On the six-month anniversary of the January 2026 popular uprising in Iran when security forces carried out mass unlawful killings on an unprecedented scale to crush protests calling for dignity, freedom and an end to the Islamic Republic system, killing thousands of protesters and bystanders between 8-9 January 2026, Diana Eltahawy, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International said:
“Six months after Iran’s security forces unlawfully killed thousands of men, women and children across the country over a two-day period, the international community’s failure to take meaningful action to pursue international justice is indefensible. It helps perpetuate the cycle of deadly repression in which survivors and victims’ families are denied justice, and future atrocities become all but inevitable.
“The world must not allow escalating cycles of crimes under international law against protesters to be erased or overshadowed by ongoing efforts to reach a lasting US‑Iran deal to end the war. The Iranian authorities have faced no consequences for repeatedly and unlawfully using intentional lethal force on a mass scale to crush and punish dissent. The international community’s failure to pursue international justice for these serious crimes has emboldened the Iranian authorities to threaten further mass killings by ‘trigger-ready’ security forces targeting protesters and dissidents they label as ‘enemies’.
