The United Nations Human Rights Council's adoption of a resolution to continue the Fact-Finding Mission on Iran and significantly broaden the scope of its investigations is a crucial step for tackling the deepening crisis of impunity in Iran, Human Rights Watch said today.
The Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, advocated for by a large number of human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, was originally established amid the deadly state crackdown on the Woman, Life, Freedom protests of 2022. The mission will now have the mandate to monitor and investigate allegations of recent and ongoing serious human rights violations; establish the facts, circumstances, and structural causes of such violations; and collect, consolidate, analyze, and preserve evidence of violations with a view to facilitate future legal proceedings.
"The council's decision, supported by 24 states from all regions of the world, sends a strong signal that the impunity gap that enables gross violations of human rights and crimes under international law in Iran is increasingly closing," said Bahar Saba, senior Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The resolution ensures continued international scrutiny as well as collection and preservation of evidence to facilitate future prosecutions of perpetrators of crimes under international law, at all levels."
In its March 2025 report, the fact-finding mission found that gross violations of human rights, some of which it found amount to crimes against humanity, are ongoing and recommended continuing investigations into the country's human rights situation.
The extension and expansion of the fact-finding mission illustrates growing international recognition of the need to tackle systematic and structural impunity for human rights violations and crimes under international law, which has fueled cycles of state violence in Iran for decades. The mandate will be instrumental in holding perpetrators to account and supporting ongoing efforts by survivors, victims, and their families for their rights to truth, justice, and reparations.
The Human Rights Council also renewed the mandate of the special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran, who has played a critical role in responding to the human rights situation in Iran, including by issuing urgent appeals to protect people at risk, in particular those at imminent risk of execution
The Human Rights Council resolution further drew attention to the dire human rights situation in Iran, which necessitates continued scrutiny. This included the ongoing surge in executions, the widespread violence and discrimination in law and practice against women and girls and persons belonging to ethnic, linguistic, and recognized or unrecognized religious or belief minorities, and the absence of accountability in Iran. It called on Iran's authorities to cooperate fully with both the special rapporteur and the fact-finding mission, including by granting them unhindered access to the country.
