On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the respect for human rights in Iran.
Iran: in particular the poisoning of hundreds of schoolgirls
Referring to numerous incidents since November 2022, where thousands of girls and women across Iran have been attacked with toxic chemicalsto prevent them from attending education, MEPs condemn in the strongest terms this atrocious attempt to silence women and girls.
Urging authorities to ensure girls have non-discriminatory access to education, MEPs call on the Iranian regime to repeal any legislation that discriminates against girls and women.
They urge the UN Human Rights Council to task the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission with an independent investigation into the schoolgirl poisonings and for those responsible to be held accountable. The resolution condemns the regime’s months-long failure to act on, as well as its deliberate suppression of, credible reports of systematic toxic attacks against schoolgirls and calls on the Iranian authorities to let the International Mission and the UN Special Rapporteur have full access to information on the situation of human rights in the country.
Parliament also repeats its call to the Council to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation and to expand the EU sanctions list, including under the EU Global Human Rights sanctions mechanisms, to all those responsible for human rights violations in Iran, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, President Ebrahim Raisi, and Prosecutor General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri.
The resolution was adopted by 516 votes in favour, 5 against and 14 abstentions.
Full text will be available here. (16.03.2023)
