Content warning: This article contains descriptions of violence, including shootings, beatings, torture, sexual violence, and discrimination. It also mentions issues relating to suicide. We include these details to honour the victims and their families, who want the truth to be brought to light.
Protesters in Iran have been killed, tortured or imprisoned in the thousands for demanding their human rights and political change. The officials responsible for protest-related crimes against humanity are evading justice while survivors and relatives seeking justice are persecuted.
In late 2022, Iran was gripped by large-scale protests that became known as the Woman Life Freedom uprising. After years of painstaking investigations,
Amnesty International has exposed how the Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity
to crush the uprising. Based on its extensive documentation of the crimes committed and analysis of the security forces’ command structures, Amnesty International has identified 87 officials who must be criminally investigated for their role in these crimes.
It is evident that the Iranian authorities are unwilling to pursue accountability as they rely on a state policy of lethal force to suppress dissent. As such, Amnesty International urges the international community to pursue international criminal justice for repeated mass protest killings in Iran as a matter of urgency. Impunity for these crimes exposes people in Iran to further atrocities,
as seen on 8-9 January 2026
when Iranian security forces unlawfully killed thousands of protesters and bystanders. Continued inaction on international justice further entrenches the normalization of mass protest killings in Iran.
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Join our call on UN member states to create an international criminal justice mechanism aimed at prosecuting those implicated in crimes against humanity in Iran.
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What happened at the protests in 2022?
The Woman Life Freedom up
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