Research Report: The Islamic Republic's Response to Popular Protests Has Been 'Repressive Actions'

The Kurdistan Human Rights Association - Geneva has published its latest report on human rights violations in the Kurdistan province and other Kurdish regions in Iran. This 31-page report, available in English, is organized into various sections and covers events from December 31, 2022, to November 30, 2023. The report includes updated data and analyses regarding the human rights situation of the Kurdish population in Kurdistan and other Kurdish provinces, prepared for the attention of the UN Special Rapporteur, human rights organizations, media, governments, and public opinion regarding the human rights situation in Iran. According to this association, Iranian officials have refrained from providing accurate information regarding executions, landmines, border couriers, and other issues that particularly affect members of ethnic and religious minorities. The report states that, for example, 86% of recent executions have not been announced by the government, and for this reason, the association gathers its information through various methods such as interviewing victims' families and their lawyers, contacting and receiving information from institutions and organizations, local networks and groups, sources within governmental bodies, monitoring official government statements, or receiving information from unofficial news agencies. This section of the report provides updated data regarding the recent situation in Iran and the number of Kurdish protesters killed, injured, and arrested following the death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of the morality police from September 16, 2022, to September 16, 2023, in four Kurdish provinces: Kurdistan, Ilam, Kermanshah, and West Azerbaijan. The report states that since the beginning of protests in Kurdistan, the Kurdistan Human Rights Association - Geneva has been able to identify at least 148 killed Kurdish protesters based on its research and field contacts. Among these deceased, 11 were women and 17 were under 18 years old. Additionally, since the onset of nationwide protests from December 31, 2022, to November 30, 2023, at least 497 protesters have been killed, of which 447 were men and 45 were women. According to this association, over 60% of organized repression in Iran has targeted Kurds and Baluchis, while they constitute only 20% of Iran's total population of 82 million. In this section of the report, it is stated that in the protests following the death of Mahsa Amini, over 9,000 protesters in Iranian Kurdistan were severely injured due to direct gunfire from security forces, with the total number of injured across the country exceeding 112,000. The association has identified the names of 199 Kurdish protesters, including 9 women, who were severely injured. Additionally, of the 80 protesters who were blinded due to close-range gunfire, the names of 37 have been identified by this association. The report states that during this time frame, the names of 2,906 arrested Kurdish protesters in the provinces of Kurdistan, West Azerbaijan, Kermanshah, and Ilam have been identified, of which at least 335 were women. Furthermore, during the period from December 31, 2022, to November 30, 2023, 1,160 Kurdish citizens, including 123 women and 39 religious leaders, were arrested, with 250 of them sentenced to long-term imprisonment. According to this report, during the same period, 727 prisoners, including 19 women, were executed, of which at least 181 were Kurdish, including 2 women, and 146 were Baluchi, including 4 women. The Kurdistan Human Rights Association - Geneva has received reports of extrajudicial executions of 48 border couriers known as Kolbars from December 31, 2022, to November 30, 2023, along with 239 others who were injured as Kolbars due to direct gunfire or landmine explosions at the border. The Kurdistan Human Rights Association - Geneva provides details of the collected data in various sections in Persian attached to its annual report on human rights violations in Kurdistan each year.