March 24, 2025
American Jewish Committee Chief Policy and Political Affairs Officer Jason Isaacson wrote the following letter to members of the UN Human Rights Council, advocating for continued investigations of human rights abuses by Iran and Russia.
Your Excellency:
I am writing on behalf of the American Jewish Committee regarding the ongoing 58th regular UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva, which will conclude its work on April 4, 2025.
We urge your government to vote in favor of resolutions extending the mandates of three important independent human rights monitors: the Fact-Finding Mission on Iran (FFMI), which is examining the Iranian regime’s commission of crimes against humanity against protesters and ongoing persecution of dissenters inside and outside Iran; the Special Rapporteur on Iran, which is monitoring and reporting on cases and patterns of violations by the Iranian regime; and the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, which is examining Russia’s crimes against humanity and other violations in its war of aggression against Ukraine.
The UNHRC created the FFMI in 2022 in response to the regime’s crackdown against the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests. In 2024, the FFMI confirmed that Iranian authorities decided to violently suppress the protests and repress the rights of women and girls, resulting in violations amounting to the crimes of murder, imprisonment, torture, rape, and other forms of sexual violence, persecution, enforced disappearance, and other inhumane acts against protesters, especially minorities, and women and girls.
In its latest report, the FFMI has revealed that it has gathered additional evidence reaffirming these findings and demonstrating that since the protests subsided, the regime has allowed a climate of impunity for violators to prevail and is continuing to persecute women and dissidents and commit transnational repression against journalists and others, creating a real risk that its gross violations will recur. There is an urgent need for the UNHRC to extend and broaden the FFMI’s mandate so that its investigations and efforts to facilitate accountability for the violations it has documented can continue.
For many years predating the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests, the UNHRC authorized an independent Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, and the mandate of this separate mechanism has existed alongside that of the FFMI since its creation.
The Special Rapporteur on Iran provides an essential source of monitoring on serious human rights issues in Iran, including the regime’s persecution of religious minorities in contexts other than those connected to the protests, and is also engaged in direct communication with the government about specific allegations concerning individual cases and legislation that serves an essential early warning and protective function distinct from that of the FFM Iran. There is an urgent need for the UNHRC to extend the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Iran so that this work can continue.
Since March 2022, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine (COI Ukraine) has gathered evidence leading it to conclude Russia’s armed forces are responsible for widespread violations of international law and human rights violations.
In its most recent report, the COI Ukraine determines that Russian authorities have committed crimes against humanity of enforced disappearance and torture as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Ukraine as part of a coordinated state policy, as well as other violations. As these and other systematic violations are ongoing, there is an urgent need for the mandate of the COI Ukraine to be renewed to enable its work to continue.
For all these reasons, we call on your government to speak out against the egregious, brutal human rights violations in which Iran and Russia are engaged and to vote in favor of the Human Rights Council resolutions addressing these violations and extending the mandates of independent monitoring mechanisms that have brought them to light.
Respectfully,
Jason Isaacson
Chief Policy and Political Affairs Officer
American Jewish Committee
Washington, D.C.
