People in Iran are experiencing the fifth day of a near total communications blackout, deliberately imposed by the regime to conceal a massacre of its own people. International human rights groups and media outlets are piecing together the horrific scale of the killing, torture, and mass arrests. As the Iranian authorities continue their brutal crackdown, ARTICLE 19 calls for an immediate end to the indiscriminate killing, release of all prisoners and the full restoration of connectivity. We join calls on the international community to press Iran to halt the bloodshed, grant access to the UN Fact-Finding Mission and restore internet access. States should pursue universal jurisdiction prosecutions for crimes like murder and torture, and prevent further international crimes amid systemic impunity. Strict export bans should also be imposed on military-grade jamming technology to Iran, targeting suppliers including China and Russia, to break the regime’s blackout stranglehold.
The estimates of those killed in Iran since the protests began at the end of December 2025 vary considerably, as verification of figures remains difficult due to the communications shutdown. A widely cited figure from human rights group Iran Human Rights puts a death toll at least 648 people, but this is likely a severe underestimate.
Reports continue to emerge of the security services’ widespread use of lethal force and indiscriminate killings. Authorities have repeatedly opened fire directly at peaceful protesters, with eyewitnesses describing people being shot from behind at close range. In many cities, hospitals have become overwhelmed, as medics struggle to treat those with severe injuries from gunshot wounds. Last week, security forces raided the Imam Khomeini Hospital in Ilam, deploying teargas and beating patients, their families, and medical personnel while attempting to arrest the injured protesters and seize the bodies of those killed.
According to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, more 10,700 people have been detained since the start of the protests. Iran’s Prosecutor General and Tehran’s prosecutor Ali Salehi have said protesters could face charges of mohareb, ‘waging war against God’ – a charge punishable by death under Iranian law. A 26-year-old protester Erfan Soltani is due to be executed on Wednesday, 14 January, according to the Kurdish rights organisation Hengaw.
The brutal crackdown, mass killings and executions serve one purpose: to intimidate and silence those who have peacefully taken to the streets to call for democracy, freedom, justice and respect of their human rights.
This must stop now. The Iranian authorities must immediately end the crackdown, restore connectivity and immediately and unconditionally release anyone detained for peacefully exercising their right to protest; all prisoners must be guaranteed due process and access to lawyers.
The gross human rights violations committed under the guise of communication shutdown mirror the patterns of repression during the Woman, Life, Freedom movement. The international community must act now to end the lack of accountability and impunity for the crimes committed. ARTICLE 19 calls on UN member states and regional bodies, including the European Union, to put urgent diplomatic pressure on Iranian authorities to stop the bloodshed and restore access to the internet. In light of the systemic impunity which has emboldened Iranian authorities to repeatedly commit crimes under international law, we join human rights organisations in calling for states to initiate investigations under the principle of universal jurisdictions to hold those responsible to account.
ARTICLE 19 calls on the UN Human Rights Council to act decisively by convening a special session and adopting a strong resolution that signals unequivocally to the Iranian authorities that the spiral of bloodshed and impunity must end. We reiterate our full support for the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran and call for the special session resolution to allocate all additional resources necessary to the mandate to carry out an urgent inquiry to collect and preserve evidence of crimes under international law in support of accountability processes.