In a new report, ISHR analyses China’s tactics to restrict access for independent civil society actors in UN human rights bodies. The report provides an analysis of China’s membership of the UN Committee on NGOs, the growing presence of Chinese Government-Organised NGOs (GONGOs), and patterns of intimidation and reprisals by the Chinese government.
In the report, published on 28 April 2025 the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) uncovers the tactics deployed by the Chinese government to restrict access to UN human rights bodies to independent civil society actors and human rights defenders, and intimidate and retaliate against those who do so.
These tactics include using its membership of the UN Committee on NGOs to systematically defer NGO applications, increasing the presence of GONGOs to limit space for independent NGOs and advance pro-government narratives, systematically committing acts of intimidation and reprisals against those seeking to cooperate with the UN, weaponising procedural tactics to silence NGO speakers and threatening diplomats not to meet with them, and opposing reform initiatives and efforts at norm-setting on safe and unhindered civil society participation at the Human Rights Council.
These tactics strongly contrast China’s stated commitment to being a reliable multilateral leader. They stem from the Chinese Party-State’s primary foreign policy objective of shielding itself from human rights criticism and enhancing its international image by restricting and deterring critical civil society voices, crowding out civil society space with GONGOs, and stalling and diverting reform initiatives.
While China is the focus of this report, the issues addressed are systemic. Based on this report’s findings, ISHR puts forward a set of targeted recommendations to UN bodies and Member States, aimed at protecting civil society space from interference and restrictions. The recommendations are designed to strengthen UN processes and prevent any State from manipulating international mechanisms to suppress independent voices. These include:
Reforming the Committee on NGOs to increase transparency, limit abuse of deferrals, and ensure fair access to UN bodies for independent NGOs;
Strengthening protection mechanisms against reprisals, including rapid response to incidents inside UN premises, public accountability for perpetrators, and consistent long-term follow-up on unresolved cases;
Curbing the influence of GONGOs by distinguishing clearly between independent and State-organised NGOs, and better documenting their presence and impact; and,
Strengthening measures at the Human Rights Council and other UN bodies to make civil society participation safer, more inclusive, and less vulnerable to obstruction
The report has been featured prominently in a global investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) launched on 28 April 2025.
On 14 February 2024, eight organisations, including FIDH and OMCT within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, expressed their grave concern over the closure of civic space, attacks on freedom of expression, rising militarisation and continuous disruption and shutdown of communication that threatens the work and safety of Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) and Women’s Rights Groups in Sudan:
February 14, 2024. We the undersigned groups and organisations would like to express our grave concern and raise the alarm over ongoing reports about the closure of the civic space, attacks on freedom of expression, rising militarisation and continuous disruption and shutdown of communication that threatens the work and safety of Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) and Women’s Rights Groups in Sudan.
Shutdown of Communications
On February 7th, 2024, Sudan witnessed a complete communications shutdown. Reasons behind this shutdown remain unknown in the absence of official statements from operating companies and the warring parties. This shutdown followed two days of the extensive interruption of communications at the end of January 2024. The interruption of communications and frequent shutdowns have life threatening implications and put the safety and security of WHRDs at risk. Without access to communications, WHRDs struggle to document and report on the mounting atrocities on the ground. The interruption of internet networks has also impeded women groups’ access to the mobile banking apps that facilitate money transfers to operate or secure protection for WHRDs at risk. The #KeepItOn coalition — a global network of over 300 human rights organisations from 105 countries working to end internet shutdowns — has raised concerns that “amid the ongoing brutal violence in Sudan, the continued weaponisation of internet shutdowns is a flagrant violation of international law.”
Attack on Wad Madani
Since the attack on Wad Madani, the capital of the central Al Jazirah state, in mid-December 2023, Women’s Rights groups and WHRDs have lost the resources collected since the start of the war. Dozens of WHRDs and Women’s Rights Groups were forcibly displaced for the second time, driven from the city that had been the humanitarian response hub for local and international NGOs. As WHRDs were forced to flee again, they faced enormous challenges searching for safe locations across states and neighbouring countries. Dozens of WHRDs were harassed, detained, summoned and threatened by both warring parties during the last few weeks.
Targeting of Activists
The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) launched an intensified attack on human rights defenders, humanitarian workers and volunteers, journalists, and peace activists in the last few months in the areas under their control. Aid groups and first responders faced rising restrictions of movement and supplies.
Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continued to arrest civilians, loot both public and private properties and perpetrate systemic sexual violence across the areas under their control. WHRDs and Women’s Rights Groups struggle to operate in these areas as the risks of sexual violence are growing.
At least five WHRDs and women first responders have been detained, summoned, harassed or threatened in the last few weeks. The attacks were reported in areas controlled by both warring parties. Since the war erupted, four WHRDs have been killed, two of whom were journalists. At least 11 women health workers were killed as well.
Closure of Civic Space and Restrictions on Freedom of Expression
In January 2024, Sudanese authorities in the relatively safer states in Northern and Eastern Sudan, including local governors, issued decrees to dissolve neighbourhood resistance committees. These grassroot groups were mobilizing and organising communities since the emergence of the protests movement in 2018. The governors of five states also banned publication of information and imposed heavy penalties on publishing information on social media or other newspapers regarding the security situation in their states. Journalists and activists were detained in three states and two women journalists were summoned and threatened by local authorities following these decrees. In the Blue Nile state, Red Sea and other states, meetings and other forms of peaceful civic activities are either banned or not authorized. Women’s Rights groups and other NGOs operating in these states are working in hostile and increasingly challenging environments. Civic space in Sudan is closed, with an increasing militarisation of the state and local communities.
Rising Militarisation
During the last three months, Sudanese authorities launched a mobilisation campaign to arm civilians in various states under SAF control. This campaign’s leaders attacked and threatened activists who criticized the armament of civilians, including women, girls and boys. Voices of peace activists are considered treasonous by SAF supporters. The widespread arms in the hands of civilians has led to unprecedented threats to women and peace and security, including gender-based violence (GBV) in the areas outside of the fighting zones.
We the undersigned groups call on:
The warring parties:
An immediate ceasefire and the prompt creation of safe corridors for humanitarian aid organisations and groups, and to guarantee the safety of their operations;
An immediate restoration of telecommunications across the country;
Cease attacks on health facilities, medical supplies, and health workers, and uphold obligations under international humanitarian law;
The international community:
States and international human rights, peace-building and feminist groups and organisations to work together to create an immediate long-term protection program for WHRDs (and their families) that addresses relocation needs (in several locations if needed), provides psychological support for post-traumatic stress caused by war and conflict, including due to GBV, and equips WHRDs’ with all the necessary means to continue their work in the defense of human rights;
States to provide support for the FFM and other international mechanisms mandated to document human rights violations in Sudan, including by ensuring that these entities have the necessary resources to carry out their work effectively;
States to support local initiatives providing humanitarian support to local communities as well as support services to victims, and to support civil society’s documentation and reporting efforts so that the evidence obtained can be used for future judicial proceedings, including for those related to SGBV crimes.
The international community to establish a mechanism for the disclosure of the whereabouts of the disappeared and the release of detainees, and to urgently address the issue of enforced disappearances and grave violations in detention centers, including GBV;
The international community to reinforce and protect medical staff in accordance with international humanitarian law;
The Fact Finding Mission (FFM) recently established by the UN Human Rights Council, to ensure accountability is pursued for GBV crimes committed by warring parties, to regularly and meaningfully engage with civil society in this process, and to ensure effective protection of witnesses and victims;
All other UN human rights mechanisms, including UN Special Procedures, to support the FFM’s work and to investigate GBV as a weapon of war, to call for the release of detainees and for the disclosure of the whereabouts of the disappeared, and to demand an investigation into violations in detention, including GBV;
Photo: Freedom of Speech Includes The Press by Narih Lee under CC 2.0
INVITATION to the side event: IN DEFENCE OF CIVIC SPACE AND DEMOCRACY SUPPORTING THE WORK OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS on Monday 26 February 2024, 1pm – 2pm CET, Room XXII, Palais des Nations, Geneva
Human rights defenders promote democracy and a vibrant civic space, too often, in dangerous circumstances. This event aims to discuss the crucial work of defenders, how the international community can best support them and how crucial gender equality is for the full realisation of democracy.
Speakers:
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Leader of democratic forces (Belarus)
Dr. Sara Abdelgalil, Paediatric Consultant NHS UK, Democracy & Governance Advocate, Active member of Sudanese Diaspora
Phil Lynch, Executive Director, International Service for Human Rights
Elina Valtonen, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Finland
Moderator: Imogen Foulkes, BBC Geneva
A light lunch will be served. The event will be recorded and published as a podcast (Inside Geneva, produced by Swiss Broadcasting).
Last week, on 23 January 2024, the UN Human Rights Council reviewed the human rights record of China during its fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The International Service for Human Rights reporst back on its successful campaign: Following ISHR campaign and your messages to UN member States, sixcountries, including France, Luxembourg, the UK, the US, Sweden, and Australia urged Beijing to put an end to the practice of ‘Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location’ (RSDL) – which UN experts have branded a form of enforced disappearance. This would not have been possible without you!
Following this session, the Chinese government must review the recommendations and decide whether to accept or simply note them, and report back to the Human Rights Council at its 56th session (June 2024). ISHR will closely monitor this and keep you informed. Our call to raise the case of Cao Shunli got unanswered. Cao was detained by Chinese police in September 2013 in retaliation for her work to seek meaningful civil society participation in China’s second UPR cycle. Ten years ago, on 14 March 2014, Cao died of multiple organ failure following continued denial of medical treatment in custody. Despite the emblematic nature of her case Cao’s name was not once cited by UN member States. Nevertheless, at least four States recommended to China to end reprisals against human rights defenders seeking to engage with the United Nations. We’re ramping up efforts for honouring the memory of Cao Shunli and calling for accountability in her case. We are preparing a small event on 14 March 2024 in Geneva. Stay tuned for more very soon!
On 4 January 2024 ISHR published a massive, complete compilation of all recommendations issued by UN human rights bodies – including the UN Special Rapporteurs and Working Groups, the UN Treaty Bodies, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights – on the human rights situation in China since 2018. Recommendations are sorted by topic and community affected.
This repository compiles all recommendations issued by UN human rights bodies to the Government of the People’s Republic of China since 2018, the year of its third Universal Periodic Review (UPR).
This includes recommendations in: Concluding Observations issued by UN Treaty Bodies following reviews of China in 2022 (Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)) and 2023 (Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)), as well as in Decision 1 (108) on the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) under its Early Warning and Urgent Action Procedure; communications and press releases by UN Special Procedures (Special Rapporteurs and Working Groups), including Opinions by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention; press releases by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) as well as the OHCHR’s assessment of human rights in the XUAR.
These UN bodies are composed of independent, impartial experts, from all geographic regions.
The recommendations are categorised by key topic or community affected. Yet, this repository does not cover all topics, nor does it include all recommendations issued by the above-mentioned UN bodies.
This repository maintains the original language of the recommendation issued by a given UN body, with minor formatting changes. For the appropriate links please go to the original document.
This repository does not include recommendations to the Governments of Hong Kong and of Macao. Please click here for the repository of recommendations on Hong Kong, and here for the repository of recommendations on Macao.
The topics include very useful ones such as:
Chinese human rights defenders, lawyers and civil society organisations in mainland China
Uyghur region
Tibet
National security legal framework, judicial independence and due process
Surveillance, censorship and free expression
Reprisals, meaningful cooperation with the UN, and unrestricted access to the country for UN experts
Transnational repression
LGBTI rights
Business and human rights, including business activities overseas
A year after being suspended from the body, Russia will not be returning to the UN Human Rights Council in January, despite its best efforts. Running for one of two seats allocated to countries from Central and Eastern Europe, Russia received only 83 votes, significantly less than competitors Albania (123) and Bulgaria (163).
‘With this vote, States have acted in line with General Assembly resolution 60/251 and stopped Russia’s brazen attempt to undermine the international human rights system,’ said Madeleine Sinclair, co-director of ISHR’s New York office. ‘Russia must answer for a long list of crimes in Ukraine and for its ruthless and longstanding crackdown on civil society and individual liberties at home. We’re relieved voting States agreed that it could not have legitimately held a seat at the UN’s top human rights body,’. [see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/tag/russia/]
In the only other competitive race, between States from Latin American and the Caribbean, the General Assembly re-elected Cuba, one of Russia’s most consistent allies. Cuba ran for one of three seats for Latin America and the Caribbean, facing three competitors and coming in first, with 146 votes, ahead of Brazil (144), the Dominican Republic (137) and Peru (108).
Results for Asia and Africa were as disappointing as they were predictable, with the election of China and Burundi. Both States ran in uncompetitive races, with only as many candidates as seats available, thus all but assured to win. They were elected with 154 (China) and 168 (Burundi), finishing bottom of each of their respective regional slates with noticeably fewer votes than their direct competitors.
Both countries are objectively and manifestly unsuitable for the Human Rights Council in view of their domestic records, their past actions as Council members, and the very criteria that nominally governs membership of the Council.
ISHR has been campaigning to call on States at the General assembly to vote in accordance with resolution 60/251 and to use their votes to ensure a strong and principled Human Rights Council. ISHR produced a series of individual and regional scorecards examining the records of all 17 candidates running this year.
On 17 April 2023, ISHR sent its annual submission to the report of the UN Secretary-General on reprisals and intimidation against defenders engaging or seeking to engage with the UN and its human rights mechanisms. The submission presents a disturbing pattern of intimidation and reprisals in 23 countries.
ISHR’s annual submission to the report of the UN Secretary-General on reprisals demonstrates the need for the UN and States to do more to prevent and ensure accountability for intimidation and reprisals against human rights defenders and others cooperating or seeking to cooperate with the UN and its human rights mechanisms. ISHR’s submission outlines developments in the international human rights system, and documents a number of new cases, as well as follow-up on previously submitted cases.
“In order for the international human rights system to function to its fullest potential, human rights defenders must be able to share crucial information and perspectives, safely and unhindered. However, many defenders still face unacceptable risks and are unable to cooperate safely with the UN.” Madeleine Sinclair, New York Office Co-Director and Legal Counsel. “The vast majority of cases remain unresolved year after year. More must be done to ensure the efforts to document and address reprisals cases also include sustained and consistent follow up. Otherwise, the cost of carrying out reprisals remains too low, impunity reigns and perpetrators are further emboldened“.
The submission presents a disturbing pattern of intimidation and reprisals in 23 countries, with the addition this year of Algeria and France. Cases of reprisals featured in the submission range from States defaming and stigmatising defenders, to criminalising their work, but also to arbitrarily detaining, arresting and killing them.
In Israel, Palestinian defenders face ongoing intimidation and repression as reprisals for their cooperation with UN human rights mechanisms.
In Bahrain, the situation still shows no signs of improving, with human rights defenders continuing to be arbitrarily detained and denied timely and adequate medical treatment by the government.
In Algeria, Andorra, Cameroon and India defenders continue to be criminalised.
In China defenders are still facing online surveillance, harassment and enforced disappearance.
In Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela and Yemen many more defenders face arbitrary detention, ill-treatment and criminalisation.
Other cases of reprisals include threats, harassment, hate speech, surveillance, property damage, disbarment, death threats, travel bans, enforced disappearances, unjustified raids, dissolution of associations, judicial harassment, smear campaigns, forced deportations, confiscation of travel documents, red tagging, denial of healthcare and family visits as well as accusations of terrorism, among others. Other countries cited in the report include cases in the Andorra, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Burundi, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, France, The Maldives, Morocco, Nicaragua, The Philippines, Russia, and Thailand.
ISHR also submitted follow-up information on a large number of cases, demonstrating that incidents of reprisals and intimidation are very rarely, if ever, adequately resolved.
This year, ISHR is running again its #EndReprisals campaign. The campaign will raise the profile of 6 cases (all included in the submission) and seek to achieve a more sustained attention on the issue of reprisals and follow-up of the cases throughout the UN system. In particular, we want the UN Secretary General to include all the reprisal and intimidation cases in his upcoming report and UN member States to use the opportunity of the interactive dialogue at the Human Rights Council on the Secretary-General’s report in September, as well as Item 5 debates at all sessions, to raise specific cases and hold their peers accountable.
Patrick Wintour, Diplomatic editor of the Guardian, reported on Monday 20 March 2023 that the he UN rapporteur on Iran, Javaid Rehman, has said the scale and gravity of Iran’s violations of human rights amount to a crime against humanity. Javaid Rehman, a special rapporteur on Iran, told the United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday the country was experiencing the most serious violations in four decades.
Rehman warned Iran was experiencing the most serious violations in four decades. He also claimed the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman, in September 2022 resulted from beatings by the “morality police”. Iran has said she died from a pre-existing neurological disorder, but Rahman said reliable medical sources pointed to state culpability. He said Iran had refused to conduct an impartial or transparent inquiry into her death, including the allegations that she was beaten up and tortured.
“The scale and gravity of the violations committed by Iranian authorities, especially since the death of Ms Amini, points to the possible commission of international crimes, notably the crimes against humanity of murder, imprisonment, enforced disappearances, torture, rape and sexual violence, and persecution,” he said.
Drawing on evidence, including eyewitness testimony and comments from reliable medical sources, the report said it was clear she had died on 16 September “as a result of beatings by the state “morality police”.
“I would like to stress that her death was not an isolated event but the latest in a long series of extreme violence against women and girls committed by the Iranian authorities,” Rehman said. He said “the responsibility of top senior officials in instigating this violence can … not be ignored.”
“Protesters including children were beaten to death,” Rehman said, adding that “at least 527 people, including 71 children were killed, and hundreds of protesters severely injured.”He also said dozens of protesters “have lost their eyes because of direct shots to the head”, while Iranian doctors had reported that women and girls participating in the demonstrations “were targeted with shotgun fire to their faces, breasts and genitals”.
He said: “Children released have described sexual abuses, threats of rape, floggings, administration of electric shocks and how their heads were maintained underwater, how they were suspended from their arms or from scarves wrapped around their necks.”
The EU says it has now imposed sanctions on 204 individuals and 34 entities in six waves of sanctions. The UK announced it was putting sanctions on five members of the board of directors of the IRGC Co-operative Foundation. This organisation funnels money into the Iranian regime’s repression, the UK Foreign Office said.
He voiced outrage at the executions of at least four people associated with the protests “after arbitrary, summary, and sham trials marred by torture allegations”. He added: “These summary executions are the symbols of a state ready to use all means to instil fear and quash protests,” pointing out that at least 17 other protesters have so far been sentenced to death and more than 100 others face charges that carry the death penalty.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres with Chinese president Xi Jinping during an official visit to Geneva on 18 January 2017. (UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré)
In parallel, ISHR hosted a panel discussion on the topic with former member of the UN Committee against Torture (CAT) Felice Gaer, William Nee of the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders, Peter Irwin from the Uyghur Human Rights Project, and ISHR’s Director of Treaty Body advocacy, Vincent Ploton. ISHR Programme Director Sarah Brooks moderated the discussions.
“The incidents recounted, while qualitative in nature, provide compelling evidence of China’s ability to effectively and unrelentingly restrict civil society engagement with [UN treaty bodies] in the context of specific reviews, and deter independent sources from speaking up,” the report states.
The report adds to growing suspicion of Beijing’s sway over the UN human rights office, after it led a successful campaign last year to delay for months the publication of a report concluding that mass detention of Uyghurs and other religious minorities in Xinjiang could amount to crimes against humanity.
“When treaty bodies do their work well, they document violations and that can lead to serious actions such as the establishment of commissions of inquiry at the Human Rights Council, or even refereeing situations to the International Criminal Court, which can then lead up to indictment of national leaders or heads of state,” Vincent Ploton, co-author of the report, told Geneva Solutions. “So the consequences can be far reaching.”
China, which is party to six out of the ten treaties, has consistently sponsored candidates that have previously worked for the government and that work in institutions or organisations with close ties to the government, Sarah Brooks, co-author of the report, explained. At least one of them, Xia Jie currently sitting in the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), has formal ties to the Chinese communist party.
The authors recount how in 2015 during China’s evaluation by the Committee Against Torture (CAT), the Chinese committee member was kicked out by the chair for taking photos of the activists present, an intimidation tactic that China but also other countries have been known to use against campaigners who come to Geneva.
Seven Chinese activists were also reportedly prevented from travelling to Geneva to participate in the evaluation through threats and even detention. Felice Gaer, CAT chair at that time, recalled the event at a panel organised to launch the report.
This “creates a chilling effect”, leading “those who might be facing particular risks of reprisals to walk back their interest in participating in the process”, Brooks told Geneva Solutions.
The Chinese government has particularly targeted Uyghur and Tibetan groups, telling the office not to publish their reports on the UN human rights website under the pretext that they are “splitists” and therefore their input is misinformation, Gaer recalled at the panel. See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2022/09/01/finally-the-long-awaited-un-report-on-china/
Ploton said this external pressure exerted on UN staff is even “more worrying”, but said. At the same time, reports submitted by what civil society groups call Gongos, meaning government organised NGOs, that pose as civil society while promoting state interests, have been flooding the reviews, making it hard for the experts to know which sources to trust.
Speaking at the panel, William Nee of the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders warned that avenues for expression in China, from press to social media to academia, had been closing in recent years, making the UN system all the more important for Chinese rights activists.
China is set to be evaluated by the Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights (CESCR) in February, followed by the CEDAW in May.
In an email response to Geneva Solutions, the Chinese permanent mission to the UN in Geneva rejected the report, calling the accusations “groundless and unjustified”.s
China is far from being the only country trying to influence the treaty bodies. The report also mentions Saudi Arabia and Russia. An analysis by the Geneva Academy from 2018 found that 44 per cent of treaty body expert members had experience working for the executive branch in their respective countries, as opposed to independent civil society groups or academia.
Ploton explained that this was allowed by countries practising “horse trading”, meaning that they agree to vote for a candidate in exchange for a vote for theirs.
Treaty bodies members adopted in 2012 the Addis Ababa guidelines, which spell out what independence and impartiality means for them, but the authors say Geneva Academy’s findings show there has been little progress since then. A major review of the treaty bodies system took place in 2020 for which civil society “had high hopes”, Ploton said. But in the end, “the process was a failure”, he said, describing the issue of reforming treaty bodies as a “hot potato” no state or UN official wanted to hold. “This is not a new phenomenon,” he said. “What is unique about China is how systematic it is.”
China has also been pushing for reforms to keep the expert groups in check, for example keeping them from doing follow-ups after a review or even banning NGOs that are not accredited by the UN Economic and Social Council, which had been blocking for years certain NGOs from being approved until recently.
A few countries including the Nordics and the United Kingdom have taken steps of their own to make sure that candidates are independent. “But the number of countries that take the process seriously is too narrow,” Ploton said.
The ISHR calls in the report for the creation of an independent vetting process, in the image of the International Criminal Court and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which have independent expert panels to monitor member elections. Both were NGO-led initiatives, as were the treaty bodies, Ploton said. “Perhaps it’s on us to make that change happen,” he added.
Just before the United Nations Human Rights Council will hold a special session on ongoing human rights violations in Iran on 24 November, Human Rights Watch urge it to establish an independent fact-finding mission to investigate Iran’s deadly crackdown on widespread protests as a first step toward accountability, Human Rights Watch said today.
The demonstrations began on September 16, 2022, following the death of Mahsa (Jina) Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman, in the custody of the “morality police.” As of November 22, human rights groups are investigating the deaths of 434 people including 60 children. Human Rights Watch has documented a pattern of Iranian authorities using excessive and unlawful lethal force against protesters in dozens of instances in several cities including Sanandaj, Saghez, Mahabad, Rasht, Amol, Shiraz, Mashhad, and Zahedan.
“Iranian authorities seem determined to unleash brutal force to crush protests and have ignored calls to investigate the mountains of evidence of serious rights violations,” said Tara Sepehri Far, senior Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The UN Human Rights Council should shine a spotlight on the deepening repression and create an independent mechanism to investigate Iranian government abuses and hold those responsible accountable.”
Since mid-November, Iranian authorities have dramatically escalated their crackdown against protests in several Kurdish cities, with at least 39 people killed, according to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network. The group reported that from November 15 to 18, at least 25 Kurdish-Iranian residents were killed in Kurdish cities during three days of protests and strikes to commemorate the victims of the government’s bloody crackdown on protests in November 2019.
The authorities have pressured families of recent victims to bury their loved ones without public gatherings, but several funerals have become the scene of new protests. The group said that at least 14 people were killed in Javanrood, Piranshahr, Sanandaj, Dehgan, and Bookan from November 19 to 21, 2022. Radio Zamaneh said the victims included Ghader Shakri, 16, killed in Piranshahr on November 19, and Bahaedin Veisi, 16, killed in Javanrood on November 20.
A 32-year-old Sanandaj resident told Human Rights Watch that the security forces fatally shot Shaho Bahmani and Aram Rahimi on November 17 and forcibly removed their bodies from the Kowsar Hospital in Sanandaj, and threatened the two men’s families outside the hospital.
Jalal Mahmoudzadeh, a parliament member from Mahabad, toldShargh Daily on November 21 that between October 27 and 29, security forces killed seven protesters in the city Mahabad. Mahmoudzadeh said security forces also damaged people’s houses; one woman was killed in her home outside of the protests. He said that since then, another man had been killed, and three more had been shot and killed during his funeral, bringing the total number killed in Mahabad, since October 27, to 11.
Videos circulated on social media show that authorities have deployed special forces and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps units armed with military assault rifles, vehicle-mounted DShK 12.7mm heavy machine guns, and armored vehicles.
On October 24, Masoud Setayeshi, the judiciary spokesperson, told media that authorities have started prosecuting thousands of protesters. These trials, which are often publicized through state media, fall grossly short of international human rights standards, with courts regularly using coerced confessions and defendants not having access to the lawyer of their choice. As of November 21, trial courts have handed down death sentences to at least six protesters on the charges of corruption on earth and enmity against God. The acts judicial authorities have cited to bring charges against the defendants, including “incineration of a government building” or “using a “cold weapon” to “spread terror among the public.” Amnesty International said that at least 21 people are facing charges in connection to the protests that can carry the death penalty.
Since the protests began in September, the authorities have arrested thousands of people during protests as well as hundreds of students, human rights defenders, journalists, and lawyers outside the protests. Detainees are kept in overcrowded settings and are subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, including sexual harassment, Human Rights Watch said.
Two women who were arrested during the first week of protests in Sanandaj told Human Rights Watch that the authorities brutally beat them, sexually harassed them, and threatened them during their arrests and later while they were detained at a police station. One of these women said she had several severe injuries, including internal bleeding and fractures.
Over the past four years, Iran has experienced several waves of widespread protests. Authorities have responded with excessive and unlawful lethal force and the arbitrary arrests of thousands of protesters. In one of the most brutal crackdowns, in November 2019, security forces used unlawful force against massive protests across the country, killing at least 321 people. Iranian authorities have failed to conduct any credible and transparent investigations into the security forces’ serious abuses over the past years.
Iranian authorities have also used partial or total internet shutdowns during widespread protests to restrict access to information and prohibit dissemination of information, in particular videos of the protests, Human Rights Watch said. They have blocked several social media platforms, including WhatsApp messaging application and Instagram, since September 21, 2022, by an order of Iran’s National Security Council.
“On November 24, UN Human Rights Council members should vote to establish an independent mechanism to document serious human rights violations in Iran and advance on the path to accountability,” Sepehri Far said.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 