.
Two hours later, Mahsa‘s brother finds out that his sister has been taken to the hospital.
According to the media report, he said that while he was waiting for his sister outside the police headquarters, he and others heard screaming.
On September 15, the Iranian Police Information Center claimed that Mahsa had suffered a heart attack while in detention and was immediately taken to hospital.
On September 16, Iranian TV released a video showing Mahsa entering the “guidance class”, going to talk to a woman who appeared to be a police officer, and then suddenly falling down, and the police said they would provide additional information.
Mahsa‘s death sparked widespread protests across Iran, and the protests were met with a deadly crackdown carried out by the police authorities and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards against Iranian citizens and cities that rose up against the repression.
Security forces have repeatedly used unlawful force. She fired live bullets and metal pellets at the protesters at close range, misused tear gas and water cannons, and severely beat people (men and women) with batons in a very hideous way.
Since Mahsa‘s death, regional human rights organizations have recorded the deaths of dozens of men, women and children.
Hundreds of others sustained painful and severe injuries, including some who were blinded in one or both eyes.
As a result of the state of fear and intimidation practiced by the police authorities, most of the injured do not seek hospital treatment for fear of arrest campaigns, which increases the risk of infection and other health complications.
The Iranian authorities also deliberately blocked the Internet to hide their crimes.
Currently, there is a crisis of impunity in Iran, which is encouraging the Iranian authorities to kill hundreds of protesters, and torture and ill-treat thousands more in recent years, without fear of the consequences.
The “International Observatory for Documentation of Human Rights Violations” considers that the death of a “woman” after her arrest because of the way she “clothes” is evidence of the terrible degeneration of the Iranian police forces, and it is absolutely necessary to conduct a transparent investigation, hold those responsible for (Mahsa)’s death properly accountable, and provide compensation for her family.
The “Observatory” strongly condemns “police repressions against peaceful protests in Iran” and the participation of the Revolutionary Guards, classified as terrorist, in these reprisals that targeted defenseless civilians and Kurdish-minority cities that were targeted with rocket-propelled grenades.
The “Observatory” believes that the Iranian authorities should also immediately abolish the compulsory veil law and repeal or reform other laws that deprive women of their independence and rights, and only then will there be progress in eliminating discrimination, violence, and death that half of Iranian society suffers from a repressive regime that is not subject to accountability or respect for human rights.
The “Observatory” considers that it is time for countries participating in the United Nations Human Rights Council to help addressing impunity for serious crimes in Iran.
The “Observatory” calls on the international community to immediately assume its moral and legal responsibilities to protect human rights in Iran by establishing an independent UN mechanism to investigate and ensure accountability and impunity for the most serious crimes under international law committed in Iran.
International Observatory for Documentation of Human Rights Violations
/Media Section
Argentina – Buenos Aires
01/10/2022
(The International Observatory for Documenting Human Rights Violations), is an independent Argentine international center, registered in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Argentina, as a non-governmental, non-profit organization, working with the aim of defending human rights and documenting violations around the world. It was established on the tenth of December 2015, and obtained the license Official from the Argentine government in the year 2021. The members of the observatory cover their activities in 64 countries.
We are a team of people who are interested and believe in the protection of human rights, in all countries of the world, especially in countries where defenders are subjected to the most severe direct targeting campaigns.
