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HRC Press Conference - Fact-Finding Mission report on Iran - 18 March 2024
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HRC Press Conference - Fact-Finding Mission Report on Iran - 18 March 2024
STORY: Report: Fact-Finding Mission on Iran
TRT: 2:36”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 18 March 2024 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
- Exterior medium shot: UN flag alley
- Wide shot: speakers at the press conference
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Sara Hossain, Chairperson of the Fact-Finding Mission: “We saw quite brutal responses. The entire state apparatus was mobilized with security forces using firearms, including AK-47 and Uzis, as we documented in some areas, resulting in injuries and deaths. Credible figures that we found of up to 551 deaths, at least 49 women and 68 children and we found that those occurred in 26 out of the 31 provinces of Iran over multiple months.”
- Wide shot: speakers at the podium during the press conference
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Sara Hossain, Chairperson of the Fact-Finding Mission: “We also found that there were mass arbitrary arrests and detentions. We found incidents of torture and ill treatment in custody of protesters being beaten even while they were being arrested. And then when they were in custody as well. We found cases of torture, particularly of sexual violence, gender-based violence. We found cases of gang rape, rape with an object, a woman being routinely groped and touched throughout the process and often spoken to in extraordinarily misogynist terms.”
- Wide shot: Camera people filming
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Sara Hossain, Chairperson of the Fact-Finding Mission:” What we found was that security forces shot at protesters and also at bystanders at very short distances in a targeted fashion, causing injuries to their heads, necks, torsos, genital areas, but particularly to the eyes. And we found hundreds of protesters had these life changing injuries, with many of them now blinded and branded essentially for life marked as dissidents.”
- Medium shot: speaker at the podium with journalists in press room
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Shaheen Sardar Ali, Member of the Fact-Finding Mission: “We recorded the highest number of deaths in a single day, with more than 100 killings committed by security forces in the so-called Bloody Friday incident.”
- Wide shot: speakers at the press conference
- SOUNDBITE (English) - Viviana Krsticevic, Member of the Fact-Finding Mission: ”The Islamic Republic of Iran is obligated to adhere to these principles and accordingly take tangible measures to redress the harm inflicted on thousands of protesters, address the ongoing violations and eradicate the root causes of those violations.”
- Wide shot, journalists in press briefing room
- Close up, journalist listening
- Close up, journalist
“Iran: repression continues two years after nationwide protests – rights investigators"
Extra-judicial and unlawful killings and murder by the Government of Iran are some of the violations and crimes under international law committed in the context of the “Women, Life, Freedom” protests that began in September 2022. This according to members of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran (FFM on Iran) in their presentation on Monday to the Human Rights Council at the UN in Geneva.
“We saw quite brutal responses, the entire state apparatus was mobilized with security forces using firearms, including AK-47 and Uzis, as we documented in some areas, resulting in injuries and deaths,” said Sara Hossain, Chairperson of the FFM on Iran when briefing journalists at the United Nations. “Credible figures that we found of up to 551 deaths, at least 49 women and 68 children and we found that those occurred in 26 out of the 31 provinces of Iran over multiple months.”
The investigators also established that the death of Jina Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Iranian- Kurdish woman whose death in custody of the “morality police” sparked the protests in September two years ago, was unlawful and caused by physical violence in the custody of State authorities.
Following Jina Mahsa’s death, young women and school children were at the forefront of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement, with many removing their hijab in public places as an act of defiance against long-standing discriminatory laws and practices. Men and boys joined in solidarity, along with people from diverse backgrounds, including minorities, demanding equality, justice, and social and political reforms and articulating long-standing grievances.
”What we found was that security forces shot at protesters and also at bystanders at very short distances in a targeted fashion, causing injuries to their heads, necks, torsos, genital areas, but particularly to the eyes,” reported Ms. Hossain. “We found hundreds of protesters had these life changing injuries, with many of them now blinded and branded essentially for life marked as dissidents.”
The members of the FFM on Iran gathered evidence that these acts were conducted in the context of a widespread and systematic attack against women and girls, and other persons expressing support for human rights. Some of these serious violations of human rights thus rose to the level of crimes against humanity, including murder, torture, rape, and also gender persecution, intersecting with ethnicity and religion.
In detention, the State authorities tortured victims to extract confessions or to intimidate, humiliate of inflict punishment, the investigators concluded.
“We also found that there were mass arbitrary arrests and detentions. We found incidents of torture and ill treatment in custody of protesters being beaten even while they were being arrested and then when they were in custody as well,” said the Chair of the Mission. “We found cases of torture, particularly of sexual violence, gender-based violence. We found cases of gang rape, rape with an object, a woman being routinely groped and touched throughout the process and often spoken to in extraordinarily misogynist terms.”
Despite the many challenges the Mission was facing, such as no access to the country and no collaboration with the Iranian Government, it was able to collect and preserve over 27,000 evidence items. It conducted a total of 134 in-depth interviews with victims and witnesses, including 49 women, and 85 men, both inside and outside the country, and gathered evidence and analysis from experts on digital and medical forensics, and domestic and international law, among others.
The investigation also highlighted that there were disproportionately high numbers of deaths in minority-populated regions. On just one day, 30 September 2022, in Zahedan city, Sistan and Baluchistan province, credible information indicates that security forces killed 104 protesters and bystanders, mostly of men and boys. “We recorded the highest number of deaths in a single day, with more than 100 killings committed by security forces in the so-called Bloody Friday incident,” said Shaheen Sardar Ali, a member of the Fact-Finding Mission.
The authorities in Iran have prevented and obstructed efforts of victims and their families to obtain a remedy and reparation.
Viviana Krsticevic, a member of the Fact-Finding Mission, warned that "the Islamic Republic of Iran is obligated to adhere to these principles and accordingly take tangible measures to redress the harm inflicted on thousands of protesters, address the ongoing violations and eradicate the root causes of those violations.”
In November 2022, the Council established this Mission to investigate “the alleged human rights violations in Iran in connection with the protests that began there on 16 September 2022, especially with respect to women and children”.
-ends-
Teleprompter
OK, um, good afternoon, everyone.
And thank you all for joining us here at this press conference with
the independent International Fact Finding mission
on the Islamic Republic of Iran,
whose members are here to share with you the findings of their latest report.
As you may know,
the Human Rights Council established the fact finding mission in November 2022
to investigate alleged human rights violations related to the protests that began
on 16 September 2022 especially with respect to women and Children.
The mission released its first comprehensive report 10 days ago on 8 March,
and this morning its members presented those findings to the council.
In addition to that, the fact finding mission is releasing another report,
a detailed report known as the Conference Room paper,
which will be published online later today.
This report provides an extensive overview of
the vast amount of information and evidence
upon which the mission's findings are based.
We plan to send that out to you as soon as it's available,
so please keep an eye out for that later this afternoon.
So we're
very pleased to have with us uh, all three members of the fact finding mission.
Uh, first in the middle, we have the chair of the mission.
Miss Sarah Hussein.
Um, on my right, Uh, is, uh, mrs, uh, Miss Shaheen,
Sara
Ali.
And on the far right is, uh, Viviana Christi
SVI.
The chair will start us off with some opening remarks and then, uh,
which will be followed by, uh, our fellow experts.
And then we'll hand the floor over to you for your questions. Thank you.
Thanks so much.
Thanks everyone for joining us.
Everyone who's here in the room and everyone who's joining virtually as well.
I
think many of you may have heard our
presentation during the interactive dialogue this morning.
As you'll have heard
after this one year of investigations, we faced a number of challenges.
We didn't have access to the country. The government refused.
Refused that
we also didn't have co operation in the form of meetings with the government.
We didn't get responses to the letters we sent them.
And
we also noticed quite early on that there were
significant challenges for people trying to reach the fact finding mission
in terms of intimidation and harassment and threats
and also interference with online communications because given the
context of not being able to go inside the country,
certainly remote communications, what we needed to rely on
largely.
But we were able to overcome those challenges we got, I think,
quite a remarkable response
to the call for submissions that we put out. And ultimately
we were able to collect 27,000 evidentiary items,
and that included audiovisual material,
official documents as well as 134 in depth interviews with both women and men
from inside and outside Iran.
So I'd like to just give you a brief summary of our findings.
First of all, as you'll all recall,
this protest that happened in 2022 in Iran was sparked
off by the death in custody of a young woman,
an Iranian Kurdish woman, Gina Ma
Amini, just 22 years old,
and she was arrested for alleged breach of the so called mandatory hijab laws,
and within three days of her arrest she was found dead in custody.
We found through our investigations and through analysis
of medical evidence and looking at patterns as well
that Gina
Ma's death in custody was unlawful and it was caused by physical violence,
in the custody of the state authorities
after Gina
Ma's death. The protests sparked right across the country.
We saw many of you will remember those emblematic images
of women and girls removing their mandatory hijabs in defiance
in the early days and continuing through the protests.
And
they were joined by many others by young people
by men by people from all walks of life.
Doctors.
Journalists acted in solidarity with them. Lawyers came out,
many artists were there,
and particularly minority groups from all across the country as well,
and many of them were expressing initially.
Of course, there was the women life freedom movement,
but they were also expressing demands for broader social and political reform.
But the response to this process
was not of communication or recognition of any of those grievances. Instead, we saw
are quite brutal responses. The entire state apparatus was mobilised
with security forces using firearms
including AK-47s and Uzis,
as we documented in some areas resulting in injuries and deaths.
Credible figures that we found of up to 551 deaths,
at least 49 women and 68 Children,
and we found that those occurred in 26 out
of the 31 provinces of Iran over multiple months.
We also have noted,
and you heard again this morning that the government
mentioned the killings of security forces and damage to property.
We've made repeated inquiries to the government
to provide more information regarding these incidences,
but we haven't unfortunately received any of that as yet,
so we've not been able to probe that further.
One of the very distinctive features of the 2022 protests and continuing into 2023
was the signs of mostly young people with white protective patches over their eyes.
What we found was that security forces shot at protesters and also at bystanders
at very short distances in a targeted fashion,
causing injuries to their heads, necks, torsos, genital areas,
but particularly to their eyes.
And we found hundreds of protesters had these life changing injuries,
with many of them now blinded and
branded essentially for life marked as dissidents.
And that means subjected to further
denial of their rights within the state.
We also found that there were mass arbitrary arrests and detentions that people
we found incidents of torture and ill
treatment in custody of protesters being beaten
even while they were being arrested, and then when they were in custody as well.
We found cases of torture, particularly of sexual violence,
gender based violence.
We found cases of gang rape,
rape with an object of women being routinely
groped and touched throughout the protests and often
spoken to in
extraordinarily misogynist terms,
taking the notion of woman life freedom and distorting it and turning it on its head.
So one woman, for example, told us when she was being
attacked that her attacker said to her, This is the freedom that you wanted
and
we found these acts were committed in
both official and unofficial detention facilities.
We also found that for the cases that went ahead to trial,
that there were systematic violations of due process.
People didn't get people under trial, didn't get copies of their documents.
They didn't have access to their council.
For those who were being tried in the revolutionary courts,
they didn't have access to council of their choice.
They have predetermined lists of lawyers. They're the only ones that you can
engage
and
the most egregious of these fair trial violations we've seen as an outcome of that
nine
young men who were already put to death when the death penalty was carried out
earlier
over the course of this period.
And we still see that another 26 people are still facing death penalties today.
Perhaps most remarkably,
over this entire period.
What we've seen is not only a lack of recognition and a lack of reckoning with
what came out of the protests and what was being demanded,
but also an attempt to silence all those who are still seeking justice
and to kind of erase,
erase the records, what have happened, as well as people's memories. So we've seen.
For example, families who are trying to
remember and recall their loved ones at
gravesites and funeral ceremonies and
subsequently at commemorative ceremonies and
religious ceremonies have not been able to do that.
And they've been interrupted with their right to mourn, even
denied to them.
Ultimately,
our findings are that there have been serious
human rights violations in connection with the protests.
They include unlawful deaths, extrajudicial executions,
unnecessary and disproportionate use of force, arbitrary arrest,
torture and ill treatment, rape and sexual violence,
enforced disappearance and gender persecution, intersecting with
ethnic and religious grounds.
We also found that some of these acts were conducted
in the context of a widespread and systematic attack,
particularly against women and girls,
but also others expressing support for equality and rights.
And as a consequence, we've made a finding also of crimes against humanity.
Having occurred,
I'll just give the floor now to my colleague, Professor Shain
Soda
Ali.
Thank you, Zara,
and thank you colleagues in the media for coming for taking
the time and the interest to be with us today.
Let me start by underlining
the fact that
although
the international media no longer carries headlines
of the protests and the violations and crimes that occurred during
from September 2022 onwards,
we cannot simply turn our eyes or an attention away from them.
And the reason for this is that
although the world's attention has turned elsewhere,
the repression in Iran among women, men,
ethnic and religious minorities who sought change and continue to seek justice
is ongoing.
The dynamic of the protests may have changed
the manner in which
people are expressing their continued resistance and
they're seeking justice and accountability that may have changed,
but the very fact that the protests are ongoing in different forms.
There is no doubt about that.
In particular, we are concerned about the Reprisals,
continued Reprisals against families, lawyers and supporters of victims.
I would like you to bear that in mind.
The other thing that I would like to share with you is
the intersectionality of the violations of human rights that we found.
The death of Gina
Masa, a young Irani Kurdish woman,
not only resonated with the Kurdish minority population in Iran,
but among Iranians of all ages, ethnicities, religion, sex and genders.
While triggered by demands for gender equality,
the demands of protesters rapidly catalysed
wider demands for the respect for human rights and accountability.
Minorities and other groups that have suffered
long standing injustice and discrimination by the state
also joined in the protests.
So we should not forget that the discrimination
in law and practise was both a trigger
and an enabler of the widespread and
systematic violations established in our report.
Indeed, we established that in Sistan
Baluchistan province,
we recorded the highest number of deaths in a single day,
with more than 100 killings committed by security
forces in the so called Bloody Friday incident
in the Kurdish regions. We particularly witnessed
lethal and militarised responses from the security forces to the protests,
which were not as intense. In other parts of the country.
Sexual and gender based violence
documented in minority regions was brutal
and unaccompanied by ethnic undertones,
so women and girls did not only suffer within the framework of the protests.
Their experience of daily discrimination,
both in law
and in practise, is something stood out as we were undertaking our investigations.
For example, the latest technologies, including mobile apps,
has been harnessed by the state to monitor and enforce the mandatory hijab rules.
Women cannot access schools, universities, hospitals and courts,
or opportunities for employment in the government
without complying with these arbitrary rules on hijab.
These violations were all committed as part of an overall
attempt to preserve a system
of institutionalised and structural discrimination.
And as my colleague and the chair has just indicated, we found the state response
against those that disagreed and protested against it as persecution
on the basis of gender.
I would finally also like to bring to your attention
that this is the first investigation
within the UN system where child rights
was placed at the centre of the investigation
and we noticed that young people were at the forefront of the protests
and therefore the strong focus of our mandate on Children was imperative.
We found in the course of our investigations that
Children were often detained in unofficial centres kept with adults
and for example,
their right to education was jeopardised to the
point where we have found 22,800 students suspended
and unable to continue with their studies.
I will now pass on the floor to my colleague,
Ms Viviana
Chris.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Good afternoon.
picking up from where Professor Sarah
Ali left,
we saw victims consistently asking for equality, truth, justice and reparations.
The call for accountability
was something that was at the forefront of what victims survivors,
witnesses brought to the fact finding mission.
And that path for adequate reparations for
victims of cross violations and crimes against humanity
is guided in international human rights law. By a set of principles,
the Islamic Republic of Iran
is obligated to adhere to these principles and accordingly take tangible
measures to redress the harm inflicted on thousands of protesters,
address the ongoing violations and eradicate the root causes of those violations.
These measures were outlined briefly today at the initial
remarks of the chair at the Human Rights Council.
But they should include, at a minimum,
the halting of all executions,
the unconditional release of all persons arbitrarily arrested
and detained in the context of the protest
or for non
compliance with the mandatory hijab laws
as well.
The Iranian authorities should cease the judicial harassment of protesters,
victims and their families, their lawyers,
their doctors and the journalists that cover the incidents.
They should provide victims with medical rehabilitation when needed
to repeal and amend laws that fundamentally discriminate against women and girls,
in particular
the mandatory hijab laws.
They should disband the persecutory system
of enforcement of these laws and policies
and ensure that women can have a meaningful
and equal participation in public and political life.
A cornerstone of reparations and accountability is
the respect of the right to truth,
and as the chair noted,
we have seen a
constant lack of transparency
on the part of the state, an obfuscation of facts
and an interference of state authorities with those seeking the truth,
including family members, journalists and lawyers and
this conduct needs to stop
and human rights law
the right to truth
needs to be guaranteed for the sake of family members, victims and Iranian society.
Justice is also a key measure of reparations due
to victims and is critical in preventing future crimes.
Impunity, as we have documented,
has fueled the human rights violations and crimes against humanity in Iran.
Impunity prevails,
but nevertheless we encourage the government to
take appropriate steps to ensure accountability domestically.
Also,
we call on the international community to exercise
universal jurisdiction to provide a modicum of truth,
justice and reparations to victims.
Moreover,
beyond criminal accountability,
member states may grant asylum and humanitarian visas
and provide medical and other life saving assistance,
including to those fleeing persecution.
Finally,
I wish to emphasise the remarkable courage and resilience demonstrated
by the members of the women life freedom movement.
Their commitment to advocate for equality,
for dignity, justice for woman, life and freedom
in dire circumstances,
and at a great risk deserves the
unwavering support of the international community.
We hear you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you all for those important opening remarks.
Um, now we open the floor to questions If, uh, we could just start on the left side.
If you could just please identify yourself and the, uh,
media outlet that you work for.
Oh, let's just start on the far left
of many.
So I was wondering if you can tell us
about the obstacles that you faced or the obstacles,
especially the obstacles that the Iranian
government created for you.
Well, I think the first problem was, of course,
not being able to go to the country because it was very important for us to be
able to hear directly from people inside Iran
and those who'd taken part in the protests.
And I think it was also important as an
independent and impartial body for us to hear
from government officials and from all those involved in
the process. And we didn't have a chance to do that.
So that was the first challenge.
The second was.
We also had hoped that if we didn't get to the country,
at least we'd get to meet with the Iranian government.
Their point of view.
That didn't happen.
And as I said,
we put together very detailed queries in relation to the matters that
we were investigating on which we were hoping that they would respond.
We also didn't get that, so those
are
major challenges.
But the most significant, I think, was in terms of not having access to the country,
but also having concerns that
when we were trying to reach out to victims and to witnesses
and anyone who was going to come forward with information
that there was a risk clearly, objectively a risk for them in doing so,
I
think,
had there not been what we know now to be quite
clearly the case that there is significant interference with communications,
it meant even remote communications were very challenging.
There was also an issue that we found that those
risks are not only for people inside the country.
Even when we were talking to Irani victims outside the country,
their family members inside the country were often threatened or harassed.
And that was again a very real risk for people and not only a risk, an actual fact.
So I think those were quite significant obstacles.
So despite that, as I said, we've been able to conduct the investigations.
OK, thank you. Um, in the back, please.
Thank you.
I have a question about the clause. 120 of your reports. This clause says
some of the valuations described in this report may fall
within the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice.
What does this mean exactly?
What do you ask about you ask about maybe the intervention of international court.
Thanks.
So we explore different avenues of accountability
and given the ratification of the convention on
Racial Discrimination by the government of Iran,
there is a possibility of intervening
when there are grave violations to
that convention and bringing a case to the
International Court of Justice, Uh, through provisional measures.
And eventually, uh, a case. So this is one of the avenues that, uh,
we have explored that is open, uh, for
for accountability.
Ok, thank you. Um, in the front row, please.
Stepan, Misa
L
newspaper.
What? In your opinion, what has actually the
woman life freedom movement achieved so far?
And has it has it been able to
to bring the the Iranian authorities to some kind of change or whatever?
And then, uh uh, another question about for M Sadar
Ali.
You talked about the fact that women and girls had less access to education
and, uh, not long ago ago, we were saying that 65% of the
university students were women.
So it's very a U turn here. Thank you.
If I can take the education question. Um, first,
what we are seeing in our report,
and and the conference room paper that you will have access to later on
is the fact that traditionally and over the years
there have been very high literacy rates in Iran, both of men and women
and university students and
other professions have seen
quite a significant number within that.
However, what
we are saying now
is that with the increasing
repression and
enforcement
of the
hijab,
the mandatory hijab rules that that is what is now
going to hold women back and has started holding women back
because during the course of our investigations,
we discovered that students were being suspended
from universities,
that employers were given instructions
that where women appeared on their premises without the mandatory hijab,
that they had one of two choices that they either enforced that
failing which their businesses would be shut.
So I think it's a whole raft of enforcement mechanisms now
that are directed particularly at women
that we see as having a negative impact
on what has been a very healthy literacy and education rate in the country.
Thank you,
thank you. We'll take a question on the far right just about the movement,
my question about the movement,
the woman life and has that had any movement?
You see,
our mandate was particularly we were confined to the area of the time of the protest.
But obviously
the context in looking at the context, we did need to go back historically and so on.
And what we have noticed is
there has been what the woman life freedom movement has actually done
is to probably break down
the barriers and the fear
of Reprisal, as my colleagues have indicated that women
and girls and men and boys came out in the streets
to express their solidarity,
knowing full well that there was going to be a
very high cost that they would have to pay for expressing
their solidarity and their autonomy
and for making the choice of coming out against the mandatory hijab. So we do feel
that this is one impact that can be clearly seen.
The other impact that we see
is that
there was a very strong
intersectionality in
this in this movement
that while it started
with
gender equality and the mandatory hijab and women's rights
and choice,
very soon, it resonated with a lot of disempowered constituencies in the country.
So, for example,
the minority populations those who were economically disempowered
those ethnic minorities and religious minorities that were persecuted,
that
there were discriminatory laws and policies against them.
And so they all converged
under this banner.
And that's that's a very important impact we feel of this of this movement.
Thank you.
Ok, thank you. Please go ahead. Thank you very much
from Iran International TV.
I totally understand that it is the business of the
Human Rights Council for the mandate to be extended.
But
do you think that you need more time to complete this task of documentation?
And if so,
if you have given the time, do you think that the Iranian regime will be
persuaded to collaborate with you in the second term?
Yes.
We would definitely benefit from more time because, as we mentioned earlier,
in terms of all the challenges that we face,
it took quite some time for people to come forward
and for us to begin to gather the evidence.
And now we are quite on a roll. I would say
so. I think it's important to continue that and particularly it's important to hear
the voices that are still unheard because people have come to give
their testimonies at considerable personal risk and with a great commitment.
And I think belief that it's important for what
they experienced and what they witnessed to be recorded,
and for that to be
addressed by the international community and by their own fellow nationals.
So for that, I think we do need
time would certainly be very helpful to be able to do that,
to look further into the issues you've already examined
as far as co operation. I can't say what the government of Iran will do,
but I can say from our perspective that
we would reiterate the calls for co operation.
Many of the states this morning that
were not so positive about the findings of the fact finding mission did
say that they called for constructive dialogue from the fact finding mission.
We haven't
E issued the possibility of constructive dialogue.
In fact, we've requested it repeatedly.
And I think obviously co operation would
be helpful because we're trying to investigate.
Things happen inside Iran.
There's information that's available to the government today, For example,
we've just received information about the so called special
committee on the 2022 unrest that was set up by
the president of Iran that has also released its
findings very close to the release of our findings,
in fact,
and it's important for us to examine what they've said and see they've
released, I think a 270 something page report.
So it's important for us to see what there is there if there
is anything that we can also analyse and assess and that would assist,
assist in,
you know, finding redress and remedies for the victims.
So I have a follow up question to that, because have you
have you had a chance to go through all those
documentation that Iranian
government released, or have you tried to
analyse them?
Yes,
we have actually gone through all the public
documents that we've been able to access.
We've also gone through many, many public statements by government officials.
We've also gone through There are some
41 reports that Iran's High Council for Human Rights released
many dealing with these issues. And we've analysed in detail 39 of them.
You'll see in the paper that we're releasing
the conference room paper we're releasing today,
which
I'm afraid it's about 400 plus pages. It will take you some time to go through it.
But we have
analysed and we've assessed and included information in there.
So we've absolutely
another point that the government I
mentioned today that this is an undocumented report.
I'm not sure on what basis that remark is made,
because there's a lot of documentation and we've also put together
a lot of documentation that can be seen by everybody.
OK, uh, thank you. Um,
please go ahead.
Uh, Gabriel to to fibre Reuters news agency. Um,
um, I'd like to ask about not just Mohammadi, um,
because the special rapporteur this morning mentioned her,
uh, saying, uh, he had received information
according to which she suffers from severe health issues,
including serious heart and lung conditions, placing her at a great risk.
Um, just wondering if, uh, the mission had any information about,
uh the conditions in which she's being held. Um, thank you.
We haven't looked in great detail at Ms Mohammad
the charges against her because they were not initially pertaining to the protest.
But we are aware that during this time period also that she was denied medical
access because she did not have the mandatory hijab on. She refused to put it on.
And to that extent, we have looked at her situation.
But we've looked quite a bit.
And she's also expressed solidarity, of course,
with the protesters of the women live freedom movement.
But we put out a call.
You heard my colleague also say that calling for release
of all of those arrested in connection with the protests
and an end to judicial harassment
in general for people.
And to that extent, certainly we would speak about Ms Mohamed's situation as well.
Ok, um, let's take a couple of questions from those online and come back to the room.
If you could,
uh, we have, uh, one from Laurence Sierra from the Swiss News Agency.
Uh, please go ahead. Laurent.
Yeah. Thank you for taking my question.
Uh, you you said at the beginning of the press conference that both the repression,
uh
and the protests even, uh, and the other forms are ongoing in Iran. So
have you received any indication on a violation that might
have taken place in the weeks before the recent elections?
And, uh,
what do you think will be the consequences of that
elections on the situation of human rights in Iran?
Thank you.
We've been investigating pretty much up until now,
so we're continuing to receive reports
as far as the
as far as the election is concerned.
I understand from the figures that we have so far
that the number of women elected has already been reduced.
But I don't think we have any indication so far that there will
be a different approach taken in relation to the response to the protests.
OK, thank you. Um, Jamie Keaton from the Associated Press.
Thank you, Todd. Um, and thank you for the your presentation.
Um, I would, uh My question is for, uh, Madam Hussein. Uh, please.
Uh, it has to do with,
um you mentioned the harassment and
various other difficulties obstacles that you faced
in pulling together this report. I wanted to know if you could tell us a little bit.
Um, since the report has been issued. Um what? Uh, first of all, what?
What kind of response have you gotten
from the Iranian government in particular?
And what is your response to their response?
Um, including from the, uh, from the the official that we heard, um, today, um,
in the Human Rights Council.
And And have you received any, um, threats?
Um, or other, uh, negative reactions since the publication of this report.
Thank you.
I'm very glad to say that I don't think any of us have received any threats,
and we have been personally able to carry
out this work without any restriction on ourselves.
But of course that
saying That's not the case for the people who we're trying to speak to.
And I think our concern is really about the threats that they face
and the threats that Iran is inside and outside Iran
face when they speak about human rights violations in Iran.
So we have been
not face that ourselves
quite clear about that.
But at the same time, I think a little surprised
or perhaps not surprised, but
so
disappointed to hear the government of Iran say this morning again
that they felt that we were biassed and politically
motivated and acting at the behest of certain governments.
We have really been at great pains to make it
clear that we are acting in a wholly independent capacity.
There are three of us from three different countries from Argentina,
myself from Bangladesh and Professor
Sar
Ali from Pakistan.
We are all lawyers or legal academics.
We do have one bias, I think, which is.
We work on women's human rights and we believe in human rights and
we work on human rights if you can call that a bias.
But
every member state that is in the Human Rights Council
is at least formally affirming its adherence to human rights norms.
You'll see there's an interesting exhibition actually
going on in the Human Rights Council.
I commend it to all of you on Iran and multilateralism
and that talks about the long history of Iran as
a nation in engaging with the making of international law.
So I think we just simply can't have this kind of double standard.
You can't speak about making international law,
applying it in the Human Rights Council and then
not respecting its norms as they apply to you.
This is true for every member state and it's true for Iran as well.
So I think to that extent it was very
disappointing hearing ourselves being called out for bias,
et cetera, which we really firmly reject that accusation.
And we think that our work speaks for itself.
We think we should look at the documentation
we've produced and the processes that we followed.
And we would really welcome detailed engagement with the
government of Iran on what we've produced rather than
you know, this kind of name calling which I think isn't beneficial for this process.
OK, thank you. Did you have a question in the back?
Hi.
I'm,
uh, Ada Raja from
Imo.
I have many questions, but, uh, I start with one of them that
Iranian delegation today.
They mentioned that your report it wasn't based on human rights
and it was based on political issue and you didn't mention the
opinion of the Iranian government.
I want to know about your opinion and another
thing that some of the family of victim in
Karran if you
know about a mass grave in Tehran, it's named
Kran
and it was
the issue is that their family didn't
have the permission to visit this grave and even
even yesterday.
And it's a situation ongoing in Iran during this protest.
Also, this is the same place that the government put Baha
and
Perthshire
to pressure
pressure to,
uh, great. They they love one there
and they ask why you didn't mention the issue in your report.
And the last question is about gender apartheid.
The Mr Javid Rahman today in his report,
mentioned ongoing gender apartheid in Iran.
I want to know your opinion.
And if do you think your report is going to help
women activists
and Afghanistan activists who focus on women issues they can use? They can
benefit from this report to go fight for
submitting about gender apartheid in Iran or not.
It's
sure
thank you for your question.
I mean, we'll probably split it amongst ourselves because it's quite a rich one.
You
you said that the Iranian government this morning
did say that our report was not based on facts and that
all we can say is that
we are very clear
that we are international, independent, impartial professionals
who
for us our credibility and impartiality and professionalism
has the highest importance and significance
and I think we have conducted ourselves to
the best of our abilities in that direction,
meeting those standards and if anyone was to pick up the report and read it,
they would see
that we have tried to include all aspects and
assessments of any evidence that has come before us.
I will repeat what my colleague and chair has said.
We would really appreciate and welcome
the engagement of the Iranian government of the authorities,
the various institutions
and organisations
and we would welcome an interactive dialogue with them.
So for us we've never shut the door
and so whatever we had,
despite the fact that we have not received that whatever was in the public domain,
we have actually assessed,
analysed and included in our report.
Thank you
and just on the question of gender apartheid,
we didn't apply.
The concept of gender part is not, as you know,
a concept in international law and we are applying
international human rights law and international criminal law.
But we've noted the fact that
many activists and academics and scholars increasingly
are grappling with this concept and also trying to
obtain its recognition
within international law.
So we've mentioned that we've said as a concept it's being considered,
but it's not something we've applied directly
and about family. A victim of
Hoon,
their family of victim of there was massacre in 1988 in Iran.
And, uh, all the bodies was
there. And now during this past year, even during the protest, the government, uh
uh perhaps more pressure on their families
even now.
And this is the comment that they want you to hear about
the
well. We haven't dealt with issues before
16,
September 2022 except to a limited degree in
terms of looking at structural and institutional issues.
And that's probably why we haven't addressed that in the report.
Ongoing Right now, Yes.
If anyone's facing intimidation, threats, anything else,
anything is ongoing now in the context of
what's happened on 16 September and afterwards,
then we're still functioning, and they should certainly reach out.
And we will do our best to respond.
Dialogue is
OK. We'll take one last question from the back. Please go ahead.
The fact that the report found that all the crimes serious human rights
violations that were committed were crimes against humanity and as a team.
Do you think the international community has
responded adequately
to the report? Do you think they could do more than just calling for your extension?
They could do more than that. So it's for a student from there. And she's 22
and
thank you.
Thank you for relaying her message and thank her on behalf. Please. I think
I
think it's a process. We've done the investigations till now.
The report is just out. In fact, another report is coming out today.
I think it's important to give an opportunity to respond
to that and to see what we've repeatedly said that
avenues for justice need to be explored
by the international community,
and support for the victims needs to be provided on an urgent basis.
For those who have fled Iran who need asylum elsewhere,
that's of the utmost importance.
But avenues for justice definitely have to be explored,
and I think that we hope that our report will provide some
some possibility of doing that
and I think that I want to,
I think just again to thank
the person who's raising the question for you.
That's what the questions have to keep being raised based on the evidence there is.
And I think there's more information that has to come forward.
That also needs to go forward. We need to
move it forward in every possible avenue that there is every possible space.
Thank you.
Ok, thank you very much. So that brings us to the end of this press conference.
Um, hope you have a good day. If you have any further questions, please contact us.
We'll we'll try to get those answered for you. Thank
you.