برای خواندن این مطلب به فارسی اینجا را کلیک کنید
A new report by the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran has documented grave violations against Iranian civilians from two directions: an unprecedented campaign of Iranian government repression during the December 2025–January 2026 protests and likely war crimes committed by the U.S. military after the war began in February. Together, the findings present a devastating picture of people in Iran caught between severe repression by their own government and a destructive external war. Neither set of violations diminishes or justifies the other.
The Mission concluded that many violations committed by Iranian authorities during the protest crackdown amounted to crimes against humanity, including murder, imprisonment, torture and other inhumane acts. According to the Fact-Finding Mission, the Iranian government’s response to the protests that erupted in December 2025 represented an unprecedented escalation from previous crackdowns. Investigators found that killings by security forces occurred across all 31 provinces, with the highest reported death tolls in Tehran, Karaj, Mashhad, Isfahan and Rasht.
The report details that security forces positioned themselves on rooftops and other elevated locations and fired assault rifles into crowds of protesters. In Karaj, the Mission documented security forces using tear gas to trap demonstrators in narrow alleys before shooting at them. Protesters also suffered severe injuries to the head, chest and eyes from metal shotgun pellets, in some cases causing permanent blindness.
At least 221 children were reportedly killed, some as young as two years old. The Mission also documented attacks on healthcare facilities, beatings and arrests of wounded protesters, and arrests of healthcare workers. These actions deterred some injured people from seeking potentially life-saving treatment.
The repression continued beyond the streets, according to the report. Tens of thousands of people were deprived of their liberty through large-scale arbitrary arrests and detention. Detainees faced torture, solitary confinement and denial of legal counsel, while some families were denied information about the whereabouts of relatives, raising concerns of enforced disappearances.
Authorities also compounded the suffering of bereaved families. According to the Mission, officials in some cases delayed or refused to release bodies, demanded payments, pressured relatives to sign false statements claiming victims were State agents, and restricted or threatened memorial and mourning ceremonies.
The report details how on January 8, at the height of the crackdown, the government imposed a nationwide internet and communications blackout. The shutdown lasted more than five months and continued through the launch of the U.S. war, making it the longest nationwide shutdown on record, restricting access to information and disrupting communications and emergency coordination.
The government also intensified its use of capital punishment against people connected to the protests. At least 29 men were executed between March and August 2026 following expedited trials, including five publicly. More than 70 people—including five women and three boys—remain at imminent risk of execution, according to the Mission.
The Mission concluded that many of these violations – including murder, imprisonment, torture and other inhumane acts – were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack against civilians and therefore amounted to crimes against humanity.
The report also examined the conduct of the United States during the war that began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28, finding reasonable grounds to believe that the United States committed war crimes in two February 28 strikes in Minab and Lamerd that killed at least 178 civilians – the majority of whom were children. The report describes these as indiscriminate attacks resulting in civilian deaths and injuries and damage to civilian objects in Minab and Lamerd. Under international humanitarian law, as the report documents, states are prohibited from directing attacks against civilian objects and obligated to distinguish between civilian objects and military objectives.
In Minab, Tomahawk missiles struck the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School, killing more than 150 people, including approximately 120 children. Investigators described the school as a clearly identifiable civilian object and found no evidence that it was being used for military purposes.
The school had previously been associated with an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy compound but had been physically separated from the surrounding site and functioning as a civilian school for years before the attack. Iranian authorities have said the military complex itself had been relocated outside the city roughly 14 years earlier. Regardless of the disputed status of the surrounding former military site, the Mission found that the school was a civilian object and that the United States failed to adequately update its targeting information or verify that the building constituted a military objective.
The Mission concluded that U.S. forces were aware of a substantial risk that they could be striking a civilian object and acted recklessly with regard to that risk. The Pentagon has investigated the Minab strike, reportedly blaming an error in including the school in its target list, but has not publicly released its findings.
Investigators also examined a U.S. strike in Lamerd, where Precision Strike Missiles dispersed tungsten pellets over a clearly identifiable sports complex and surrounding residential area. The attack killed and injured many civilians and damaged civilian property. U.S. Central Command has denied carrying out the strike, but the Mission concluded that the available evidence provided reasonable grounds to attribute the attack to the United States and to find that it constituted an indiscriminate attack and therefore a likely war crime.
The consequences of U.S. policy for Iranian civilians, however, extend beyond these two attacks. The continuing war, U.S. blockade and intensifying economic isolation of Iran are placing additional burdens on a population already suffering from repression, insecurity and a severe economic crisis.
NIAC reiterates its strong condemnations of the grave violations documented by the Fact-Finding Mission – both the abuses committed by the Iranian government and the war crimes committed by the U.S. military – and calls on all governments responsible for harming Iranian civilians to immediately end actions that violate their fundamental rights, safety and dignity.
Iranian authorities must end the use of lethal force against peaceful protesters, arbitrary detention, torture and executions connected to dissent. Authorities must immediately halt executions of people sentenced to death in connection with the protests, guarantee due process and access to legal counsel for detainees, and allow families of those killed and detained to seek truth and accountability without intimidation or retaliation.
The United States must fully and transparently account for the strikes in Minab and Lamerd, as documented in the report, and more recent strikes that have caused significant civilian casualties, including the B1 Bridge in Karaj and the wedding party in Kuhestak. As noted in the report, the U.S. should provide appropriate redress to victims of unlawful attacks and pursue accountability to ensure that such grave violations of international humanitarian law are not repeated in this illegal war.
The people of Iran should not be subjected to repression from their own government and an illegal war imposed from abroad. Defending Iranian human rights requires confronting abuses regardless of who commits them—and ensuring that accountability for the Iranian government’s repression is never used to justify policies that inflict further suffering on the Iranian people.