The U.N. Rights Council voted on Thursday to appoint an independent investigation into Iran's deadly repression of protests, passing the motion to cheers of activists amid an intensifying crackdown in Kurdish areas over recent days.
Volker Turk, the U.N. rights commissioner, had earlier demanded that Iran end its "disproportionate" use of force in quashing protests that have erupted after the death in custody of 22-year old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16.
The mission appointed by the rights council's vote on Thursday will collect evidence into abuses during the authorities' deadly crackdown. Evidence assembled by a mission appointed by the same council was later used for the prosecution of a Syrian ex-officer in Germany who was accused of war crimes. Turk, who said Iran faced a "full fledged human rights crisis" with 14,000 people arrested, including children, said Tehran had not responded to a request he had made to visit the country.
A parliament member from the mainly Kurdish city of Mahabad said he had been issued repeated summons by the judiciary for his stance in support of protesters. "The dear Kurds of Iran have endured many sufferings such as severe ethnic discrimination, severe religious pressure, poverty and economic hardships. Is it just to respond to their protest with war bullets?" he tweeted on Wednesday.
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