In a petition published on December 9 by Amnesty International civil society organizations urged the UN member countries to publicly condemn the grave human rights violations by the Iranian authorities.
The petition calls on governments to support the draft resolution of the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly's on November 14 on the situation of human rights in Iran and to help ensure those responsible for human rights violations are held to account.
The petition has been signed by international, regional, and national civil society organizations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch (HRW), International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and Justice for Iran and United for Iran.
Signatories of the petition have stressed that the Iranian security forces have continued their crackdown on protests with complete impunity, using "excessive and lethal force against unarmed protesters in November.
Iranian authorities who attribute the protests to "foreign plots" have not officially announced the death toll of the protests but Amnesty International has confirmed that at least 208 protesters lost their lives in the protests triggered by a three-fold increase in gasoline prices on November 15.
On December 10 in an open letter 160 prominent Iranian lawyers called on Rouhani who takes pride in having a law degree, for an investigation of the violations of the protesters' rights. The lawyers who have signed the letter criticized the use of live ammunition against the protesters and called for the punishment of those responsible for their killing.
The draft resolution that the signatories of the petition have urged the UN member countries to support calls on the Iranian authorities to release anyone detained for peacefully exercising their rights including people detained solely for taking part in peaceful protests.
"The undersigned organisations are also deeply concerned about the widespread and systematic discrimination and violence based on gender, religion or belief, ethnicity, gender identity and sexual orientation that are enshrined in Iranian law, policies and state practices and that seriously impede civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, as documented in the reports of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran and of the UN Secretary General presented to the UN General Assembly," the petition reads.
The signatories of the petition hope by supporting the resolution the UN member countries will send a strong message to the Iranian authorities that the fulfilment of Iran's human rights obligations remains a priority for the international community.
