Iran is making “concerted state efforts to stifle dissent, perpetuating a climate of fear and systematic impunity”, the United Nations’ Independent International Fact-Finding Mission said in a new report.
These involve “the increased use of technology and surveillance, including through state-sponsored vigilantism”.
Iran was rocked by demonstrations after the September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old who had been arrested for allegedly violating the strict dress rule for women based on Islamic sharia law.
Widespread anger led to weeks of taboo-breaking protests against the Islamic republic’s system of government under supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In November 2022, the UN Human Rights Council created a high-level investigation into the deadly crackdown.
Criminalisation and repression
“For two years, Iran has refused to adequately acknowledge the demands for equality and justice that fuelled the protests in 2022,” said the fact-finding mission’s chair Sara Hossain.”The criminalisation, surveillance and continued repression of protesters, families of victims and survivors, in particular women and girls is deeply worrying.”
Since April 2024, Iran increased the policing of, and criminal prosecution against, women defying the mandatory wearing of the hijab, the probe said.
In its first report, the mission found that the violent crackdown on peaceful protests and discrimination against women and girls triggered serious rights violations, many amounting to crimes against humanity.
Its new report went deeper into patterns of violations and crimes, and their evolution following the protests.
The investigators said so far, 10 men had been executed in the context of the protests, while at least 11 men and three women remain at risk of being executed.
The mission said victims of torture and other violations were also persecuted while their families were “systematically intimidated”.
Technology ‘amplifying’ control
“The state has leveraged digital tools to silence dissent, with technology amplifying and extending state control to restrict freedom of expression and association, and to control narratives,” the mission said.
The Nazer app allows vetted individuals to report non-compliance in private vehicles. In September, it was updated to monitor women “in ambulances, public transport or taxis”, the report stated.
The confiscation of vehicles from women for alleged violations of the hijab laws also persisted, it added.
In April 2024, in Tehran and southern Iran, the state used aerial drone surveillance to monitor hijab compliance, the report said.
The mission found evidence of the extrajudicial executions of three child and three adult protesters later dismissed by the state as suicides.
It established additional cases of sexual violence, including rape and gang rape in custody, citing the case of one arrested woman who was beaten severely, subjected to two mock executions, raped, and gang raped.
Victims ‘continuously intimidated’
Iran’s judicial system lacks basic independence, the mission said, and victims seeking accountability are denied justice and “continuously intimidated, threatened, arrested, and subjected to criminal prosecution” with their families.
“It is therefore imperative that comprehensive accountability measures also continue to be pursued outside the country,” said mission member Shaheen Sardar Ali.
The mission has collected and preserved 38,000 evidence items and interviewed 285 victims and witnesses over two years.
Iran denied the mission access to the country.
The report will be presented to the Human Rights Council on Tuesday.
