UN: An urgent session on Iran, where a ruthless crackdown on huge protests has resulted in hundreds of deaths, will be held this month, the United Nations Human Rights Council stated on Monday. The highest rights body of the UN announced that a special session on Iran’s human rights status would take place on November 24.
The decision was made in response to a request for a meeting made on Friday by the ambassadors of Germany and Iceland to the UN in Geneva. A special session other than the three normal ones held each year must have the consent of 16 of the Human Rights Council’s 47 members, or more than a third.
The UN organisation reported that 44 nations, including 17 Council members, have supported the call thus far. The request comes after eight weeks of demonstrations in Iran, which were spurred by the murder of Mahsa Amini, 22, who died after being detained for allegedly violating the country’s stringent dress codes for women. According to the Oslo-based organisation Iran Human Rights, at least 326 people have died as a result of the crackdown on the protesters.