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Warning: This content includes discussion of sexual violence and may be distressing to survivors

Letter to:

António Guterres

Secretary-General, United Nations

405 East 42nd Street

New York, NY 10017

USA

Antonio.Guterres@UN.org 

URGENT

Open Letter to the United Nations: Immediate Action Required to Halt Mass Atrocities in Iran

We, the undersigned, call on the United Nations to take immediate, enforceable action in response to grave and ongoing atrocities committed against civilians and political prisoners in Iran.

For years, the authoritarian regime in Iran (the regime) have relied on arbitrary detention, torture, sexual violence, enforced disappearance, and denial of due process to suppress dissent. 

These violations have escalated dramatically and now constitute widespread and systematic attacks against the civilian population, meeting the threshold of crimes against humanity under international law.

Mass Political Imprisonment and Denial of Due Process

Tens of thousands of individuals are currently imprisoned solely for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly. Detainees are routinely denied access to lawyers, held in prolonged incommunicado detention, and subjected to proceedings before Revolutionary Courts that lack independence, transparency, and basic fair-trial guarantees.

These practices constitute clear violations of Iran’s binding obligations under international law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

Torture, Sexual Violence, and Ill-Treatment in Detention

Credible and consistent information demonstrates the routine use of torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment in detention facilities across Iran. Survivors have described beatings, electric shocks, stress positions, mock executions, prolonged solitary confinement, and threats against family members.

Of particular gravity are reports of sexual violence, including rape, deliberately used as a tool of punishment, coercion, and intimidation against detainees. Under international law, sexual violence in detention constitutes torture and, when committed in a widespread or systematic manner, may amount to crimes against humanity.

Scale of Killings, Deaths in Custody, and Enforced Impunity

Available information from medical and human rights sources indicates that at least tens of thousands of civilians have been killed, with estimates approaching at least 30,000 deaths nationwide, alongside tens of thousands of injured survivors. Numerous deaths in custody have been reported, yet authorities continue to deny responsibility, obstruct independent investigations, and intimidate families seeking truth.

This sustained pattern of concealment and obstruction entrenches a system of structural impunity.

Forced Confessions and the Criminalisation of Truth

The regime persist in extracting forced “confessions” under torture or threat, later broadcast publicly or relied upon in judicial proceedings. These practices violate the absolute prohibition of torture and render any claim to lawful process null and void.

The Responsibility of the United Nations

The scale, consistency, and gravity of these violations demonstrate that the regime in Iran is manifestly failing to protect its population, and that domestic remedies are neither available nor effective. In such circumstances, continued reliance on monitoring and statements of concern alone risks enabling further mass atrocities.

The United Nations has both the authority and the responsibility to move beyond condemnation and take concrete, coordinated action.

Our Demands

We therefore call on the United Nations and its Member States to:

1. Formally invoke the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in response to widespread killings, torture, sexual violence, and arbitrary detention and execution of civilians in Iran, recognising that the threshold for preventive international action has been met.

2. Demand the immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience and require the regime in Iran:

   • Releases all prisoners of conscience 

   • Enacts an immediate moratorium on all exections 

1. • Ends torture and sexual violence in detention

   • Guarantees access to legal counsel, medical care, and family contact

   • Allows independent international access to the detention facilities

   • Allows unimpeded medical access for all civilians. 

A Call for Immediate and Enforceable Action

The United Nations was created to prevent precisely this kind of systematic abuse. Where mass violations persist and impunity is entrenched, inaction ceases to be neutral and becomes enabling.

We urge the United Nations to act without delay not only to document violations, but to interrupt them, to protect those at risk, and to ensure that those responsible for torture, sexual violence, and mass killings are held to account.

Signed

Concerned individuals and supporters of human rights
[Signatures]

CC:

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)

Palais des Nations

CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland

OHCHR-InfoDesk@un.org