Gina Romero

Three UN reports on the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran have been published in recent weeks.  The the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission’s report concludes that the crackdown by Iranian authorities on the Dec 2025- Jan2026 protests amount to crimes against humanity of murder, imprisonment, torture and other inhumane acts. It also finds reasonable grounds to believe that the US committed the war crime of launching an indiscriminate attack, both in striking a primary school in Minab and in using a wide-dispersal munition over a sports centre and homes in Lamerd. ohchr.org/sites/default/file…   The Secretary-General’s report covers August 2025 to May 2026. It shows how the authorities invoked national security to expand executions amid serious fair-trial concerns, carry out mass arrests and impose internet shutdowns. Sanctions, the hostilities and the shutdown compounded pre-existing socioeconomic hardship and further undermined the enjoyment of socioeconomic rights. Its recommendations include structural change: reform at the legislative and constitutional level and a moratorium on the death penalty. It urged Member States to end the hostilities, to integrate human rights into their diplomatic and economic engagement with Iran. ohchr.org/en/documents/count…   My report is organised around impacts: the killed and executed; the detained and missing; those who defend, document and mobilise; livelihoods; and the environment. In each, the external and internal sources of harm converge. Warnings of incoming strikes were posted to social media that the authorities’ own shutdown had made unreachable, and prisoners were reportedly locked in as the strikes fell. The war did not loosen the repression; it tightened it: protesters were recast as agents of the attacking States, and executions continued throughout. The burden fell hardest on those already at the margins. My recommendations are accordingly addressed to all parties: Iran, the US and Israel, and all States. ohchr.org/en/documents/count…   The common thread is impunity. I know of no investigation by the Iranian authorities into the killings by their forces, and the US and Israel have published no findings on their strikes. When those responsible will not investigate themselves, independent documentation is what stands between the victims and erasure. These reports, built on the work of survivors, families and civil society, are that record, and accountability will one day depend on it. Until then, the reports converge on what must happen now: end the hostilities through diplomacy, with human rights at the heart of any agreement; halt executions; release those detained for exercising their rights; investigate every death independently; and grant UN mechanisms access.