Human Rights Council Approves: Extension of May Sato's Mission and Fact-Finding Committee on Iran Protests

The United Nations Human Rights Council, by adopting a resolution, extended the mandate of the special rapporteur on Iran and also voted to continue the activities of the fact-finding committee regarding the suppression of protests in Iran without a time limit. The voting session for this resolution was held on Thursday, April 14, during the Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva and was approved with 24 votes in favor, 8 against, and 15 abstentions. Countries such as China, Cuba, Indonesia, Sudan, Vietnam, and Bolivia voted against it, while Qatar, Kuwait, and Georgia were among those who abstained. Amnesty International, which has been one of the human rights organizations advocating for the extension of the special rapporteur's mandate and the fact-finding committee, called today's decision 'historic' in a statement, saying it sends a 'strong message to the authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran and their judges, prosecutors, and security and intelligence agents that they cannot continue to commit serious violations and international crimes without the prospect of serious consequences.' Sara Hashash, Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, stated, 'Beyond increasing global scrutiny, this mechanism strengthens efforts to achieve justice through the principle of universal jurisdiction by establishing a fundamental process for collecting, analyzing, and preserving essential evidence for future legal proceedings.' The UN Human Rights Council decided in November 2022 to establish an independent international fact-finding mission regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran to investigate human rights violations related to the 'Women, Life, Freedom' protests. The mandate of this committee was set for two years, and now the new resolution does not impose a time limit on this mission. According to human rights activists, with such a decision, the mission of this committee could include events and human rights violations prior to 2022, including the suppression of protests in 2019. The fact-finding committee, led by Sara Hussein, in its latest report in March 2024, accused the Iranian government of 'an organized effort to silence protesters, creating a climate of terror in society, and ensuring systematic impunity for perpetrators.' The UN human rights monitoring body has also designated a special rapporteur for Iran in recent decades, currently held by May Sato, who replaced Javaid Rehman in August 2023. The special rapporteur's duty is to examine the precise human rights situation in Iran and, in this regard, attempts to travel to Iran and report the results of her investigations to the UN Human Rights Council. However, in recent decades, the Islamic Republic has not allowed UN human rights rapporteurs to enter Iran and prepare reports. The last time a UN special rapporteur on human rights visited Iran was in the 1990s, before the transformation of the UN Human Rights Commission into the Human Rights Council.