Twenty-four-year-old Kosar Eftekhari resides proof of the violent oppression in Iran.
“The Islamic Republic shot me in the eye and took my sight,” she stated.
Kosar Eftekhari was a theatre actress in Iran who was shot within the eye in the course of the October 2022 protests.
Courtesy Centre for Human Rights in Iran
Eftekhari was a theatre actress in Iran, who took to the streets in October 2022 after the in-custody dying of Mahsa Jina Amini.
Eftekhari was protesting in Tehran on Oct. 12 when she stated an Islamic Republic safety agent focused her eye with a rubber bullet. More than 580 protesters have been blinded within the first six months after the uprisings started in line with the information company Iranwire. She has been blind in a single eye ever since.
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She stated she remembered the shooter’s smile as he shot her.
Living in Berlin now, she is presently in Geneva, the place she testified earlier than the United Nations Commission.
The outcomes of the U.N. fact-finding mission on Iran’s response to the Woman, Life, Freedom motion have been offered on March 18 to the U.N. Human Rights Council throughout its common session in Geneva.
The council established the fact-finding mission in Iran to doc the deteriorating state of affairs of human rights two months after Amini’s dying sparked nationwide protests that morphed right into a revolution geared toward toppling the regime.
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Sara Hossain, chairperson of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, instructed the U.N. Human Rights Council that the “widespread images of protesters wearing a white protective patch over one or both of their eyes became a hallmark of the 22 protests and this didn’t happen by chance.”
The outcomes of the U.N. fact-finding mission on Iran’s response to the Woman, Life, Freedom motion have been offered on March 18 to the U.N. Human Rights Council throughout its common session in Geneva.
Courtesy Center for Human Rights in Iran
The mission says it discovered a sample of safety forces concentrating on their firearms towards important physique elements of protesters and bystanders together with their eyes and genitals.
Eftekhari’s eye damage is now proof, showcasing the brutality and criminality of the Islamic Republic of Iran towards its folks.
The U.N. fact-finding mission says it uncovered murders, torture, and rape amounting to “crimes against humanity” throughout Iran’s brutal crackdown on protesters following Amini’s dying.
This is the primary time such language has been publicized in a report on the regime.
It additionally revealed that AI expertise was getting used to observe protesters on social media.
“We found credible figures of 551 deaths, amongst them at least 49 women and 68 children in 26 out of the 31 provinces in Iran,” stated Hossein. Ethnic and non secular minorities, she stated, have been the toughest hit.
In the greater than 300-page report, U.N. investigators cited extrajudicial killings, gang rape, enforced disappearances, gender-specific persecution, and systemic imprisonment of what they described as largely peaceable protests.
Iran has maintained denial of any duty for Amini’s dying however the mission discovered that “Mahsa Amini was an unlawful death and we believe the state was responsible,” stated Hossein.
Speaking in Farsi to Global News over Zoom in Geneva, Eftekhari stated she cried tears of pleasure upon listening to the mission’s findings.
Canadian-Iranian Nazanin Afshin-Jam stood by Etekhari and several other different victims in Geneva. She’s been combating for freedom and human rights in Iran for greater than 20 years.
Canadian-Iranian Nazanin Afshin-Jam stood by Etekhari and several other different victims in Geneva.
Provided by Nazanin Afshin-Jam
“It’s a huge step in the process of justice,” stated Afshin-Jam.
“It’s taken many years to get to the point of even having a fact-finding mission. In all of its 40 years, these fact-finding missions, Iran has never had one, despite 45 years of repression.
“Not only that, it’s documented now, but we can use these findings to take it to the next step, which would be prosecution.”
Lisandro Novo, a lawyer with the Atlantic Council’s Strategic Litigation Project stated this step places “officials from the Islamic Republic of Iran on notice.”
Novo was a part of a crew that submitted documentation to the fact-finding mission.
Iran refutes the report’s findings however it might have enormous penalties for its officers in Western nations.
“Having found crimes against humanity, including torture, murder, rape, sexual slavery, imprisonment and others is really a key first step in allowing states that have what’s called universal jurisdiction to begin investigating and push forward cases,” stated Novo.
She added common jurisdiction is the place a state can examine and prosecute crimes that occurred overseas, dedicated by folks of a special nationality towards victims of a special nationality. That means the state can prosecute slightly than get caught up within the prolonged deportation course of.
Currently, Canada is trying to deport at the least 9 alleged Islamic Republic senior officers.
“Canada does have universal jurisdiction. They do have the ability to investigate and prosecute crimes against humanity, no matter where they are committed,” stated Novo.
Eftekhari stated her combat to assist the folks of her homeland is much from over.
She could also be blind however she is just not silent.
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