Iran Dismisses UN Fact-Finding Report

Iran’s Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei
Iran’s Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei

In the wake of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission’s (FFM) report on human rights violations in Iran, the Human Rights Headquarters of the Judiciary dismissed the charges.

The headquarters instead issued a statement, reiterating accusations against independent media outlets and rejecting charges of pressuring foreign journalists.

The UN report, focusing on the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran, highlighted in its March 8 report that the targeting and threatening of journalists and employees of foreign news media outlets, including Iran International.

However, the Human Rights Headquarters accuses Iran International of inciting “violence” during the 2022 uprising, alleging the outlet provided instructions for making “weapons and bombs” and encouraged attacks on “police and government facilities.”

This comes as the fact-finding mission’s report detailed instances where the Iranian government summoned, threatened, and even arrested family members of journalists to silence reporting on Iran. However, the judiciary dismissed them as “allegations” and accused the committee of “covering up” the "violent content promoted by Iran International and BBC Persian networks."

In its statement, the Human Rights Headquarters repeated Iran's stance on the nature of the protests, rejecting the characterization of the uprising as peaceful and alleging involvement of "rioters" in “terrorist acts”.

Justice for Iran (JFI), a London-based human rights NGO, released a report on March 6 saying Iran deployed special combat forces to suppress protests in 2022, resulting in "crimes against humanity." The report detailed the involvement of 20 military units and 526 individuals in the suppression efforts.

Additionally, the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights Organization reported in September that at least 551 protesters, including 68 children and 49 women, were killed during the Women, Life, Freedom movement.

In the year following the uprising, Reporters Without Borders claimed that Iran had arrested 79 journalists amid mass crackdowns on voices of dissent.