UN Renews Mandates For Fact-Finding Mission, Special Rapporteur On Iran

Iran International Newsroom
Delegates attend the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland
Delegates attend the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland

In a resolution passed Thursday, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) renewed the mandates of the Fact-Finding Mission on Iran and the Special Rapporteur on Iran.

At the UNHRC meeting in Geneva, 44 countries voted in favor of extending the two mandates while eight member states, including China, Cuba, Sudan, Eritrea and Indonesia, voted against the resolution. Fourteen countries abstained.

The United Nations Human Rights Council launched the Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) in November 2022 in the midst of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement triggered by the death in morality-police custody of Mahsa Amini.

Following 18 months of investigations, the FFM released its first report on March 8, concluding that the Iranian government is responsible for the “physical violence” that resulted in the death of 22-year-old Amini in September 2022.

Table shows how members of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) voted to renew the mandates of the Fact Finding Mission and the Special Rapporteur on Iran. (April 4, 2024)
Table shows how members of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) voted to renew the mandates of the Fact Finding Mission and the Special Rapporteur on Iran. (April 4, 2024)

According to the report, the regime carried out widespread and sustained human rights violations, which broke international laws and disproportionately targeted women and girls as well as children and members of ethnic and religious minorities during 2022 protests.

In July 2018 British-Pakistani lawyer Javaid Rehman was appointed as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran. In an interview with Iran International in March, Rehman stressed the main objective behind the UN human rights mechanisms is “to persecute the perpetrators of crimes in Iran.”

Earlier in the day, Diana Eltahawy, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, calling for the renewal of the two UN mandates about human rights situations in Iran, further saying, “It is vital to signal to the Iranian authorities that their abysmal human rights record will remain under international scrutiny and to ensure that an international independent investigative and accountability mechanism remains in place to collect and analyze evidence of crimes under international law.”

In a joint letter on Wednesday, 51 human rights organizations called on the UNHRC member states to vote for the extension of the two mandates. “The Council must continue these mandates to address and protect human rights in Iran effectively,” read the letter.

On March 9, the US stressed that the FFM should continue to operate. “The whole world is taking notice of the Fact Finding Mission’s report and its conclusion that many of the serious human rights violations that have taken place in Iran may amount to crimes against humanity,” Deputy US Special Envoy for Iran Abram Paley wrote on X.

According to rights group Amnesty International, 853 people were executed in Iran in 2023, a record number in the last eight years. The number represents a 48% increase from 2022 and a 172% increase from 2021. At least six of the executed in 2023 were protesters arrested during the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in 2022, and one other executed in connection to the nationwide uprising in November 2019.