On March 18, the results of an independent, international UN fact-finding mission on Iran's response to a nationwide protest movement were introduced to the UN Human Rights Council during its regular session in Geneva.

In the over 300-page report, UN investigators spelled out how Iran's government carried out a brutal campaign of oppression against the protests, which chairperson Sara Hossain said in some cases amounted to crimes against humanity.

In November 2022, two months after the death of 22-year-old Jina Mahsa Amini sparked an Iran-wide protest movement, the UN Human Rights Council established the fact-finding mission on the "deteriorating situation of human rights" in Iran to document any potential crimes against the Iranian people.

At that time, there were already suspicions that Iranian state authorities may have used disproportionate force in cracking down on the "Women, Life, Freedom" protests.

"Crimes were committed," Hossain told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday. She cited extrajudicial killings, torture, rape, enforced disappearances and gender-specific persecution as examples.

Iran has always denied being responsible for Amini's death and said she was not beaten in custody. The fact-finding mission assessed that Amini was beaten to death "while in the custody of morality police."

Hossain told DW that the........

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