A new report from Human Rights Watch accuses Iran’s government of committing human rights abuses, including arbitrary arrests, torture and forced disappearances of protestors — even children — demonstrating against the regime.
The overnight report comes as Iranians take to the streets protesting the government’s brutality, and as Afsaneh Nadipour — a career Iranian diplomat — takes a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council Advisory Committee. The 47-member council investigates allegations of human rights violations by any U.N. member nation.
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Hillel Neuer, who monitors U.N. actions, said Nadipour’s appointment is an example of the U.N. betraying its values and the people of Iran.
"[Nadipour is] representing the Islamic regime of Iran, sitting on a Human Rights Committee that, among other things, is dealing with gender based violence," Neuer told Scripps News. "This is a regime that beats, blinds, tortures and rapes women who have the the audacity to stand up for their human rights. So it's completely Orwellian. It's a travesty of justice."
Neuer said Nadipour has also openly defended Iran’s 2022 crackdown against Women, Life, Freedom protesters.
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Meanwhile, the report comes as imprisoned Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi was given seven more years in prison and moved to northern Iran without notifying her family or legal team. The Norwegian Nobel Committee says she is being subjected to severe physical abuse — including being repeatedly beaten with wooden sticks and batons.
"They really have no shame," Neuer said. "And it shows that they're, I suppose you could say at the end of their own wits, that they're willing to do this kind of thing. A few years ago, they might have thought twice, maybe, but at this point, they just don't care, and they had orders to be merciless in firing on their own people. And it seems like they're they're in full crackdown mode."
Human rights organizations called for participating countries to walk out of Wednesday’s U.N. meeting — similar to what happened in 2022 when Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke just after Russia invaded Ukraine. Members did not walk out.
