A group of mothers and relatives of the protesters and political activists killed in Iran in the past four decades say suppression of the recent protests was "crimes against humanity".

The response of the Iranian government to the people protesting against the hike in the price of gasoline who only wanted freedom and an end to poverty, discrimination and injustice was “shooting them and trying to drawn their voices through shutting down the Internet,” the statement written on 13 December which was published on the social media said.

The signatories of the statement include the mother of Pouya Bakhtiari who was shot dead in November protests in Karaj, the mothers of several protesters who were killed in the protests against the allegedly hijacked 2009 presidential election, the mother of Saeed Zeinali who disappeared during the student protests in 1999, as well as Mansoureh Behkish who lost six members of her family in the summary executions of the 1980.

The signatories of the statement have also proposed to designate the 26 of December as an international day to commemorate the victims of the November protest in Iran.

They have called on the United Nations to send its Human Rights High Commissioner and Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic to Iran.

The mothers and relatives of the victims have also called on the UN to form a truth-finding committee in which the families of the victims are represented to investigate the dimensions of the suppression of the protests, reveal the real death toll of the protests and identify the agents of the crime committed against the protesters.

“We believe that these [crimes] are crime against humanity. We need to bring the direct perpetrators of these crimes to account in international courts to prevent their repetition.”