HCHR_ The views of the Islamic Republic of Iran in response to the unreliable, illegal and political report of the so-called Fact-Finding Mission and the allegations against our country, have been prepared and published by the High Council for Human Rights of the Islamic Republic of Iran in two sections summarizing the opinions and the main content flaws and contradictions of the report. The text is as follows:
Summary of the comments of the I.R of the Iran
The so-called Fact-finding Mission published an undocumented, biased and politically-motivated report that sorely lacking in any justified legal basis, drafted in an unprofessional manner and based on unverifiable allegations, and which is deeply in line with the political goals of some western countries. Unfortunately, in the era of acting responsibly and recognition of accountability, when the people are getting more and more hopeful of promoting and protecting human rights, the politicization of human rights by some western countries has reached its peak, and such countries developed a morbid habit of employing self-fabricated political and human rights mechanisms to conceal their goals and aspirations under their reports. The natural concomitant of this process is the sacrifice of human rights and the disappointment of the world's people in international human rights mechanisms and arrangements.
Founders of the FFM, the main violators of Iranian nation’s rights
This mission was created as a result of lobbying and political give-and-take of some western countries, and its report was written under the pressure of the same countries. The main role in this political campaign was played by the German government, the very country that equipped Saddam's regime with chemical weapons of mass destruction, as a result of which, more than thirteen thousand Iranian citizens were martyred while more than one hundred thousand people were injured. Western countries, in various ways, including granting asylum, granting immunity and financial and intelligence support, provide a safe haven for terrorist groups whose hands are stained with the blood of thousands of Iranian citizens, including women and children, and help to continue their barbaric, destructive actions with impunity. By imposing unilateral sanctions and implementing these cruel sanctions in a systematic and extensive manner, these countries have played a major role in seriously violating the rights of Iranians, including women and children, and have in fact committed crime against humanity. In a politically-motivated report, they could not tolerate the actions of the Islamic Republic of Iran to establish security and deal with rioters and destructive and terrorist activities during last year's riots and considered it a crime against humanity!
Crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide in Gaza strip: silence with the support of human rights claimants
In a situation where the Zionist regime has committed massive crimes against the defenseless people by killing more than 30,000 people and injuring more than 72,000 innocent people and completely destroying hundreds of thousands of residential, medical, educational, places of worship and infrastructure in the Gaza Strip which fall within the framework of crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide and ethnic and racial cleansing, and have seriously violated all principles of international humanitarian law and international human rights, human rights claimants from countries and relevant international mechanisms are unable to take any action and they don't even have the courage to call this situation a crime against humanity. But these claimants, on the pretext of the death of one of the Iranian citizens, which can happen in any country, took a human rights pose and presented themselves as defenders of the rights of the Iranian nation and Iranian women and children, utilizing all their capacities such as interfering in Iran's internal affairs, incitement and support of chaos and destruction, creation of human rights monitoring mechanism, adopting resolutions and directing the fabrications of political and false reports. These double and contradictory behaviors have nothing to do with human rights and are completely driven by the anti-human policies and approaches of countries such as the U.S, Germany, U.K, France, Canada, etc.
2022 unrests, a pre-planned project against Iran
From the very beginning, in response to the resolution proposed by Germany in the Human Rights Council, the Islamic republic of Iran explicitly stated that it considered this mission to be political and illegitimate, as its creation was based on the false and biased assumption that last year, Iran was faced with a series of peaceful gatherings, and it should not have taken action to establish security and counter the rioters! This is in stark contrast to the report of the Special Committee to investigate the unrest of 2022 (elected by the president), a copy of which was provided to the HCHR, which reads: “the Islamic Republic of Iran did not face peaceful gatherings last year. Rather, many injuries sustained by law enforcement forces, damage to private and public properties and places, organized riots and the intervention and support of some foreign countries to the rioters and their movements and vandalism indicate that Iran faced full-scale riots. They failed however to achieve their goals due to the vigilance of honorable people and not accompanying the rioters”.
The available data, information and evidence reveal that the opponents of Iran had been long looking for an excuse to give rise to a crisis in the country. Therefore, in the shortest possible time into the publication of the news of the death of Miss. Mahsa Amini, they entered the stage of making waves. Later, by taking over the propaganda space, they started their project centered on the slogan of women, life, and freedom. As a matter of fact, the unrest was a pre-planned security scenario against Iran, and the news of Miss. Amini's death provided the right platform for its inception and expansion.
Non-independence and non-impartiality of the FFM and failure to consider external factors related to 2022 riots
One of the main conditions of investigation of any subject is the independence and impartiality of the investigators. These conditions have been emphasized both as a clause of the resolutions establishing or extending the mission of the Human Rights Council Office Holders and independently, in the form of Resolution 5/2 of the Human Rights Council. Unfortunately, the mission in question lacked even a minimum level of independence and impartiality due to its basic dependence on some western countries. For this reason, throughout the mission's report, there is no hint on the role of foreign countries, foreign and anti-Iranian media, social networks and terrorist groups in the creation and development of disturbances, whose documentation has been provided to human rights mechanisms through numerous reports.
Some findings regarding the impact of external causes on the unrest are as follow
• Involvement and steering function of centers and institutions affiliated with some governments and foreign intelligence services in giving rise to protest rallies and internal inflammation:
• Declaration of explicit and clear support and support of officials and leaders of some countries for unrest in Iran;
• The foreign actors (supporters) in the unrest are as follows: some foreign governments, especially the United States and the Zionist regime; Agents of intelligence organizations and services of some countries; Refugees, fugitives and foreign-based and elements of anti-revolution movements (terrorists such as MKO, terrorist groups, ...); Social networks; anti-Iranian and foreign satellite networks; ethnic, separatist and terrorist outfits based across the borders; foreign-based users of instant messaging apps.
Bold presence of terrorists group 2022 riots
During the 2022 riots in Iran, some events and issues that expose the hidden and visible dimensions of the narrative of these riots can be mentioned as follows:
• The arrest of more than 50 people from the operatives and associates of the terrorist group MKO who were involved in producing fake news that incited rioters, organizing assassinations and destruction, direct presence in the scenes of street riots and destruction of public property, providing various equipment to combat the police and incendiary materials for burning places and public and private cars.
• The arrest of 77 people from terrorist outfits of Komala, Democrat, Pak, PJAK, and some of the high-ranking cadres of these groups who were orchestrating, organizing and steering riots core on both side of the border to inflame western Iran.
• The arrest of 5 members of takfiri-terrorist groups along with 36 kg of explosives, who were trying to use the opportunity of the riots to plant bombs in people's gatherings as well as among rioters and blaming the explosions on the opposite side to intensify the conflict among the interested parties is also noteworthy.
• 9 foreign nationals from some western countries were arrested at the scene of the riots or behind the scenes of the conspiracy.
• Identification and arrest of 164 thugs with a history of prison, drug dealing and consumption, hooliganism, rape, etc. in the unrest.
• Discovery of several Molotov cocktail production workshops and a significant number of pistols, machine guns, cartridges and shotguns from rioters.
Although the so-called fact-finding mission claims that it was in pursuit of a detailed investigation of the incident and discovery of the truth, by publishing this undocumented and illusory report, it has clearly shown that it has no mission and purpose except to cover up the truth and render a reverse representation of the facts. The report of the fact-finding committee is actually a repetition and a botched effort at legitimization of baseless claims that were repeatedly raised in the anti-Iranian media and from the platforms of some Western governments. The formation of the so-called fact-finding mission with the political motives of a number of certain countries is neither legal nor legitimate.
Relying on unreliable and journalistic sources and deliberately ignoring national report
The most obvious principle in writing an investigation report is to use reliable and verifiable first-hand sources. The report of the fact-finding committee lacked any documentary sources and repeatedly used the method of induction and analogy to justify its baseless arguments. Basing the report on fake information and not complying with the principle of "the need to obtain facts through objective and reliable information from reliable sources" exposes the disingenuity of the drafter of this report and its non-legal nature. A report is said to be considered when people or institutions other than its drafters could verify the claims, or the documents and evidence provided are strong enough to dispel any doubt or uncertainty. The so-called fact-finding mission raised many allegations in its report without being clear about what documents and evidence it had to substantiate such allegations and how it obtained these documents. It is regrettable that the mission did not pay any attention to the provisions of international law regarding "sufficiency", "conclusiveness" and "compelling nature" of cited evidence and proceeded to publish material that do not lend to verification.
There is no denying that the report of the so-called fact-finding mission has been relegated to the assertions made by some fugitive criminals as well as sources related to terrorist groups and adversaries of the Iranian nation. Despite the fact that the Islamic Republic of Iran does not recognize the Fact-Finding mission and considers it illegitimate, it has prepared at least 45 well-documented reports on issues related to last year's riots, many of which are in response to the allegations of this mission.
Naturally, these enlightening reports that were sent to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights were also accessible to the fact-finding mission. However, the committee preferred not to refer to these reports and confines itself only to the sources, data and reports provided by groups, individuals and media hostile to Iran. Therefore, the credibility, professionalism, independence and impartiality of the mission have been questioned.
Deliberately ignoring the widespread violence of rioters
A comprehensive look at the various dimensions and angles of the issue proves that professionalism, disinterested treatment and neutrality are among the obvious characteristics of any fact-finding mission. It is truly deplorable that this mission has applied the name of fact-finding to itself, but has deliberately turned a blind eye to the rights of some ordinary people, security defenders, and law enforcement forces, who lost their lives or were injured as a result of the widespread violence of rioters and agitators, failing in the process to address the massive financial losses to public and private places and property. Despite the existence of documented data and information to indicate otherwise, this mission repeatedly emphasizes in the report that the disturbances of 2022 were peaceful. This biased view obviously ignores the rights of the people who have suffered physical and financial injuries as a result of the rioters' violence.
One of the main contradictions of the report is that the mission, on the one hand, approved the destruction of private properties, public and religious places by the protesters, and on the other hand, declared disproportionate the use of less lethal forces such as tear gas or water cannons.
Failure to provide documentation, relying on probabilities and providing general conclusions
In the eighth paragraph of the draft report, the mission states that "the findings presented are not conclusive". This means that in many cases, the mission has reached a general conclusion based on a few examples. This way of reasoning is nothing but reaching a definite conclusion based on presumptive reasons. Therefore, the mission's reasoning in this regard is completely compromised. Instead of finding the truth and referring to certainties, the mission, due to its prejudice, is more likely to insinuate and cling to its presumptions. For example, in the issue of student poisoning, the mission turn to conjectures to induce the view that the government is responsible for these incidents and used expressions such as "probable" and "unlikely" to justify its reasoning and thus "It is unlikely that school poisonings on such a scale would have taken place without the intervention of the government."
In this report, the mission has made various allegations but has failed to back them up with cogent proofs. For example, the allegations of several deaths in custody as a result of torture (paragraph 45), the alleged rape of a woman in Kermanshah (paragraph 47) and the rejection of complaints related to torture and ill-treatment by judges (paragraph 55) have been made, yet unsupported by any documentation or solid statistics. In addition, the mission claimed that there was evidence of the injury inflicted on Miss. Amini during her arrest (paragraph 19), while none of the evidence to prove the claim (witness testimony, footages, medical document, etc.) was presented and is loosely based on alleged “patterns of police brutality". For the allegation of severe restriction of the right to peaceful assembly under Iran's laws (paragraph 21), no legal reason has been produced. This is despite the fact that the text of the Party Law and the holding of thousands of assemblies during a year without police action refute this allegation.
Deviation of the FFM from its mission
In addition, the mission has not even adhered to its political and non-legal mandate. Some cases of the mission’s deviations from its mandate are as follows:
- The mission's legal decision-making regarding the scope of its authority (paragraph 5): while the scope of the mission's authority is determined by the mission's establishment document (human rights resolution), the mission's members have determined this scope through a document that is an extension of their authority and hence, their recommendations are rendered invalid.
- Judging without investigation about the events prior to 2022 (paragraph 14): The mission was only tasked with investigating the events of 2022; therefore, the allegation of "suppression and impunity of previous protest movements in Iran" is a departure from jurisdiction and an uncorroborated allegation. This is the best indication of the political and journalistic nature of the mission's report.
It is worth noting that the report, with the aim of proving the violation of international obligations of the Islamic Republic of Iran, insinuated that death sentences have not been issued in Iran's judicial courts for the most recent crimes (paragraph 61), whereas determining the most serious crimes in the Covenant International civil and political rights are left to the countries themselves, and the countries have no obligation to follow the advisory opinions of the Human Rights Committee in this regard.
The FFM concealment and dishonestly
In this report, the mission deliberately turned a blind eye to the events of 2022 and has departed from principles of justice and fairness. Some examples of this intentional disregard are as follows:
- The allegation that the majorities of the protests were peaceful (paragraph 21), is aimed at leaving out the fact that the majority of terrorist acts such as attacking the police and... (Documents of which are available) took place in the context of these protests.
- The mission's report, limiting the protests to "chanting slogans, helping others, driving cars as peaceful acts" or "violent acts such as throwing stones, burning tires or obstructing law enforcement" and concluding that these measures were not "imminent threat of death or serious injuries justifying the use of lethal force" and the action of the security forces was unnecessary and proportionate, seeking to prove extra-legal killing and execution by the security forces (paragraphs 25 and 32). In contrast, despite the clear documentation, the mission made no mention of rioters carrying firearms and assaulting officers with weapons and cars, burning cars, premises, equipment and etc.
- Alleging prosecution and punishment of people for performing safe behaviors such as posting on social media (paragraph 52) or alleging threats to employees of the anti-Iranian media BBC Farsi and Iran International and boycotting these networks (paragraph 84), without referring to the content of the mentioned posts and networks, including: teaching how to make IEDs or encouraging attacks on the police and government places, is part of the mission’s cover-up to corroborate the allegations raised by the resolution sponsor.
Repetition opponents and violators of the Iranian nation’s rights literature
The use of sloganeering dictions such as the slogan "Woman, Life, Freedom" is a collective cry for ethnic groups across the country to bring forth their long-standing sufferings and grievances which are driven by structural discrimination and marginalization in law and in practice " (paragraph 91), and repeating the words of the authorities of the countries that violate the rights of the Iranian nation and at the same time support the "killer of Palestinian children and women" regime and the statements of known terrorist outfits such as "the courage and steadfastness of the women, men and children of the "Women, Life, Freedom" movement" is in critical need of global solidarity" (paragraph 126), clearly reveals the solidarity of the authors of the report with the mentioned persons and the lack of independence, impartiality and professionalism of the mission that claims it wants to find the truth.
Remaining budget as an excuse to plan continuation of the work of the FFM
Here is a humorous and at the same time bitter, biting and regrettable comment made by the first secretary of the German delegation in a meeting with the representatives of Iran at the UN building, quoting the members of the fact-finding mission "the budget we allocated to this mission is not exhausted yet and can be used for another term”. It is regrettable that a human rights mechanism is determined for a country simply because of spending the budget, revealing the gross degradation of international human rights due to the political actions of some Western countries that claim to be advocates of human rights.
Accountability of the I.R. Iran
All this political game took place while during the riots of 2022, the Islamic Republic of Iran carried out extensive protective measures based on responsibility and sent the report of these measures through enlightening reports to the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, measures that the mission deliberately leaf out of consideration, struggling instead to deny any action towards accountability in the Islamic Republic of Iran by presenting misleading analysis and biased interpretations.
Some actions based on the responsibility of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which actually negate the creation of a fictitious and politically-motivated mandate of the so-called fact-finding mission, can be mentioned as follows:
On October 31, 2022, by the order of the Minister of Interior, a working group was formed in this ministry to prepare an independent and impartial report on life and financial damage sustained by citizens and law enforcement forces, as well as damage to public and private property and submit the same to the President. Following the presentation of the initial report of the Minister of Interior, the President, as the highest executive authority of the country, on May 7, 2023, issued a decree to establish a Special Committee for clarification, detailed and impartial investigation, and to remedy and compensate for any violation of the rights of citizens during the unrest.
In general, the results of the special committee's investigation confirm that the relevant government institutions, including the law enforcement and security agencies and the judicial system of the Islamic Republic, acted responsibly in the face of the unrest of 2022. Issuing urgent, timely and decisive instructions for law enforcement and security agencies to control riots with the least amount of resorting to force and based on self-restraint, fielding trained forces and acting based on a code of conduct, the judicial system's efforts to minimize the number of cases, widespread amnesty of the accused and convicts related to the 2022 riots within the framework of the Supreme Leader's amnesty decree, handling public complaints regarding the behavior of law enforcement officers and judicial officers during the riots, dealing with offenders due to negligence or fault, payment of financial damages and blood money to the survivors and heirs of the deceased, payment of damages to the injured, payment of medical expenses of the injured, payment to the victims of the unrest of 2022 out of the special fund of Ministry of Justice, as well compensation of damage sustained by public and private caused by unrest in the country's provinces are manifestations of this responsibility. The investigations of the Special Committee reveal that despite some few violations by some law enforcement forces, these violations don’t reflect in any way or manner the principled behavior of the government and were caused by the behavior of an individual. In addition, there has been the necessary will to deal with such infractions in law enforcement and judicial institutions.
This mission that was created by some western countries, especially Germany, with the money donated by them in December 2022 and after the failure of Iran's internal destabilization project, published an organized series of distortions of facts and lies. Not only did they fail to find the truth, but has also made the facts appear to be purposefully upside down. Therefore, the report of the so-called fact-finding mission lacks any legal validity whatsoever, and the Islamic Republic of Iran completely rejects it.
To read the detailed report click here