Germany and Iceland said on Friday they had submitted a request on behalf of 42 countries to hold a special meeting of the UN Human Rights Council later this month on the ongoing protests in Iran – which would mark the first time such a meeting has been convened for Iran. . The request calls for the council to “address the deteriorating human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran, especially with regard to women and children,” and has the support of more than a third of the council’s voting members, who must call a meeting outside the body’s regular schedule. The protests began in mid-September after the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was arrested by the country’s “morality police” police for allegedly wearing her hijab inappropriately. Demonstrators gather on the National Mall to protest against the Iranian government in Washington, DC, following the death of Mahsa Amini [File: Jose Luis Magana/AP] Dozens of people are believed to have been killed during the protests, while many others were arrested, but Iranian officials have not given an official count. They said, however, that more than 40 security forces had been killed and began speeding up trials of “riot leaders” who could be sentenced to death. A group of UN experts, including the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, Javaid Rehman, issued a statement on Friday calling on Iranian authorities to stop charging people with charges punishable by death for participating in the protests. Human rights groups condemned Iran for its response to the protests amid severe internet restrictions. The United States and the European Union, in addition to Canada and the United Kingdom, have imposed human rights sanctions on Iranian officials and entities, to which Tehran has responded with sanctions of its own.
Iran ‘warns’ UN chief
Iran has questioned the credibility of Western governments in scrutinizing Tehran’s behavior. In a phone call Thursday with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said a Human Rights Council meeting would be held by Western governments “that propagate violence and terror.” “[It’s] not for the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is a true defender of human rights and has shown profound restraint during the recent unrest,” Amirabdollahian said. The diplomat “warned” Guterres that convening a Council meeting would constitute a “political move” that would negatively affect Iran’s relations with the West. Video footage shows Iranian mourners marching towards the Aichi cemetery in Saqqez, the hometown of Mahsa Amini, in the western Kurdistan province [File: ESN/AFP] Iran also sent two representatives to New York to attend a series of UN human rights events to convey what it called a “correct narrative” of what is happening in the country – which officials refer to as “riots”. Kazem Gharibabadi, the Iranian judiciary’s deputy for international affairs who is in New York with conservative politician Zohreh Elahian, said they aimed to “prevent the false and hostile narrative of Western countries and the US.” Iran has repeatedly accused the US, Israel, the UK and Saudi Arabia of “inciting terror and unrest” across the country and of being the driving force behind the protests. Tehran recently blacklisted two London-based television channels as “terrorist organizations” and said cooperation with them would be punishable by law. Authorities earlier this week arrested a woman they said was an “agent,” a claim the news organization denied. The UK summoned Iran’s envoy on Friday to protest “direct threats against life from Iran” against journalists working in Britain.
“Don’t Hit Us”
Earlier this week, Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said warnings issued by the elite force against rivals had been effective. “Through many other countries, our enemies are sending messages to us, saying ‘we feel you want to hit us – don’t hit us,’” he said. It came shortly after reports emerged that Saudi Arabia had warned the US of a possible Iranian attack and Israeli fighter jets escorted two US B-52 bombers to the region in an apparent show of force in Tehran. Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron met on Friday with a delegation of activists working outside the country and later hailed the protest movement as a “revolution”. It came after the German parliament welcomed a group of activists and the Belgian parliament passed a resolution in favor of the protests. The protests, some of the largest since the country’s 1979 revolution that gave birth to the current theocratic establishment, continued on Friday with online videos showing demonstrations in several provinces, including southeastern Sistan and Baluchistan.
