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UN Calls on Iran to Avoid ‘Unnecessary Force’ on Protesters

In this Sept. 19, 2022, photo taken by an individual not employed by the Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran, a police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of a young woman who had been detained for violating the country's conservative dress code, in downtown Tehran, Iran. (AP)
In this Sept. 19, 2022, photo taken by an individual not employed by the Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran, a police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of a young woman who had been detained for violating the country's conservative dress code, in downtown Tehran, Iran. (AP)
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UN Calls on Iran to Avoid ‘Unnecessary Force’ on Protesters

In this Sept. 19, 2022, photo taken by an individual not employed by the Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran, a police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of a young woman who had been detained for violating the country's conservative dress code, in downtown Tehran, Iran. (AP)
In this Sept. 19, 2022, photo taken by an individual not employed by the Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran, a police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of a young woman who had been detained for violating the country's conservative dress code, in downtown Tehran, Iran. (AP)

The United Nations Secretary-General called on Iran early Wednesday to refrain from using “unnecessary or disproportionate force” against protesters as unrest over a young woman's death in police custody spread across the country.

Antonio Guterres said through a spokesman that authorities should swiftly conduct an impartial investigation of the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, which has sparked unrest across Iran’s provinces and the capital of Tehran.

“We are increasingly concerned about reports of rising fatalities, including women and children, related to the protests,” UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric in a statement. “We underline the need for prompt, impartial and effective investigation into Ms. Mahsa Amini’s death by an independent competent authority.”

Protests have spread across at least 46 cities, towns and villages in Iran. State TV reported that at least 41 protesters and police have been killed since the protests began Sept. 17.

An Associated Press count of official statements by authorities tallied at least 14 dead, with more than 1,500 demonstrators arrested.

Dujarric added that Guterres stressed the need to respect human rights, including freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association during the meeting with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on September 22nd.

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ICC Issues Arrest Warrants for Taliban Leaders over Persecution of Women, Girls

A poster of Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is seen along a road in Kabul on August 14, 2023. © Wakil Kohsar, AFP
A poster of Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is seen along a road in Kabul on August 14, 2023. © Wakil Kohsar, AFP
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ICC Issues Arrest Warrants for Taliban Leaders over Persecution of Women, Girls

A poster of Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is seen along a road in Kabul on August 14, 2023. © Wakil Kohsar, AFP
A poster of Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is seen along a road in Kabul on August 14, 2023. © Wakil Kohsar, AFP

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants Tuesday for the Taliban’s supreme leader and the head of Afghanistan’s Supreme Court on charges of persecuting women and girls since seizing power nearly four years ago.

The warrants also accuse the leaders of persecuting “other persons non-conforming with the Taliban’s policy on gender, gender identity or expression; and on political grounds against persons perceived as ‘allies of girls and women.’”

The warrants were issued against Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhunzada and the head of the Supreme Court, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, The AP news reported.

The court said in a statement that the Taliban have “severely deprived, through decrees and edicts, girls and women of the rights to education, privacy and family life and the freedoms of movement, expression, thought, conscience and religion. In addition, other persons were targeted because certain expressions of sexuality and/or gender identity were regarded as inconsistent with the Taliban’s policy on gender.”

The court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, sought the warrants in January.

Global advocacy group Human Rights Watch welcomed the decision.

“Senior Taliban leaders are now wanted men for their alleged persecution of women, girls, and gender non-conforming people. The international community should fully back the ICC in its critical work in Afghanistan and globally, including through concerted efforts to enforce the court’s warrants," Liz Evenson, the group's international justice director, said in a statement.