States must press the authorities in Iran to cease their pattern of refusal to cooperate with human rights mechanisms, grant unrestricted access to independent investigators, and end reprisals against survivors, victims’ families and others for engaging with UN mechanisms

Responding to today’s adoption of a landmark resolution at the UN Human Rights Council, which extended and broadened the mandate of the Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, originally established in November 2022 during the Woman Life Freedom protests, Sara Hashash, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International said:  

“The extension of the mandates of both the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran and the Fact-Finding Mission, along with the expansion of the latter’s mandate, is a critical, long-awaited response to the persistent demands for justice from survivors, victims’ families and human rights defenders in Iran and in exile. Crucially, by no longer being limited to the 2022 Woman Life Freedom protests, the Mission can now investigate other recent or ongoing serious human rights violations and crimes under international law, ensuring that international scrutiny is not confined to a single chapter of repression, but that it addresses continuous patterns of serious violations. 

Today’s vote delivers a strong message to the Iranian authorities and their judges, prosecutors, security and intelligence agents that they cannot continue to commit serious violations and crimes under international law without the risk of consequences

Sara Hashash, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International

“Today’s vote delivers a strong message to the Iranian authorities and their judges, prosecutors, security and intelligence agents that they cannot continue to commit serious violations and crimes under international law without the risk of consequences. Beyond intensifying ongoing global scrutiny, by establishing a vital process to collect, analyze and preserve essential evidence for future criminal prosecutions, the mechanism bolsters efforts to secure justice through universal jurisdiction. 

“This milestone follows years of advocacy by Amnesty International, and the Iranian human rights community, pushing for a permanent independent international investigative mechanism to tackle the systemic impunity that has long enabled Iranian authorities to commit serious human rights violations and crimes under international law. 

“States must press the authorities in Iran to cease their pattern of refusal to cooperate with human rights mechanisms, grant unrestricted access to independent investigators, and end reprisals against survivors, victims’ families and others for engaging with UN mechanisms.” 

Background 

The resolution, adopted on 3 April 2025,  extended the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran and  decided that the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran should continue with a mandate “to thoroughly and independently monitor and investigate allegations of recent and ongoing serious human rights violations in the Islamic Republic of Iran …[and] to collect, consolidate, analyse, record and preserve evidence of such violations … and ensure that all evidence is accessible for use in any independent legal proceedings.” 

The resolution was adopted with 24 votes in favor, eight votes against, and 15 abstentions.  

In its March 2024 and March 2025 reports to the UN Human Rights Council, the Fact-Finding Mission found that “the Iranian authorities committed gross human rights violations in the context of the [Woman Life Freedom] protests, many of which amount to the crimes against humanity of murder, imprisonment, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, persecution, enforced disappearance and other inhumane acts, committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against a civilian population, namely women, girls and others expressing support for human rights, including ethnic and religious minorities, and LGBTQ+ persons.”