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Iran Seeks to End Mandate of the Fact-Finding Mission

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian with UN Sec-Gen Antonio Guterres (Iran's Foreign Ministry)
Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian with UN Sec-Gen Antonio Guterres (Iran's Foreign Ministry)
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Iran Seeks to End Mandate of the Fact-Finding Mission

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian with UN Sec-Gen Antonio Guterres (Iran's Foreign Ministry)
Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian with UN Sec-Gen Antonio Guterres (Iran's Foreign Ministry)

Iranian officials launched a diplomatic campaign on the sidelines of the UN Human Rights Council meetings in Geneva to end the mission of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran.
Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian wanted to ensure that a new Rapporteur would not be assigned after the current UN official, Javaid Rehman.
He also aimed to end the mandate of the Fact-Finding Mission for Iran, which the Human Rights Council approved to investigate repression of the massive protests in Iran.
The FM accused Western countries of applying "double standards," noting that they condemn Iranian repression but do not care enough about human rights violations against Muslims in the Gaza Strip.
In November 2022, Germany succeeded in passing a decision to launch an independent probe into the deadly campaign that resulted in the death of 500 demonstrators and the arrest of more than 20,000, according to human rights organizations.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock urgently called for extending the mandate of the UN experts investigating human rights in Iran.
During her participation in the spring session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, Baerbock addressed the Iranian government, saying, "I want to be crystal clear to those who claim that calling out violations is an interference in internal affairs: Human rights aren't something western, northern, eastern or southern. They are universal."
She explained that the Fact-Finding Mission established by this Council has investigated the repression, the violence, and the crimes committed in Iran since the beginning of the protests.
"It is collecting and preserving the evidence. It is giving the victims –women, girls – a voice."
The German government is requesting support to extend the mission's mandate so that it can finish its job, Baerbock said.
The mission is expected to present its report, which will likely be discussed on March 15.
Western officials believe it is currently challenging to discuss this issue within the Human Rights Council, as the focus is on the situation in Gaza.
- Fact-finding mission
In his speech at the Human Rights Council, Amirabdollahian condemned the formation of the fact-finding mission after the death of Mahsa Amini.
He referred to the calls for investigating the death of Amini, while no serious action has been taken at the international level to stop the killing of thousands of innocent women and children in Gaza.
The United Nations General Assembly elects the 47 member states to serve a three-year term on the Human Rights Council.
The Council's decisions, such as extending the mandate of human rights experts, are put to vote before the end of the session, which will continue until April 5.
Earlier this month, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada al-Nashif visited Tehran and held discussions behind closed doors with Iranian officials.
Activists and human rights groups in Iran criticized Nashif's visit to Tehran.
Iranian human rights activist Ladan Boroumand called ambassadors to boycott Amirabdollahian's speech.
- Gaza war
Activists expressed concerns about officials' attempts to exploit the Gaza war to end the mission of the UN Rapporteur, which began in 2011.
The Iranian authorities did not grant the Special Rapporteur permission to visit Tehran.
During an interview with Voice of America, Rehman said that the authorities fear he will expose them.
Earlier this month, the Special Rapporteur said that the Israel-Hamas war has emboldened "repression" inside the country, noting that Iran was responding to a loss of credibility after mass protests set off by the September 2022 death of Amini.
On the summit's sidelines, the Iranian FM met with the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Mirjana Spoljaric Egger.
Iranian agencies quoted him as saying: "Leaders of the Palestinian factions are considering democratic ways and a political deal among all Palestinian groups and movements to run the post-war Gaza. Supporting this approach is supporting a democratic approach."
Also in Geneva, Amirabdollahian held talks with his Jordanian counterpart, Ayman Safadi.
The Jordanian Foreign Ministry stated on the "X" platform that the meeting focused on efforts to stop the Israeli aggression against Gaza and prevent further escalation in the region.
The two ministers also discussed the situation in Syria, especially the danger of drug smuggling from Syria to Jordan.
Safadi stressed that his country is determined to take all necessary steps to end drug smuggling.

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World

Pope Francis’s Funeral to Be Held on Saturday, Many World Leaders Expected 

The body of Pope Francis is placed in an open casket during the rite of the declaration of death in Santa Marta residence at the Vatican, April 22, 2025. Vatican Media/­Handout via REUTERS
The body of Pope Francis is placed in an open casket during the rite of the declaration of death in Santa Marta residence at the Vatican, April 22, 2025. Vatican Media/­Handout via REUTERS
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Pope Francis’s Funeral to Be Held on Saturday, Many World Leaders Expected 

The body of Pope Francis is placed in an open casket during the rite of the declaration of death in Santa Marta residence at the Vatican, April 22, 2025. Vatican Media/­Handout via REUTERS
The body of Pope Francis is placed in an open casket during the rite of the declaration of death in Santa Marta residence at the Vatican, April 22, 2025. Vatican Media/­Handout via REUTERS

Pope Francis' funeral will be held on Saturday in St. Peter's Square, Roman Catholic cardinals decided on Tuesday, setting the stage for a solemn ceremony that will draw leaders from around the world. 

Francis, 88, died unexpectedly on Monday after suffering a stroke and cardiac arrest, the Vatican said, ending an often turbulent reign in which he repeatedly clashed with traditionalists and championed the poor and marginalized. 

The pontiff spent five weeks in hospital earlier this year suffering from double pneumonia. But he returned to the Vatican almost a month ago and had seemed to be recovering, appearing in St. Peter's Square on Easter Sunday. 

The Vatican on Tuesday released photographs of Francis dressed in his vestments and laid in a wooden coffin in the chapel of the Santa Marta residence, where he lived during his 12-year papacy. Swiss Guards stand on either side of the casket. 

His body will be taken into the adjacent St. Peter's Basilica on Wednesday morning at 9:00 a.m. (0700 GMT), in a procession led by cardinals, allowing the faithful to pay their last respects to the first Latin American pope. 

His funeral service will be held in St. Peter's Square, in the shadow of the Basilica, on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. (0800 GMT). 

US President Donald Trump, who clashed repeatedly with the pope about immigration, said he and his wife would fly to Rome for the service. 

Among other heads of state set to attend were Javier Milei, president of Francis' native Argentina, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, according to a source in his office. 

ANCIENT RITUALS 

In a break from tradition, Francis confirmed in his final testament released on Monday that he wished to be buried in Rome's Basilica of Saint Mary Major and not St. Peter's, where many of his predecessors were laid to rest. 

Francis's sudden death has set in motion ancient rituals, as the 1.4-billion-member Church started the transition from one pope to another, including the breaking of the pope's "Fisherman's Ring" and lead seal, used in his lifetime to seal documents, so they cannot be used by anyone else. 

All cardinals in Rome were summoned to a meeting on Tuesday to decide on the sequencing of events in the coming days and review the day-to-day running of the Church in the period before a new pope is elected. 

A conclave to choose a new pope normally takes place 15 to 20 days after the death of a pontiff, meaning it should not start before May 6. 

Some 135 cardinals are eligible to participate in the secretive ballot, which can stretch over days before white smoke pouring from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel tells the world that a new pope has been picked. 

At present there is no clear frontrunner to succeed Francis. 

PROGRESSIVE 

Pope Francis inherited a Church in disarray and worked hard to overhaul the Vatican's central administration, root out corruption and, after a slow start, confront the scourge of child abuse within the ranks of the priesthood. 

He often clashed with conservatives, nostalgic for a traditional past, who saw Francis as overly liberal and too accommodating to minority groups. 

Francis appointed nearly 80% of the cardinal electors scattered across the world who will choose the next pope, increasing, but not guaranteeing, the possibility that his successor will continue his progressive policies. 

Many of the cardinals are little known outside their own countries and they will have a chance to get to know one another at meetings known as General Congregations that take place in the days before a conclave starts and where a profile of the qualities needed for the next pope will take shape. 

The Vatican said late on Monday that staff and officials within the Holy See could immediately start to pay their respects before the pope's body at the Santa Marta residence, where Francis set up home in 2013, shunning the grand, apostolic palace his predecessors had lived in.