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UN rights chief says full-fledged crisis underway in Iran

UN rights chief Volker Turk demanded an end to the "unneccessary" use of force against protesters in Iran, at an urgent meeting of the Human Rights Council on Thursday. "From what we could gather, around 14,000 people, including children, have so far been arrested in the context of the protests. This is a staggering number. The unnecessary and disproportionate use of force must come to an end. The old methods and the fortress mentality of those who wield power simply don't work," Turk said.

Reuters WORLD
Published November 24,2022
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The U.N. human rights chief on Thursday made a strong appeal to Iranian authorities to stop their "unnecessary and disproportionate" use of force against protesters in Iran in a speech to the Human Rights Council on the ongoing crisis.

"We are now in a full-fledged human rights crisis," High Commissioner of Human Rights Volker Turk said in his first address to the 47-member council since starting last month.

"No society can be calcified or fossilised as it may stand at a single point in time. To attempt to do so, against the will of its people, is futile," he added.