Protest crackdowns led by Iran disproportionately affect its ethnic and religious minorities
A UN Human Rights Council-appointed International Fact-Finding Mission recently published an advocacy paper that underlines the multiple ways Iranian security forces violated the human rights of minority groups through “extrajudicial executions, unnecessary use of lethal force, arbitrary arrests, torture, rape” and other crimes.
The paper also highlighted the situation of women belonging to religious and ethnic minorities, who experience discrimination after crackdowns on protests, as well as pre-existing violence and discrimination as both women and members of minority groups.
The government-led crackdowns in Iran followed a series of protests fueled by the “unlawful” killing of Jina Mahsa Amini, an Iranian-Kurdish woman, who was arrested for not complying with Iran’s law mandating women to wear a hijab. Demonstrators were mostly from religious and ethnic minorities.
The full article is available on the website of the UN.
