The UN Human Rights Council condemned Iran on January 23, 2026, for human rights abuses during a crackdown on anti-government protests that killed thousands. It mandated an investigation into what rights groups call the biggest repression since the 1979 revolution. High Commissioner Volker Turk urged Iranian authorities to end their brutal repression.
In Geneva, Switzerland, the UN Human Rights Council held an emergency session on January 23, 2026, to censure Iran for human rights violations. High Commissioner Volker Turk stated, “I call on the Iranian authorities to reconsider, to pull back, and to end their brutal repression,” expressing concerns for detainees.
The council approved a motion to extend a 2022 inquiry, allowing UN investigators to document the latest unrest for potential future legal proceedings. Rights groups report that bystanders were among those killed in the crackdown, the largest since Shi’ite Muslim clerics seized power in the 1979 revolution.
Tehran blamed “terrorists and rioters” supported by exiled opponents and foreign adversaries like the US and Israel. Iran’s mission decried the resolution as “politicized” and rejected external interference, claiming it has independent accountability mechanisms to probe the unrest’s root causes.
The vote saw 25 in favor, including France, Mexico, and South Korea; seven against, including China and India; and 14 abstentions. Payam Akhavan, a former UN prosecutor of Iranian-Canadian nationality, told the session, “This is the worst mass murder in the contemporary history of Iran,” calling for a “Nuremberg moment” akin to post-World War II trials of Nazi leaders.
Iran’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Ali Bahreini, deemed the session invalid and provided Tehran’s figure of about 3,000 deaths. However, one Iranian official told Reuters that at least 5,000 people, including 500 security forces members, had been killed. The US-based HRANA rights group verified 4,519 unrest-related deaths, with 9,049 more under review.
China, Pakistan, Cuba, and Ethiopia questioned the session’s utility, with Beijing’s ambassador Jia Guide labeling the Iranian unrest “a matter of internal affairs.” It remains unclear who will fund the extended UN inquiry amid a broader funding crisis stalling other probes.
