UN expert says Iran is guilty of crimes against humanity

A UN human rights expert said yesterday that the scale and gravity of Iran’s violations of human rights amounted to a crime against humanity.

The remarks by the UN rapporteur on Iran, Javaid Rehman, came as the EU and the UK imposed a fresh round of sanctions on Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) officers, judicial officials and clerics, but held back from proscribing the IRGC itself.

Rehman warned that Iran was experiencing the most serious violations in four decades. He also claimed that the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman, in September 2022, resulted from beatings by the state morality police. Iran has said she died from a pre-existing neurological disorder, but Rahman said reliable medical sources point to state culpability.

He said Iran had refused to conduct an impartial or transparent inquiry into her death, including into the allegations that she was beaten and tortured.

“The scale and gravity of the violations committed by Iranian authorities, especially since the death of Ms Amini, points to the possible commission of international crimes, notably the crimes against humanity of murder, imprisonment, enforced disappearances, torture, rape and sexual violence, and persecution,” he said.

Drawing on evidence, including witness testimony and comments from reliable medical sources, the report said it was clear she had died last 16 September “as a result of beatings by the state morality police”.

“I would like to stress that her death was not an isolated event but the latest in a long series of extreme violence against women and girls committed by the Iranian authorities,” Rehman said.

He insisted that “the responsibility of top senior officials in instigating this violence can ... not be ignored”.

Despite protests from Beijing and Tehran itself, the UN human rights council decided last November to launch a fact-finding mission into the repression of peaceful demonstrators after protests erupted around Iran. A team has been appointed, but has been denied access to Iran.

“Protesters including children were beaten to death,” Rehman said, adding that “at least 527 people, including 71 children, were killed, and hundreds of protesters severely injured”.

He also said dozens of protesters had “lost their eyes because of direct shots to the head”, while Iranian doctors had reported that women and girls participating in the demonstrations “were targeted with shotgun fire to their faces, breasts and genitals”.