Your Excellency,
We, the undersigned non-profit organizations and social groups from the Iranian diaspora, respectfully urge the member states of the United Nations Human Rights Council to extend and expand the mandates of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran.
With this request, we support the recommendations put forward by Iranian civil society, legal experts, and human rights defenders during the March 2025 Human Rights Council sessions.
The Fact-Finding Mission’s 2025 report, based on more than 38,000 pieces of evidence, confirms the ongoing culture of impunity in Iran. It highlights widespread human rights violations, including extrajudicial executions, torture, unfair trials, and suppression of fundamental freedoms. Women, children, minorities, and political dissidents have been the most affected, with more than 900 executions reported in 2023 alone.
Given the gravity of these findings, we urge the Human Rights Council to extend the Fact-Finding Mission’s mandate with a broader scope. The current temporal limitation, which confines the mission’s investigation to events after 16 September 2022, hinders a comprehensive understanding of ongoing and systematic human rights abuses.
Therefore, we call on the Council to remove this restriction to enable a more thorough investigation. Expanding the timeframe will facilitate a closer examination of long-standing violations, including those documented during the November 2019 protests, the 2009 Green Movement, and earlier periods.
Furthermore, while the focus on women and children is critical, we urge the Council to broaden the scope of investigations to include other systematic human rights violations, such as state executions, transnational repression, and gender-based violence. These structural abuses require independent and continuous scrutiny, as well as international accountability.
Additionally, we call on the Council to extend the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran. This mandate remains crucial for documenting human rights violations, engaging with victims and civil society, and drawing international attention to Iran’s human rights crisis. We urge member states to support this mandate and allocate sufficient resources, including through coordination with other mechanisms such as the Fact-Finding Mission.
We remain committed to supporting international efforts to defend human rights and accountability in Iran. Extending and expanding both mandates, in line with the recommendations made during the March 2025 Human Rights Council sessions, will be a vital step toward ending impunity and achieving justice for victims.