UN Human Rights Council calls on Iran to end repression

The UN's Human Rights Council was urged on Thursday to appoint new investigators for Iran to document what it heard was a worsening wave of violence against protesters.

An urgent session of the council in Geneva was told that up to 70 people including five children had been killed in Iran in the past week.

UN high commissioner for human rights Volker Turk said Iran was in a "full-fledged human rights crisis" after two months of anti-regime protests. He said more than 14,000 people had been arrested and that a "conservative estimate" was that 300 had died including 40 children.

A draft resolution by the council would set up a new investigative mission to collect evidence of abuses and ensure it could be used in court. It would have a mandate separate from the UN's special rapporteur on Iran, who has been denied access to the country.

Germany, which along with Iceland called for the special session, said it was fighting hard for a majority on the 47-member council. The resolution would also call on Iran to end repression and violence against its own people.

The protests were sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman, in the custody of Iran's morality police.

The UN rapporteur, Javid Rehman has described indiscriminate use of force against protesters, as well as harassment of women for wearing their hijab incorrectly. He told the council that top officials in Iran had shown no willingness to engage with demonstrators but instead told security forces to use violence.

Families of children who died have been given government counter-narratives that they fell from a height, took their own lives or were poisoned by mysterious enemy agents, he said.

Thursday's special session is the first in the Human Rights Council dedicated to Iran, and the second overall this year after a discussion of the war in Ukraine. It is focusing especially on the plight of Iranian women and children, after the UN reported at least 27 children being killed in the violence.