Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – Iranian authorities have significantly intensified their lethal crackdown on protesters since January 8, 2026, with credible reports that security forces are carrying out large-scale killings across the country. Since January 8, the authorities have imposed a country-wide internet blackout, which has caused severe restrictions on communications.
Iranian civil society organizations and the media have reported that the death toll has reached the thousands. However, the ongoing internet shutdown has severely hampered efforts to corroborate unlawful killings and other violations. Human Rights Watch is documenting emerging evidence of killings, including verifying video footage from morgues and hospitals, as well as witness accounts.
United Nations member countries should urgently demand that Iranian authorities stop the bloodshed, grant immediate and unhindered access to the UN-mandated Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, and restore access to the global internet.
A prevailing climate of systemic impunity has enabled Iranian authorities to repeatedly commit crimes under international law, including murder, torture, rape, and enforced disappearances to eliminate and punish dissent. This underlines the importance of international scrutiny as well as the collection and preservation of evidence to facilitate future criminal prosecutions, Human Rights Watch said.
An unidentified peaceful protester lone blocks the path of security forces in Tehran on January 2, 2026. The incident has been compared to The Unknown Rebel in Tiananmen Square. Public Domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.
Philippe Bolopion, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said, “Reporting of Iranian security forces’ large-scale killings of protesters and other heinous violations and crimes has continued to emerge despite the internet blackout across the country. Those detained are at risk of secret, arbitrary executions as authorities have accused protesters of being ‘enemies of God,’ which carries the death penalty. The UN Security Council and Human Rights Council should urgently address the escalating atrocities and put Iranian officials and security forces on notice that justice will one day catch up to them.”
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