Amnesty accuses Iran of crimes against humanity over protest crackdowns

Amnesty International has accused Iranian authorities of committing crimes against humanity during the crackdown on protests in 2022, which it says left hundreds of people dead.

The organisation said the suppression of new demonstrations in 2026 showed the same hallmarks as the earlier crackdown, but on an even wider scale. The source material does not provide further details about the demonstrations or the alleged abuses.

Raha Bahreini, Amnesty International’s Iran researcher, called for an international criminal justice mechanism to be established to prosecute those responsible.

Amnesty’s characterisation is an allegation by the rights organisation and is not independently established in the supplied material. It also did not provide a precise death toll for the 2022 protests.

The proposed mechanism, including its legal status and structure, was not detailed.