Nima Nematollahi ✌🏽

I echo UN Human Rights High Commissioner Volker Türk's statement on Iran and join him in calling on the Iranian authorities to halt executions, release those arbitrarily detained, and restore internet access immediately. ohchr.org/en/press-releases/… The use of national security charges to silence dissent, coerced confessions as the basis for executions, and the targeting of ethnic and religious minorities are patterns I have documented throughout my mandate — and they are continuing despite the ceasefire, as fragile as it is. At least 21 executions have been announced by the State since the conflict began, but the ongoing shutdown gives me serious concern that further executions may be taking place without our knowledge. I am concerned for Narges Mohammadi, whose health is reportedly deteriorating in detention, and for Nasrin Sotoudeh, whose whereabouts remain unknown. Authorities have also reportedly seized the assets of hundreds of citizens — including 400 Iranians living abroad — labelling them 'traitors to the homeland’.The 61-day internet shutdown, the longest ever recorded, has caused severe economic losses, disrupted education and healthcare, and left people unable to access safety information during active hostilities — allowing the State to monopolise the narrative and making it impossible to grasp the full human rights situation inside the country.

Together with UN human rights experts, I call on Iranian authorities to disclose the fate and whereabouts of those detained, disappeared or killed following the nationwide protests—and to halt all executions linked to the demonstrations. The vast majority of those detained or killed are ordinary people, including children, from all provinces and diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds, as well as Afghan nationals. They include lawyers who sought to represent protesters, medical professionals who treated the wounded, journalists, writers, artists and human rights defenders. In recent weeks, Bahai's have also reportedly faced increased incitement and detention. The discrepancy between official figures and grassroots estimates only deepens the anguish of families searching for their loved ones. In the absence of transparency, a devastating narrative starts to take shape—with unverified reports of burial sites and secret executions emerging, and weeks of internet restrictions continuing to obstruct any independent verification of what is happening on the ground. When a state refuses to account for the whereabouts of its people, others will fill that void — and the picture that emerges will define this period in Iran's history. ohchr.org/en/press-releases/…