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The UN Human Rights Council approved a motion on November 24 to investigate “the deterioration of the human rights situation” in Iran, after two months of protests that began over the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody. The body presses Tehran to end the repression at a time when the number of deaths of civilians and police officers is increasing.
The UN approves an investigation in Iran into the human rights situation amid the wave of protests that is shaking the country.
With 25 votes in favor, six against and 16 abstentions, the Human Rights Council decided on November 24 to establish a mission to investigate the repression of the massive protests that have shaken the nation for two months.
The endorsement came after overcoming last-minute obstacles. In the midst of Thursday’s emergency session at the body, China submitted an amendment that would remove the main paragraph that determines an “international fact-finding mission” to operate until early 2024.
The Asian giant’s envoy, Jiang Yingfeng, called for its annulment, assuring that the measure was “overwhelmingly critical” of Tehran and that it “will not help solve the problem.”
Immediately, representatives of the dozens of countries that supported the proposal, including the United States and the United Kingdom, criticized Beijing’s request and asked the 47-member body to reject the change.
“(The amendment) denies survivors, families and victims the right to have their suffering recorded,” British Ambassador Simon Manley told the agency about China’s request.
Iran attacks Germany and accuses it of trying to destabilize the Raisi government
The delegation of the Islamic Republic defended its government against the accusations and accused Germany, the country that promoted the motion, of trying to destabilize the Administration of President Ebrahim Raisi.
“This Council is once again being abused by some arrogant states attacking a member state,” replied Iran’s mission leader and international director of the Vice Presidency for Women and Family, Khadijeh Karimi.
The official added that the German government, which “pretends to support human rights today, is the same one that equipped Saddam Hussein with chemical weapons that 35 years ago caused 13,000 deaths in an attack on the Iranian city of Sardasht.”
“A DD crisis. H H. In all rules”
At the session, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, made a strong call on the Iranian authorities to cease the “unnecessary and disproportionate” use of force against the protesters.
“We are facing a full-blown human rights crisis (…) Accountability is a key ingredient in the search for justice for human rights violations,” said the official, adding that he asked the Iranian authorities for authorization to visit the country, but has not yet received a response.
Iran is submerged in a wave of violence that began last September after the death of the young Mahsa Amini became known, after being in the custody of the Moral Police for wearing the mandatory hijab too low and without covering her head. , according to the reasons indicated by the authorities for his arrest.
But soon the mobilizations focused on other discontents of the citizens who even ask for the fall of the country’s theocracy; one of the biggest threats to the ruling clerics since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
A claim that raises the anger of the Iranian regime that tries to silence the different voices against it.
Deaths, arrests and coercion of the press
In the midst of this scenario of repression, more than 400 people have died, according to the latest estimate by the Iran Human Rights group.
The violence hits even the smallest, since among the fatalities are at least 50 children, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) said this week.
As if that were not enough, at least six people have been sentenced to death for their participation in the demonstrations and around 1,400 people, including minors, have been arrested within the framework of the demonstrations, Turk stressed.
This November 24, it was also known that at least 50 members of the Iranian security forces have died and hundreds have been injured, according to the Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister, Ali Bagheri Kani.
The repression also extends to foreign citizens and journalists for reporting on what happened on Iranian soil. In early November, the spokesman for the Iranian judiciary, Masud Setayeshí, reported that the two journalists who revealed and promoted the case of Mahsa Amini were arrested for “crimes against national security.”
These are the reporters Nilufar Hamedi, from the local newspaper ‘Shargh’, who reported the arrest and subsequent death of Amini, and Elahe Mohammadi, from the newspaper ‘Ham Mihan’, who covered the burial of the 22-year-old girl, a peak moment of the mobilizations.
Nobody escapes the coercion of the Iranian authorities for supporting the demonstrations and among those arrested are also musicians, soccer players and actresses.
With Reuters and EFE
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