B) Impunity must also be addressed in order to facilitate accountability, provide
redress for human rights violations and strengthen the rule of law, all of which are
required to effectively promote respect for human rights in the country.
Reports have documented numerous acts of extrajudicial executions, 24 25 26 27 28 29 enforced
disappearances, 30 31 32 and torture and ill-treatment33 34 35 in the Islamic Republic of Iran that
were not independently and impartially investigated, thus there was no accountability of
perpetrators or redress afforded for the victims. UN Human Rights Mechanisms, including the
Working Group on Arbitrary Detention36 and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Islamic
Republic of Iran37, have decried the absence of independent and impartial investigations into
crimes, the lack of accountability for perpetrators in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the
insufficient redress for human rights violations.
Despite the existence of several mechanisms that ostensibly accept complaints regarding
violations of citizens' rights, such as the Article 90 Commission of the parliament (established
based on Article 90 of the Constitution, offering a mechanism to citizens to file complaint
against any of the three branches of power) and the Oversight Bodies for the exercise of
Citizenship Rights in the country's provincial courts, there is no evidence to suggest that
complaints to these bodies are independently reviewed and investigated or that cases are
adequately adjudicated.38
24
OHCHR News, https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25812&LangID=E
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, January 2020,
https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=A%2FHRC%2F43%2F61&Language=E&DeviceType=Desktop
26
Iran Human Rights, https://www.iranhr.net/en/articles/4059/
27
Justice for Iran, https://justice4iran.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/SHOOT-TO-KILL-Preliminary-Findings-of-Justice-forIrans-Investigation-into-the-November-2019-Protests.pdf
28
Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/05/iran-details-released-of-304-deaths-during-protestssix-months-after-security-forces-killing-spree/
29
Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1323082020ENGLISH.PDF
30
Communications transmitted, cases examined, observations made and other activities conducted by the Working Group on
Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, July 2019,
https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Disappearances/A_HRC_WGEID_118_1_Advance.pdf
31
Communications, cases examined, observations and other activities conducted by the Working Group on Enforced or
Involuntary Disappearances, May 2019,
https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Disappearances/A_HRC_WGEID_117_1_ADVANCE.pdf
32
Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1328912020ENGLISH.PDF
33
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, March 2018,
https://undocs.org/A/HRC/37/68
34
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, January 2020,
https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G20/021/53/PDF/G2002153.pdf?OpenElement
35
Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1328912020ENGLISH.PDF
36
Communications transmitted, cases examined, observations made and other activities conducted by the Working Group on
Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, July 2019,
https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Disappearances/A_HRC_WGEID_118_1_Advance.pdf
37
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, July 2020,
https://undocs.org/A/75/213
38
Joint submission to the Human Rights Committee, Abdorrahman Center, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC),
Impact Iran and Human Rights Activists in Iran, 2020,
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=INT%2fCCPR%2fICS%2fIRN%2f42313
&Lang=en
25
4