Urgent Call for UN Human Rights Council Special Session on Mass Killings in Iran
The Balochistan Human Rights Group reports that a coalition of civil society organizations, including the Balochistan Human Rights Group, has issued an urgent appeal to member states of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The statement urges the Council to immediately convene a special session to address the unprecedented escalation in mass unlawful killings of protesters in Iran, occurring amid a nationwide internet shutdown imposed since 8 January 2026 to conceal severe human rights violations and crimes under international law by Iranian authorities.
Since 28 December 2025, Iranian security forces have carried out an escalating campaign of lethal repression against a largely peaceful uprising, resulting in thousands of deaths—including by official admissions—during protest dispersals. The true death toll remains impossible to fully determine due to the ongoing internet blackout, which has severely restricted communication and the ability of human rights organizations to verify information. Verified videos and credible reports from journalists, medical workers, protesters, eyewitnesses, and victims’ relatives in Iran reveal that security forces, positioned on streets and rooftops, have repeatedly fired rifles and shotguns loaded with metal pellets, often targeting unarmed protesters in the head and torso.
Eyewitness accounts and audiovisual evidence describe overwhelmed medical facilities, families searching for missing loved ones among body bags in overflowing morgues, and bodies piled in pick-up trucks, freight containers, or warehouses. This indicates a coordinated nationwide escalation in the unlawful use of force, firearms, and prohibited weapons against mostly peaceful protesters and bystanders since the evening of 8 January, when protests intensified across the country. Prior to this escalation, security forces had already unlawfully used rifles, shotguns with metal pellets, water cannons, tear gas, and physical beatings, killing dozens.
The repression has included raids on hospitals using tear gas, shotguns, and beatings against patients, relatives, and medical workers, as well as arrests of injured protesters in medical facilities. Thousands of protesters, including children, have faced arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearance, and incommunicado detention, raising serious concerns over risks of torture, ill-treatment, and arbitrary executions based on patterns from previous protests.
Iranian authorities have labeled demonstrators as “rioters” and “terrorists,” justifying harsh responses. The Head of the Judiciary has ordered provincial prosecutors to show no leniency and expedite trials, with calls for capital offenses such as “enmity against God” (moharabeh), heightening fears of death penalties for detainees. This follows a long-standing pattern of lethal crackdowns, including the November 2019 protests and the Woman Life Freedom uprising of 2022, where the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission concluded that Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity including murder, imprisonment, torture, rape, persecution, enforced disappearance, and other inhumane acts.
The statement highlights that systemic impunity for those responsible has enabled repeated grave violations and emboldened authorities to resort to mass killings. It calls on the UN Human Rights Council to act decisively through a special session and a strong resolution to end the bloodshed and impunity. This includes extending the mandate of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran (FFMI) and the Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, requesting an urgent inquiry by the FFMI with additional resources, and enhancing dialogues to include survivors and defenders. The Council should affirm Iranians’ rights to freedoms of opinion, expression, association, peaceful assembly, and equal participation in political life.
The appeal is signed by over 45 civil society organizations, including Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran, Amnesty International, ARTICLE 19, Balochistan Human Rights Group, Human Rights Watch, and others. The Balochistan Human Rights Group stands with the people of Iran in demanding accountability and justice.
