Iran: At Least 378 People Including 47 Children Killed - PRESS RELEASE
At least 378 people including 47 children and 27 women have been killed by Iran security forces in the ongoing nationwide protests. As the death toll rises, Islamic Republic forces refuse to accept any responsibility and attribute the killings to terrorist and foreign groups. In a strong show of support for their country’s growing protest movement, and as children continue to be among those killed by state security forces, merchants in major cities closed their shops this week, which marked the third anniversary of the state’s violent suppression of the November 2019 protests.
“All across Iran, protesters have been risking their lives to call for an end to the Islamic Republic’s violent repression. The state’s attempts to crush peaceful protest through killings, arrests, and imprisonment can only be halted through strong, collective, international action.”
- Ned ElAttar, executive director, SOHRI
The Islamic Republic, which is ignoring constitutional guarantees on peaceful demonstrations, has no legal right or ground in arresting protesters en masse without any respect for judicial procedures. Therefore, these arrests are more like abductions. The international community failing to act now sends a green light to tyrants and authoritarian regimes everywhere that they can commit atrocities and ignore international law with impunity.
Thousands of families have been searching for their loved ones since the government began carrying out mass and arbitrary arrests last month to crush the protests.
- The Swedish Observatory for Human Rights Information urges the international community, including government leaders, and the UN, to call on the Iranian government to release all detained protesters and political prisoners and halt its crackdown on peaceful protestors.
- EU and European countries that have diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic must forge a forceful, coordinated diplomatic response to the state’s atrocities in Iran, including jointly recalling their ambassadors for consultations and summoning Iran’s ambassadors for censure.
- At the urgent special session at the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) the council should establish an independent mechanism with investigative, reporting, and accountability functions to address the Islamic Republic’s most serious crimes.
