Joint Statement of Impact Iran and Article 19 at the Special Dialogue with the Fact Finding Mission on Iran, July 5, 2023
The following statement was delivered by ABC Executive Director Roya Boroumand at the July 5, 2023 Special Dialogue of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Iran.
Mr President, Madame Chair,
I am delivering this statement on behalf of ARTICLE 19 and Impact Iran.
We welcome the investigation work of the Fact Finding Mission and look forward to the precedent it will play in documenting the rights violations and international crimes committed in the Islamic Republic and paving the way to international criminal accountability.
These crimes have continued since the start of the popular uprising in September. The scores of arbitrary arrests and executions related to these protests since the Human Rights Council met have continued.
The continued harassment and arrests of the families of the victims of these protesters, including the murder of a relative of Kian Pirfalek and arrest of his family are a testament that cruelty and brutality of the Islamic Republic continues with impunity. The poisoning of school girls -the demographic at the forefront of the recent uprisings- is another assault and form of protest repression in which the regime must face consequences for.
This impunity has continued with rights eroding legislative developments. A review of the legislations under consideration reveal that many of the proposed provisions are in response to various forms of protests, including through assemblies, defiance of discriminatory, humiliating and degrading compulsory veiling laws and expressions online and offline that have engulfed the country over the past years.
We are particularly concerned by the threats authorities have been making to mobilize technologies of surveillance and facial recognition to enforce compulsory veiling. The continued reliance of digital repression to facilitate human rights crimes and abuses by the Islamic Republic continues to increase. Most notably, systems of surveillance and censorship such as SIAM as well as the use of internet disruptions and shutdowns that coincide with regional or city-wide protests continue unabated, most alarmingly in the province of Sistan and Baluchistan.
Truth, justice and accountability for the serious violations of human rights and international crimes committed in Iran are needed, required and demanded. The Fact-Finding Mission has a key role to play, an immense task before it, and it needs the full support of the Human Rights Council.