ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The United Nations Human Rights Council on Thursday voted to extend the mandate of two bodies monitoring and investigating human rights in Iran, including in connection with the Jin Jiyan Azadi protests.
The council “decided to extend the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran for a further period of one year,” according to a press release.
“The Council also decided to extend the mandate of the independent international fact-finding mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran for a further period of one year, to ensure that evidence of human rights violations related to the protests that began on 16 September 2022, is fully documented, verified and preserved,” continued the statement.
Twenty-two-year-old Kurdish woman Zhina Mahsa Amini died while in police custody on September 16, 2022 after she was arrested for allegedly wearing a lax hijab. Her death sparked Iran’s longest protest movement in the past four decades. Demonstrators chanting “Jin Jiyan Azadi” (Woman Life Freedom) called for greater freedoms for women and the movement grew into an anti-government revolution as the authorities responded with violence. Hundreds of people were killed and thousands arrested.
The resolution to extend the mandates were adopted by a vote of 24 in favor, eight against, and 15 abstentions.
Iranian authorities have refused to cooperate with the council's special rapporteur on Iran, Javaid Rehman, or the fact-finding mission, and have not allowed them to step foot on Iranian soil.
