UN rights council eyes probe of Iran crackdown, This week, the highest human rights body of the UN will convene an emergency conference to discuss the possibility of opening a global probe into the fatal crackdown on the widespread rallies roiling Iran. Following a request from Germany and Iceland, the UN Human Rights Council will hold a special session on “the deteriorating human rights situation” on Thursday. The gathering comes after two months of demonstrations in Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who was detained for allegedly violating the country’s stringent sharia-based clothing codes for women.
UN rights council eyes probe of Iran crackdown
According to the Norwegian organization Iran Human Rights, at least 378 individuals have died in the crackdown since Amini’s killing, including 47 children (IHR). The protests against the theocracy that has controlled Iran since the toppling of the shah in 1979 have become widespread across the nation. According to UN rights experts, thousands of nonviolent protesters have also been detained, including many women, children, and journalists. Six people have already received death sentences for participating in the demonstrations.
– ‘Gender dimensions’ –
During Thursday’s session, diplomats will consider a draft resolution presented by Germany and Iceland calling on the council to create a high- level international investigation to probe all alleged violations connected with the ongoing protests in Iran. The so-called independent international fact-finding mission should include “the gender dimensions of such violations” in its investigations, according to the text.
The draft resolution, which could still change, calls for the investigators to “collect, consolidate and analyse evidence of such violations, and to preserve evidence,” with a view to future prosecution. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who will be present for the the session, stressed recently on Twitter that such an investigation is vital because we “know how important it is for the victims that those responsible are held accountable.”
The draft text called on Tehran to “cooperate fully” with the investigators, who it said should present a full report in March 2024. Rights groups hailed the special session. “We’re seeing such serious abuses in response to the protests,” Lucy McKernan of Human Rights Watch told AFP. “It is incumbent on the council to react,” she said, voicing hope that countries would back the investigation, “so that at least in the future there is a chance of accountability”.
The support of 16 of the Human Rights Council’s 47 members — more than a third — is required to convene a special session. Germany and Iceland have so far received the backing of 50 countries for their request for Thursday’s session, including 17 council members.
– Enough votes? –
But with only a few days until the event, it was still uncertain whether they would secure the support necessary to pass their resolution. China, Russia, and Iran have all shown increasing resistance to the Human Rights Council’s frequently Western-led efforts to hold various nations accountable for alleged abuses.
The attempt by Western nations and their allies to simply get the topic of China’s alleged widespread abuses in its Xinjiang region on the agenda was thwarted last month, and they suffered a crushing defeat in the council. But Iran may have a harder time blocking Thursday’s resolution.
Many of the council members are not subject to its influence as Beijing is. Furthermore, the council has never even had China on the agenda, although it established a “special rapporteur” on Iran in 2011 and has voted to extend their mandate every year since. Volker Turk, the new UN rights chief, will get his first opportunity to address the council at the meeting on Thursday. At 9:00 GMT, he is scheduled to begin the session. The special rapporteur and possibly members of Iranian civil society will next make speeches.
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