MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION on the death of Mahsa Amini and the repression of women’s rights protesters in Iran
3.10.2022 - (2022/2849(RSP))
pursuant to Rule 132(2) of the Rules of Procedure
Ernest Urtasun, Bronis Ropė, Kira Marie Peter‑Hansen, Anna Cavazzini, Hannah Neumann, Jordi Solé, Francisco Guerreiro, Alice Kuhnke, Pär Holmgren, Jakop G. Dalunde, Tineke Strik, Mounir Satouri, Ignazio Corrao, Rosa D’Amato, Saskia Bricmont, Tilly Metz, Yannick Jadot, Sylwia Spurek
on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group
See also joint motion for a resolution RC-B9-0434/2022
B9‑0436/2022
European Parliament resolution on the death of Mahsa Amini and the repression of women’s rights protesters in Iran
The European Parliament,
– having regard to its previous resolutions on Iran,
– having regard the declaration by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union of 25 September 2022 and the statement of the European External Action Service spokesperson of 19 September 2022 on the death of Mahsa Amini,
– having regard to the EU guidelines of 8 December 2008 on violence against women and girls and combating all forms of discrimination against them,
– having regard to the award of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of thought to the Iranians Nasrin Sotoudeh and Jafar Panahi in 2012,
– having regard to the statement of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran of 22 September 2022, demanding accountability for the death of Mahsa Amini and calling for an end to violence against women,
– having regard to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),
– having regard to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
– having regard to Rule 132(2) of its Rules of Procedure,
A. whereas on 13 September 2022, the Iranian-Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini was arrested in Tehran by Iran’s ‘morality’ police; whereas according to eyewitnesses, the ‘morality’ police pushed Jina Mahsa Amini into a police van and beat her during her transfer to Vozara detention centre in Tehran; whereas within hours of Jina Mahsa Amini’s arrest, she fell into a coma and was transferred from Vozara detention centre to Kasra hospital in Tehran, where she died in the hospital, on 16 September 2022;
B. whereas in spite of promises by the President of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, and numerous officials, the authorities have hitherto failed to launch a transparent investigation by an independent body into the circumstances of Jina Mahsa Amini’s death; whereas Iranian officials have repeatedly denied responsibility for Jina Mahsa Amini’s death, have concealed vital evidence and have threatened her family and others questioning the official narrative and calling for justice; whereas the authorities have also refused to provide Jina Mahsa Amini’s family with her complete medical records and autopsy report;
C. whereas following the death of Jina Mahsa Amini, protests began in her hometown of Saqqez in Kurdistan province and have spread across the country to almost all of Iran’s 31 provinces; whereas the protests were initiated by women demanding accountability for the death of Jina Mahsa Amini and calling for an end to violence and discrimination against women in Iran, in particular in the form of compulsory veiling; whereas the women’s protests have fostered the solidarity of men, sparking a pan-Iranian reform and protest movement with the aim of overthrowing the current status quo and the repressive policies of the Iranian authorities;
D. whereas the Iranian security forces, which according to Amnesty International include agents of the Revolutionary Guard, Basij paramilitary forces and plain-clothes security officials, have violently clamped down on protests across the country in order to suppress dissent; whereas the Iranian security forces have unlawfully and deliberately fired live ammunition and outlawed birdshot and other metal pellets directly at protesters, as well using tear gas, water cannons and beatings with batons as means to disperse protesters; whereas according to rights groups at least 76 protesters and bystanders have been killed, while the actual death toll may be much higher; whereas hundreds of people have been injured; whereas Iranian security agents have arrested hundreds of protesters, activists and journalists, among others, Niloofar Hamedi, the journalist who first broke the news about Jina Mahsa Amini’s arrest and hospitalisation;
E. whereas since 16 September 2022, the Iranian authorities have imposed a mobile internet shutdown, throttled internet services and disrupted social media platforms in response to the street protests following the death in custody of Jina Mahsa Amini in Saqqez, Kurdistan Province; whereas there have been reports of SMS messages containing the words ‘Mahsa Amini’ in Farsi being blocked;
F. whereas Iran is a major perpetrator of internet shutdowns in the Middle East and North Africa region and has a long history of shutting down internet access during times of unrest in order to silence dissent and crack down on protests; whereas in 2021, the Iranian authorities accounted for 5 out of the 23 shutdowns documented in the region;
G. whereas under Iran’s Islamic Penal Code, women who are seen in public without a headscarf can be punished with a prison sentence, flogging or a fine; whereas the law applies to girls as young as nine; whereas women and girls in Iran are routinely stopped in the street by the ‘morality’ police, who subject them to insults and threats;
H. whereas Jina Mahsa Amini’s arbitrary arrest and death in custody occurred against the backdrop of escalating harassment and violence against women and girls by police, paramilitary forces and vigilantes in Iran since the government of Ebrahim Raisi took office in August 2021;
I. whereas many women human rights defenders have been arrested, sentenced and imprisoned in recent years because of their long-term peaceful work to promote women’s human rights;
J. whereas the killing of Jina Mahsa Amini is illustrative of the ongoing human rights crisis in Iran, perpetuated by the systemic impunity of the Iranian Government and its security apparatus, which has permitted widespread torture, as well as extrajudicial executions and other unlawful killings;
K. whereas Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, in his declaration of 25 September 2022, condemned the killing of Jina Mahsa Amini and the excessive use of force by Iranian security forces and announced that the EU would consider all the options at its disposal ahead of the next Foreign Affairs Council to address the killing of Jina Mahsa Amini and the way Iranian security forces have responded to the ensuing demonstrations;
L. whereas the EU has adopted restrictive measures related to violations of human rights, including asset freezes and visa bans for individuals and entities responsible for grave human rights violations, and a ban on exports to Iran of equipment which might be used for internal repression and of equipment for monitoring telecommunications; whereas these measures remain in place and are regularly updated; whereas the latest update, of 11 April 2022, extended the measures until 13 April 2023;
1. Condemns in the strongest terms the violent arrest, abuse and ill-treatment of Jina Mahsa Zhina Amini by Iranʼs ‘morality’ police, for allegedly failing to comply with Iran’s strict rules on women’s dress by wearing an ‘improper hijab’, leading to her death;
2. Condemns the fact that in spite of the promises by President Raisi and government officials, the Iranian authorities have hitherto failed to properly investigate the circumstances of Jina Mahsa Amini’s death in custody, and have instead repeatedly denied responsibility for her killing, concealed vital evidence and threatened her family; urges the Iranian authorities to launch an independent, impartial and effective investigation into the circumstances of Jina Mahsa Aminiʼs death and to hold those responsible for her death accountable in a fair trial;
3. Expresses its full solidarity with women in Iran and the peaceful protest movement across the country that is raising its voice against the systematic oppression of women and all dissenting people, a government that brutally nips political resistance in the bud and discriminates against Kurds, as well as other ethnic groups and religious minorities; considers the protests to constitute the expression of a profound discontent on the part of the Iranian people with a deeply corrupt government and a violent, theocratic and secretive state;
4. Strongly condemns the unrestrained and disproportionate use of force by the Iranian police and security forces against protestors causing the death of dozens of people and leaving hundreds injured; is appalled by the killing of Hadis Najafi, a 20-year-old woman who was shot six times by security forces during a protest in the city of Karaj;
5. Urges the Iranian Government to halt the violent crackdown on the protests immediately, and to launch independent investigations into the killings of protesters; recalls that peaceful assembly is enshrined in Article 21 of the ICCPR, to which Iran is a party;
6. Demands that the Iranian authorities immediately and unconditionally release and drop all charges against anyone who is imprisoned solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly in connection with the protests; calls on the Iranian authorities to immediately release the nine EU nationals, among them Alessia Piperno, who participated in the peaceful protests; is highly concerned about the arrest of more than 20 journalists, notably Niloofar Hamedi, the journalist who first broke the news about Jina Mahsa Amini’s arrest and hospitalisation, and calls on the Iranian authorities to free them without delay;
7. Condemns the internet disruption and shutdowns imposed by the Iranian authorities and urges the Iranian Government to immediately restore full internet and communications access across the country and to lift any disruption, blocking or restrictions on the Iranian people’s ability to communicate and access information freely and safely; stresses that restricting internet access and disrupting messenger services breaches and seriously interferes with people’s right to freedom of expression and assembly, as enshrined in the ICCPR, to which Iran is a party;
8. Condemns the Iranian Government’s systematic discrimination against women through laws and regulations that severely restrict their freedoms, lives and livelihoods; is particularly concerned about the degrading compulsory veiling law and its abusive enforcement which enables state and non-state agents to harass and assault women in public; holds the view that it is women’s right to autonomously decide on whether or not they wish to wear specific clothes or symbols on the basis of personal preferences, religious convictions, cultural customs or for any other reason; considers that the imposition and violent enforcement of traditional, cultural or religious forms of dress violate women’s rights to freedom of expression, freedom of religion or belief and the right to privacy; encourages the Iranian Government to make use of the country-wide protests as a window of opportunity to repeal laws that impose compulsory veiling on women and girls, and to abolish the ‘morality’ police which enforces these abusive and discriminatory laws;
9. Recalls that according to national surveys, a majority of Iranians oppose compulsory veiling laws for women;
10. Urges the Iranian Government to immediately and unconditionally release all human rights defenders who have been imprisoned for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression and belief; calls on the Iranian Supreme Court to overturn the sentences handed down against LGBTI human rights defenders Zahra Sedighi-Hamadani and Elham Choubdar, on the grounds of violations of the right to fair trials; asks the Iranian Government to cease its targeting of all human rights defenders in Iran and to guarantee in all circumstances that they are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free from all restrictions, including judicial harassment; calls on the Iranian Government to treat prisoners with the respect due to their inherent dignity and value as human beings;
11. Calls on the Iranian authorities to extend a standing invitation to visits of all Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council and to cooperate in a proactive manner; urges them to ensure particularly that the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran is allowed to enter the country;
12. Asks the EU and its Member States to use all engagements with the Iranian authorities to demand an immediate end to the violent crackdown against protests and the unconditional release of all those arrested for exercising their right to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, call for an independent investigation into the death of Jina Mahsa Amini and dozens of protesters, urge the restoration of access to the internet and communication channels and encourage the abolition of compulsory veiling for women;
13. Calls on the Foreign Affairs Council to add Iranian officials, including all those associated with the ‘morality’ police, who are found complicit in or responsible for the death of Jina Mahsa Amini and violence against protesters, to the EU’s list of individuals against whom restrictive measures in relation to serious human rights violations in Iran have been applied;
14. Calls on the Commission to consider, under strict compliance with the principles of necessity and proportionality, allowing EU-based communications providers to offer tools, including videoconferencing, e-learning platforms, web maps and cloud services, to people in Iran, in order to ensure that they have access to the online tools and platforms they need to exercise their human rights;
15. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to engage with the UN to establish an international investigative and accountability mechanism by the UN Human Rights Council in order to address the prevailing human rights crisis and the crisis of impunity in Iran;
16. Calls on the European External Action Service to continue to raise human rights matters in the context of all exchanges with Iran, including future EU-Iran High-Level Dialogues, and to reaffirm that respect for human rights is a core component in the development of EU-Iran relations; calls on the Iranian authorities and the EU to resume informal consultations on human rights, while working towards establishing a formal Human Rights Dialogue, defining clear objectives, specific benchmarks and human rights indicators to measure progress;
17. Calls on the European External Action Service, the Commission and the Member States to increase their protection and support for human rights defenders in Iran and those in exile, including through emergency grants under the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe and the European Endowment for Democracy, as well as emergency visas, and to address in particular the vulnerability of women human rights defenders through adequate protective measures that shield them from the specific and gendered risks they are exposed to;
18. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the Islamic Consultative Assembly, the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Office of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran.