GENEVA – Military strikes have compounded domestic repression in Iran, while the Iranian population has been forced to bear the brunt of both, a UN expert said today.
“Safety from external attack and protection from human rights violations at home are not alternatives,” said Mai Sato, Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran, in her report to the General Assembly.
“The people of Iran currently have neither. Thousands of families have experienced loss and trauma, through military strikes, or the use of lethal force and executions by the authorities.”
The report covers February to August 2026, the period following the December-January protests. A period marked by intensified pressure on families, and continued arrests, trials and executions connected to the protests.
Since the United States and Israel launched their unlawful strikes on 28 February, thousands have reportedly been killed, including in a devastating US strike on a primary school in Minab, and the one near a sports centre and homes in Lamerd, as investigated by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran.
“The war has provided cover for the authorities to intensify their crackdown and tighten the repression,” Sato warned.
Protesters were recast as agents of attacking States, and peaceful expression was prosecuted as a threat to national security, in some cases carrying the death penalty.
At least 34 people have been executed in connection with the December-January protests. Due process, which has long been a concern, had deteriorated sharply with hearings held online that last only minutes, forced confessions being broadcast within days of arrest, and dozens of defendants being tried together in capital cases.
Internet shutdowns imposed by Iranian authorities left people more exposed to strikes, unable to obtain information about attacks or the safety of loved ones.
Years of policy failures had already left households economically vulnerable before the strikes and sanctions. Internet shutdowns further harmed livelihoods, particularly those of women in informal work, while strike-related damage and pollution compounded environmental degradation caused by years of State neglect and inadequate environmental policies, the expert said.
The Special Rapporteur’s report is one of three UN reports on Iran published in recent weeks.
“What these three reports share is impunity,” Sato said. “I am unaware of any investigation by the Iranian authorities neither any published findings by the United States nor Israel on any of these killings. When authorities will not investigate themselves, independent documentation is all that is left standing between victims and the erasure of truth and memory.”
Iran must establish a moratorium on executions, release those detained for exercising their rights, guarantee fair trial rights and investigate every death caused by its forces, the expert said.
She called on the United States and Israel to cease hostilities, investigate their strikes and publish the findings. “Whatever this war was said to achieve, it has delivered nothing to the people of Iran,” Sato said. “The hostilities must end through diplomacy, with human rights at the heart of any agreement.”
