Behruz Rafati J

[Mai Sato @drmaisato]

Mohsen Eslamkhah, a Kurd from Bukan, was 16 when the Woman, Life, Freedom protests began in 2022. Like many other young people, he took to the streets to call for freedom, dignity and change. In February 2026 a Revolutionary Court sentenced him to death for moharebeh (enmity against God) for acts alleged to have taken place when he was a child. He remains on death row.

International law leaves no room here. Key treaties ratified by Iran prohibit the death penalty for offences committed under 18.  Mohsen is not alone. My mandate has received reports of others facing execution for offences allegedly committed when they were children.

Four years on, many young people once again took to the streets, calling for a better future they felt was slipping away from them. Shervin Bagherian Jebeli was one of them. He had turned 18 days only days before security forces raided his home in Isfahan at night in January 2026. His family heard nothing for a week. Then State television aired his confession, recorded under interrogation, before any trial. In it, he is told he is charged with moharebeh. He does not appear to know what the word means. He was sentenced to death with 11 others in a single closed hearing, with no clarity as to what each is accused of doing. He remains on death row.

The rule on children exists because young people are developing and capable of change, and that does not stop on a birthday. The death sentences against Mohsen and the others who were children at the time are prohibited outright. Shervin’s case should make us deeply uneasy: a death sentence for a boy who had been an adult for a matter of days. But his age is not the only reason he should not be executed. A week of enforced disappearance, an apparently coerced confession broadcast before trial, and a closed hearing that never said what he personally is accused of having done are each reason enough.

Respecting the prohibition on executing children is the least Iranian authorities can do; halting these executions is what the authorities must do. A young person’s future should not end with a death sentence.

My Mandate’s Communication on Mohsen Eslamkhah
https://t.co/rqu2DgODb8
Response by the Iranian authorities
https://t.co/ONbSNWgafr

My Mandate’s communication on Shervin Bagherian Jebeli
https://t.co/xH7oBA1Av1
Response by the government received but not published yet. It will be available here later today - https://t.co/JJpsRdZ6Fp

[Agnes Callamard @AgnesCallamard]

IRAN: On the 4th anniversary of the Woman Life Freedom uprising, @amnesty’s new report details how Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity to crush dissent, and exposes command structures, identifying 87 officials for criminal investigations.

Those responsible for crimes against humanity in 2022 still control the deadly state machinery of repression.

The int’l community must end the normalization of mass protest killings in Iran and pursue international criminal justice.

We call on the UN General Assembly to create an international criminal justice mechanism aimed at prosecuting those most responsible for crimes against humanity in Iran.

The UNGA must urgently advance pathways to international justice and confront the unconscionable impunity that enables recurring and escalating mass protest killings in Iran.

https://t.co/bcJK0LKdUb

[Mai Sato @drmaisato]

This week marks four years since Jina Mahsa Amini died in the custody of Iran’s morality police.

What followed her death was the Woman, Life, Freedom movement. It was made by women and men, across ethnicities and provinces, calling for equal rights for women and girls. The authorities answered it with lethal force, and answered it the same way again during the nationwide protests of December 2025 and January 2026.

Mandatory hijab enforcement has also persisted. The Law on Protecting the Family through the Promotion of the Culture of Chastity and Hijab has been formally suspended since December 2024, yet cafes, restaurants and shops continue to be closed because staff or customers appeared without hijab, with arrests reported in some cases.

Four years on, the resistance Jina’s death gave rise to has not been extinguished. The women and girls who took to the streets in her name still insist on the right to decide what they wear, where they work and how they live — to be treated as equals, in law and in life. Those rights will not stay deniable forever.

[Mehdi Yarrahi @yarrahimehdi]

صدای بچه‌های ایرانم.

ترانه رحیمی
نوید الیاسی
ابوالفضل دادگستر
مهدی منصوری
احمدرضا سعیدی
مهرداد بوئری
محمدمهدی اسدی
آرمین غلامی
پارسا جعفری
مهدی جعفری — مهدی خسروی —

این ۱۰ نفر به اعدام محکوم شده‌اند.

و علی‌اصغر پیغمبری که حکم اعدام او در دیوان عالی کشور هم تأیید شده.

نگذاریم نامشان فراموش شود.

[Iranhrdc.org @IHRDC]

Following the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement, Iranian girls and women, despite pressure, arrest, violence, and even loss of life, have not backed down from their position on compulsory hijab.

From a human rights perspective, the issue is not simply “hijab;” it is a woman’s right to her own body, clothing, and choices. No government should be able to take that choice away from women through laws, threats, or punishment.

From a social perspective, what has changed is not only the behavior of girls and women; it is the relationship between law and society. Millions of women and girls have shown that it is possible to reject a legal obligation and stand against the normalization of coercion.

The Islamic Republic continues to maintain laws and repressive tools to impose compulsory hijab and, at various points, has sought to advance the implementation of more restrictive measures. Yet, in the face of widespread resistance by women, the implementation of these policies has repeatedly encountered retreat, suspension, or delay.

This does not mean that compulsory hijab has come to an end. But an important change has taken place: the government can no longer assume that it can control the behavior of millions of women as easily as it once did through law and force.

Iranian women and girls may not have won the entire battle yet, but they have broken through the first line of defense: the belief that their bodies and clothing are under the control of the government.

@IHRDC
#ThroughHerEyes
#DayOfTheGirl
#InternationalDayOfTheGirl
#CompulsoryHijab
#WomanLifeFreedom
#HumanRights

[Hengaw Organization for Human Rights @HengawO]

تفکیک زندانیان اعدام شده بر حسب اتهام

در ماه جولای امسال بیشترین اعدامیان مربوط به زندانیان متهم به قتل عمد بوده که ۳۵ مورد معادل ۵۲٪ موارد می‌باشد. همچنین ۲۲ زندانی نیز از بابت اتهامات مواد مخدر و ۹ زندانی نیز به دلایل سیاسی، مدهبی و اتهام جاسوسی اعدام شده‌اند.
اتهام سیاسی، مذهبی و جاسوسی: ۹ مورد
اتهام قتل عمد: ۳۵ مورد
 اتهام جرایم  مرتبط با مواد مخدر: ۲۲ مورد
 اتهام تجاوز به عنف: ۱ مورد

[Freedom House @freedomhouse]

A lasting peace in Iran requires freedom for the Iranian people, who have long suffered under one of the world's most repressive regimes. We call on the international community to ensure the people of Iran are supported, their voices and calls for freedom are recognized, and those in the regime are held accountable for their brutality.

[Amnesty Iran @AmnestyIran]

🧵In 2025, @amnesty recorded 2,159 executions in Iran. Authorities intensified their use of the death penalty as a tool of political repression & control, fuelling an unprecedented rise in executions. The pace of executions accelerated following the 12-day war in June 2025 1/11

[Hengaw Organization for Human Rights @Hengaw_English]

Authorities in Mazandaran Province have continued to hold Hamed Tizroyan, an environmental activist, wildlife photographer, and PhD student in environmental studies, for more than two weeks without formally charging him or clarifying his legal status.

https://t.co/2Cyl8N49PR

[NetBlocks @netblocks]

📢 The internet blackout in #Iran has entered its 73rd as the incident surpasses 1728 hours. Open internet access is a right that underpins all other liberties, and its deprivation severely limits the public's ability to document and remediate fundamental human rights violations.

[Freedom House @freedomhouse]

At this moment of uncertainty, the Iranian people face increased risks of retaliation and repression from leaders determined to silence dissent. The international community must stand with the Iranian people and support a future grounded in freedom, security, and the rule of law. Read more: https://t.co/MlJKTGAdoN

[Hannah Neumann @HNeumannMEP]

We demand #NasrinSotoudeh’s immediate release.

No deal unless the Iranian regime opens the internet, #StopExecutionsInIran and releases all #politicalprisoners!

[Freedom House @freedomhouse]

Freedom House is proud to stand with other organizations and individuals calling for global solidarity with the Iranian people. #Iran’s path forward must reflect the will of the Iranian people, who have borne the costs of decades of tyranny. The next chapter in Iran must be shaped by Iranians themselves: https://t.co/MlJKTGAdoN

[NetBlocks @netblocks]

⚖️ #Iran's internet blackout has now entered its 59th day after 1392 hours of near-total disconnection from the outside world.

The prolonged shutdown continues to cast a veil of digital darkness over human rights violations on the ground.

[Elham Manea @ElhamManea]

Looking forward to this discussion as part of the Sustainability Now! lecture series at UZH. I will be joining the panel with Katarina Kruhonja and Virginia Köpfli to reflect on nonviolence, democracy, and feminist strategies for change. Grateful for the invitation.

[Hannah Neumann @HNeumannMEP]

It's our responsibility to make the demands of the people of #Iran heard at negotiations between the #US and the Iranian regime: Release political prisoners, stop executions, open internet, stop repression.

More at Al Jazeera Arabic: https://t.co/xKRm779i5X

[Danny (Dennis) Citrinowicz ,داني سيترينوفيتش @citrinowicz]

At a broad level, it’s important to acknowledge a hard truth: this war is a textbook case of the old saying - "Strategy must precede action"

The underlying assumption in the US and Israel was that weakening Iran kineticly would eventually lead to the collapse of the regime and that a sustained U.S.-Israeli campaign, targeting Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, could trigger systemic change thay will change the Middle East.

But this war overlooked a critical variable: the Islamic Republic of Iran is a different kind of actor. Traditional cost-benefit calculations don’t apply in the conventional sense.

Moreover, the war has generated second-order effects that have made the strategic landscape more complex — not less. From Iran’s growing assertiveness around the Strait of Hormuz, to the hardening of its internal decision-making processes, to the rising influence of Mojtaba Khamenei and the expanding dominance of the IRGC, the Iranian system has, in many ways, become more rigid and more ideological.

These dynamics are pushing the administration into a narrowing set of options, none of them good. The choice increasingly looks like this: accept a deal that is, in essence, a strengthened version of the previous nuclear agreement, or return to military escalation that carries significant regional risks without guaranteeing meaningful change in Iran’s behavior.

In effect, this war has helped shape what could be called “Islamic Republic 3.0” — a system forged not only through pressure, but also through strategic miscalculation. While the regime may have been weakened militarily and economically, it has, paradoxically, been strengthened internally, particularly among its core base.

This may well be the campaign’s most significant strategic miscalculation.
The protests inside Iran had left the regime increasingly exposed, struggling to respond to public demands, led by an aging and ailing supreme leader. There was a moment of internal vulnerability.
Yet the campaign, despite its tactical achievements, has given the regime a renewed sense of purpose at a time when it was fighting for its political future. Instead of weakening it from within, it has helped consolidate its base and rally its supporters.

It remains unclear how this will end. But at this stage, one conclusion is difficult to avoid: alongside tactical gains, the war has produced a more challenging strategic environment for Iran’s neighbors, for Israel, and for the United States.

And most importantly, Iran’s leadership has no intention of capitulating. Neither pressure nor escalation is likely to force a deeply ideological regime to abandon its foundational principles.

There is no decisive blow. No silver bullet.

Only two realistic paths remain:
a deal that looks remarkably similar to what Iran was willing to consider before the war — or an expanded conflict with no clear endgame.

This is the reality.

#IranWar‌

[Danny (Dennis) Citrinowicz ,داني سيترينوفيتش @citrinowicz]

Analyzing Iran does not mean supporting the Iranian regime.

Opposing the current military campaign is not an endorsement of that regime either, it reflects an understanding that a strategically flawed approach may actually strengthen the very system many of us hope to see fall (and this is exactly what is happening now)

If the goal is meaningful change in the Middle East, we need to ask what actions genuinely weaken the regimen, not just what feels right in the moment.

With all due respect, not every strike or military campaign serves the strategic goal of regime change.

Anyone who believes Iran can be solved with a quick “one decisive blow” risks dragging his army into a prolonged, unwinnable conflict, one that may ultimately force compromise with the very regime they set out to overthrow.

Strategy matters. Wishful thinking is not a plan.

It’s unfortunate how often strategic criticism is mischaracterized as political support.

@hami

[Mai Sato @drmaisato]

Today I led a press release joined by fellow UN experts. (https://t.co/SY0yF7HEug) The people of Iran are under attack from outside and from within.
Close to 2,000 civilians have been killed in airstrikes and more than 3 million displaced. But the strikes did not create Iran's human rights crisis — they have deepened it. The internet has been severed for 31 days. Executions continue. Civic space has been systematically dismantled.
Any peace process must address executions, arbitrary detention, internet access, and the protection of civic space. The millions who demanded change in the nationwide protests that started in December 2025 cannot be cut out of negotiations. And there must be independent accountability for all violations by all parties across the region.
An end to the war is necessary. But it will not on its own resolve Iran's human rights crisis.