A press report for the public
Iran’s authorities continue crackdown on popular protests, unfair trials, executions and children in custody, subjected to the most horrific forms of torture
Demonstrations are a popular and effective way to express opinion and demand rights and freedoms, and are an important tool for positive change in societies.
But in many countries, the demonstrations face a repressive intervention by the authorities, among them “Iran” where the Iranian authorities continue to suppress their own people.
Yes, the state’s security and intelligence agencies, in partnership with Iran’s judiciary, are aggressively repressing defenseless dissidents and civilians, including through excessive and lethal force against demonstrators and abuse and torture in detention.
“The Iranian authorities brutally suppressed mass protests in 2022 demanding basic rights, and security forces unlawfully used excessive and lethal force against protesters.”
“The Iranian government has arrested peaceful human rights activists and sentenced dozens on vague national security charges, while failing to investigate reports of abuse or torture by police and security forces.”
“Security agencies have also targeted religious minorities and violently enforced laws that violate freedom of assembly and expression, the right to participate in the conduct of public affairs, restricted freedom of expression and assembly and arrested thousands of protesters.”
The death on September 16 of Mahsa (Jena) Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman from Sanandaj in western Iran, while in the custody of Iran’s Vice Squad after being arrested for wearing an “inappropriate” headscarf, has sparked demonstrations across the country, including in schools and universities.
Iranian authorities claimed that Amini died from a health condition that left her in a coma within two hours of her arrest, an allegation denied by her family.
“Several international and regional human rights organizations have also documented details of security forces using shotguns, assault rifles, and pistols against protesters, often in largely peaceful and overcrowded conditions, and as of November 14, 2022, rights organizations were investigating reports of 341 protesters being killed, including 52 children.”
“As expected, the Iranian authorities did not tolerate these demonstrations with open arms, instead violently repressing them, with many protesters arrested and others physically assaulted and tortured.”
The Iranian authorities continue to use the inhumane death penalty after unfair trials as a show of force against its own people demanding radical change. This escalation of executions in recent weeks is a serious violation of the right to life and should lead to international condemnation.
Since late April, Iranian authorities have executed at least 60 people, including an Iranian-Swedish national, on alleged terrorism charges, many after unfair trials.
According to a report by the Human Rights Activists News Agency (Herana), between January 1 and May 5, 2023, the Iranian authorities executed at least 192 people, including eight women. From April 25, 2023 until the date of this report, the authorities executed more than 60 people in various prisons across Iran, most for drug-related offenses and murder without fair trials.
An Amnesty International report from 16-03-2023 said Iran’s intelligence and security forces were committing horrific acts of torture, including beatings, whippings, electric shocks, rape and other sexual violence against 12-year-old child protesters to suppress their participation in nationwide protests.
In its report, Amnesty International revealed the violence suffered by children arrested during and after protests and detailed information on the torture methods used by IRGC, Basij paramilitary forces, Iranian security police, and other security forces and intelligence agents against boys and girls held in detention to punish and humiliate them and to extract forced “confessions.”
In its report of 25-04-2023, Human Rights Watch (HRW) confirmed that Iranian authorities have arrested, interrogated, and prosecuted children without respect for legal safeguards. Judges have also barred families of children from hiring lawyers of their choice to defend them, convicted them on vague charges, and tried them outside juvenile courts (courts with jurisdiction over children’s cases).
The Watch documented Iranian security forces complicating in the restraint, blindfolding, and torture of children in detention who are beaten, electrocuted, and sexually assaulted, held without notifying their families, sometimes for weeks; released students are prevented from returning to school; and Iranian authorities are cutting off their families’ social welfare.
We at The International Observatory for Documentation of Human Rights Violations call on the international community in all its bodies to unequivocally condemn this horrific attitude of the Iranian authorities and demand that they urgently press Iranian officials to stop the executions and gross violations of human and children’s rights by the security and military apparatuses in Iran and to take decisive action to stop the violations and protect the rights of protesters and human rights defenders in Iran.
We at the Observatory also publish the list of women and children killed by security forces in the 2022 Iranian popular uprising as a public document.
It must be remembered that protecting human rights is everyone’s responsibility, and addressing abuses in Iran requires the joint efforts of everyone, be they governments, human rights organizations, or civil society.
International Observatory for Documentation of Human Rights Violations
/Media Section
Argentina – Buenos Aires
29/05/2023
(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.
List of women killed during the 2022 popular uprising in Iran
Pictures of children under the age of 18 killed in the popular uprising in Iran 2022
