Ex-general Benedicto Lucas García, 91, has been indicted for genocide, crimes against humanity - including widespread rape - and forced disappearances.

The former general was accused of ordering the murder of more than 1,200 indigenous Ixil Maya people during Guatemala's civil war.

The alleged crimes occurred between 1978 and 1982, when Lucas García's brother Fernando Romeo Lucas García was president of Guatemala.

For seven months between 1981 and 1982, Lucas Garcia helmed Guatemala’s forces, as part of the administration of President Romeo Lucas Garcia, his brother. He now stands accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, forced disappearances and sexual violence.

A United Nations-backed truth commission found that the military committed acts of genocide against five of the country’s 22 different Maya peoples between 1981 and 1983. That period overlaps with Lucas Garcia’s tenure as the chief of the general staff of the army.

Benedicto Lucas García is accused of planning and executing over 30 massacres in the western region of Quiche.

Lawyer Nery Rodenas, director of the Human Rights Office of the Archbishopric of Guatemala, told the AFP news agency that survivors had waited "more than 40 years" for justice.

Many Ixil Maya people were targeted by the military, accused of providing support to Marxist rebels.

Some 200,000 people died in the conflict, which lasted almost 40 years. Most were ethnic Maya.

Guatemala's Supreme Court of Justice ruled in 2018 that acts of genocide had been committed against the Ixil people. But only a small number of low-ranking soldiers have been convicted of war crimes.

In 2013, Guatemala made history when a court convicted Rios Montt of genocide. But the verdict was overturned soon after in a widely-questioned ruling, illustrating the difficulties of prosecuting such a case.

Rios Montt died before a partial retrial could end in 2018. On September 27 of that year, a tribunal ruled the military did commit genocide, but no one was convicted.

Advocates, however, emphasise that the atrocities perpetuated by Rios Montt and others extended beyond the Mayan Ixil people, also targeting other Indigenous peoples, unions, clergy, student movements and other groups.

For example, in a separate case from 2018, Lucas Garcia was convicted of rape, forced disappearance, and crimes against humanity for actions taken against an activist and her family. He was sentenced to 58 years in prison.

Read more here and here

A draft UN resolution that declares July 11 "The International Day of Reflection and Remembrance of the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide" will be submitted to the UN Assembly for scrutiny on April 17 and is to be voted by the 193 member states of UN General Assembly on May 2.

Although the full details of the proposed document are not available yet, it has provoked fierce Serbian reactions, both from the Bosnian Serbs of the Republika Srpska and the authorities in Belgrade.   

At least 8,372 unarmed men and boys were slaughtered by Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica over 10 days in July 1995. The execution sites ranged from a warehouse to an earthen pit and were carried out in internationally designated “safe areas” meant to be protected by UN peacekeepers. But they looked the other way as they were quickly overrun by Bosnian Serb forces.

The baseline draft text to formally authorize the Srebrenica commemoration through a General Assembly vote, slated to happen in early May, is circulating among member states. On April 17, a private presentation to member states will be held at the UN, led by Germany and Rwanda, who initiated the cause to officially honor the genocide. The official commemoration will close the gap for the two prosecuted genocides — Rwanda and Srebrenica — that were carried out in the 1990s, as one diplomat put it.

The General Assembly draft text, seen by PassBlue, will designate July 11 as the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration, starting in 2025, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica. The draft condemns genocide denial and the glorification of people convicted of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

The resolution is partly modeled after the General Assembly resolution establishing the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda. It is supported by a cross-regional group that includes Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Liechtenstein, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Rwanda, Slovenia, Türkiye and the United States.

The nationalist-conservative Serbian President, Aleksandar Vucic, took issue with the procedure of approving the resolution, which is to be voted by the UN Assembly and not by the UN Security Council. According to President Vucic the Security Council is more politically appropriate when it comes to the Bosnian affairs:

"It is an obligation that the United Nations Security Council deal with the issue of Bosnia and Herzegovina because it is still an unstable region. I am saying this because they want to shift the vote from the Security Council to the United Nations General Assembly" said the Serbian president concluding that "the preservation of peace is not just a memory's culture issue". 

Unlike resolutions that pass through the General Assembly, a Security Council resolution can be vetoed by just one member. Serbia often relies on Russia as a vetoing force. 

The first genocide conviction, against Radislav Krstic, a Bosnian Serb army officer, was handed down in August 2001. He was convicted for his role in the massacre of “over 7,500 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in July 1995,” the ICTY website says.

Theodor Meron, who was president of the tribunal when the genocide judgment was made against Krstic and who served on the appeals chamber of the court, told PassBlue that he was “strongly in favor” of an official commemoration.

During the tribunal’s mandate, from 1993 to 2017, the court’s website says that “it irreversibly changed the landscape of international humanitarian law, provided victims an opportunity to voice the horrors they witnessed and experienced, and proved that those suspected of bearing the greatest responsibility for atrocities committed during armed conflicts can be called to account.”

Two other high-profile cases resulted in convictions. Radovan Karadzic, the first president, from 1992 to 1995, of Republika Srpska, one of the two entities making up Bosnia, was sentenced to life in prison by the tribunal for the Srebrenica genocide and crimes against humanity. He is carrying out his sentence in a British jail.

Read more here and here

Over 10 million children in Sudan have been in an active war zone for the past year. 

A recent analysis by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) on behalf of Save the Children has revealed that 50 percent of children in Sudan are currently or have been within five kilometers of the frontlines of conflict within the last year. 

This staggering number represents a 60 percent increase since the first month of conflict which erupted in April 2023. 

The analysis shows that children in Sudan have been exposed to battles, bombings, Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attacks, mortar and missile attacks, and direct attacks on civilians. 

Aid organization, Save the Children called on international leaders to discuss the crisis in Sudan and focus on improving humanitarian access, protecting children, and staving off famine. 

Country Director for Save the Children in Sudan, Dr. Arif Noor said: 

These findings show how dangerously close to death and injury so many children in Sudan have been over the past year of war. Children in Sudan have suffered unimaginably - they have seen killings, massacres, bullet-littered streets, dead bodies and shelled homes while they live with the all-too-real fear that they themselves could be killed, injured, recruited to fight, or subject to sexual violence. 

UNICEF has warned that 50 percent of the total population is in dire need of humanitarian assistance. Sudan has one of the highest rates of child malnutrition, more than 3 million children are acutely malnourished.

Sudan also currently has the largest child displacement crisis in the world, with reportedly 3.5 million children fleeing violence in search of safety. 

Read the Save the Children analysis here.  

The UN has confirmed that thirty-eight migrants, including children, have died after the boat they were traveling in capsized off the coast of Djibouti. 

The boat carrying 66 migrants, primarily from Ethiopia, left Yemen for Djibouti around 2 am. At approximately 4 am on 8 April, about 200 meters from the northeastern coast of Djibouti the boat sank. 5 migrants are missing and presumed dead. 

According to the 23 survivors, the vessel was overloaded before water began flooding causing it to overturn. 

Chief of Mission for IOM Djibouti, Tanja Pacifico said: 

This is among the deadliest shipwrecks recorded in Djibouti. This migration corridor is among the busiest and most dangerous in Africa, yet it recieves very limited attention and funding, while the numbers keep increasing. More support is needed to prevent the loss f life and support countries like Djibouti.

Early last year, the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned that the dangerous journey through the Eastern Migration Route has seen a 64 percent increase.

According to the IOM, this increase is driven by climate change which has forced migrants including large numbers of women and children to move away from their homes in search of a better life. 

Last month, the IOM released a report documenting the number of migrants that have died or disappeared during migration in the past decade. As of 13 March 2023, this figure stood at approximately 63,285. Nearly 60 percent of these deaths have been linked to drowning.

Read more on ReliefWeb. 

Rwanda's president said the international community "failed all of us", as he marked 30 years since the 1994 genocide that killed around 800,000 people.

President Paul Kagame addressed dignitaries and world leaders who had gathered in Rwanda's capital, Kigali, to commemorate the bloodshed.

"Rwanda was completely humbled by the magnitude of our loss," he said.

"And the lessons we learned are engraved in blood."

On this day in 1994, extremists from the Hutu ethnic group launched a 100-day killing spree, in which members of the Tutsi minority and Hutu moderates were slaughtered.

In a speech later, Mr Kagame thanked fellow African countries including Uganda, Ethiopia and Tanzania for their assistance in accepting Tutsi refugees and ending the genocide.

"Many of the countries representing here also sent their sons and daughters to serve as peacekeepers in Rwanda," he said.

"Those soldiers did not fail Rwanda. It was the international community which failed all of us. Whether from contempt or cowardice."

The genocide was sparked on the night of 6 April 1994, when Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana was assassinated - the plane he was on was shot down.

Hutu extremists blamed the Tutsi RPF rebel group, and launched a well-organised campaign of slaughter.

Their victims were shot, beaten or hacked to death in killings fuelled by vicious anti-Tutsi propaganda spread on TV and radio.

Thousands of Tutsi women were abducted and kept as sex slaves.

After 100 days of violence, the RPF rebel militia, led by Mr Kagame, succeeded in overthrowing the Hutu authorities and ending the genocide.

Human rights groups say RPF fighters killed thousands of Hutu civilians as they took power - and more after they pursued Hutu militia members who had fled into the Democratic Republic of Congo. The RPF denies this.

Scars from the violence still remain, and new mass graves are still being uncovered around the country.

In the months that followed the genocide, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was set up in Tanzania.

Dozens of senior officials in the former regime were convicted of genocide - all of them Hutus.

Within Rwanda, community courts, known as gacaca, were created to speed up the prosecution of hundreds of thousands of genocide suspects awaiting trial.

According to Rwanda, hundreds of suspects remain at large, including in neighbouring nations such as DR Congo and Uganda.

Read more here

A UN expert has expressed concerns over escalating gang violence in Haiti. 

American human rights lawyer and UN human rights expert on Haiti, William O’Neill has voiced alarm over the rapidly deteriorating situation in Port-au-Prince. "There’s a level of intensity and cruelty in the violence that is simply unprecedented in my experience in Haiti," said O'Neill. The UN expert has described the current state of affairs as "apocalyptic".

In the first three months of 2024 over 1,500 people have been killed. 

Gang rebellion started on 29 February and forced Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, to announce his resignation. Haiti has been without a president since the assassination of Jovenel Moïse in 2021. Currently, the Caribbean country is without any elected officials. 

O'Neill has expressed shock over the evaporation of the state in the face of gang rebellion, he says: "Here, I think what’s different is that the state is virtually absent … There is no state and that’s almost like a Hobbesian world where it’s really the survival of the fittest … and unfortunately the fittest right now are the gangs". 

The majority of the violence has been within Port-au-Prince, an estimated 90% of the capital is currently under the control of powerful gangs. 

According to the UN, over 53,000 people have fled Port-au-Prince. O'Neill has warned that if the violence spreads into the countryside neighbouring countries could see an exodus of refugees. 

Read more on the Guardian. 

Brazil has issued its first-ever apology for the torture and persecution of Indigenous people during the military dictatorship, including the incarceration of victims in an infamous detention centre known as an “Indigenous concentration camp”.

The apology was made on Tuesday by an amnesty commission attached to the human rights ministry that is tasked with investigating the crimes of the 1964-85 regime.

he president of that commission, the law professor Eneá de Stutz e Almeida, knelt before the Indigenous leader Djanira Krenak as she voiced regret for the violence inflicted on the Krenak people.

“In the name of the Brazilian state I want to say sorry for all the suffering your people were put through,” said Almeida, who called the apology the first of its kind in the more than 500 years since Portuguese explorers reached what is now known as Brazil in 1500.

“In truth, I’m not saying sorry [only] for what happened during the dictatorship. I’m saying sorry for the persecution your people – as well as all other native people – have suffered over the last 524 years because of the non-Indigenous invasion of this land, which belongs to you,” Almeida told a hearing in the capital, Brasília.

Despite the scope of that declaration, Tuesday’s apologies concern two specific cases: one relating to the Krenak people from the south-eastern state of Minas Gerais and another relating to the Guarani-Kaiowá from Mato Grosso do Sul, towards Brazil’s western border with Bolivia and Paraguay. Indigenous leaders and historians say both groups were forced from their lands and brutalized by the dictatorship, which seized power after a coup d’état 60 years ago this week.

During the early years of the dictatorship – a period of rapid economic growth known as the “Brazilian miracle” – Brazil’s leaders unleashed a colossal infrastructure and development campaign in the rainforest region, bulldozing roads through remote jungles with scant thought for the Indigenous people who lived there. Disease and violence pushed previously uncontacted peoples to the brink of extinction.

“So many Indigenous lands were invaded during the Brazilian miracle, either by companies or government entities. It was a Brazilian miracle but an Indigenous disaster,” said Krenak, citing the devastation unleashed on the Waimiri Atroari people when a highway was built through their lands towards Venezuela. “They were annihilated by the army’s engineer battalion.”

The Indigenous congresswoman Célia Xakriabá hailed the apology as a “historic day” she hoped would set a precedent for future claims, albeit one more than two decades in the making. (The amnesty commission was set up in 2002.) “[But] there’s no point in saying sorry if Indigenous rights continue to be violated. The wounds inflicted by the violence of the dictatorship have yet to heal and we are still coming under attack,” Xakriabá added, pointing to the 2015 Mariana dam disaster that poisoned the river flowing through Krenak lands with arsenic and mercury.

The apology came at a highly symbolic moment for victims of the dictatorship, when thousands of people were tortured or killed. Sunday marked the coup’s 60th anniversary and relatives of the dead had voiced anger at President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s controversial decision to block official remembrance events – reportedly to avoid irking powerful military chiefs.

Krenak said he did not wish to judge Lula’s decision but believed remembering was essential.

“Dictatorship is a putrid thing. There are those who think dictatorship is about [good] governance. In fact, it’s about slaughter,” said the writer, who recently became the first Indigenous person to join the Brazilian Academy of Letters.

“Those who don’t remember the past are condemned to misery,” Krenak added. “If you don’t ensure new generations – those who are 20, 30 or 40 – know their country’s political history, then you are raising a nation of fools.”

Read more here

On Tuesday, seven people working with a humanitarian organization delivering food aid in Gaza were killed after an Israeli airstrike hit their cars which were clearly marked with the charity's logo.

The airstrike on the World Central Kitchen (WCK) convoy killed a Palestinian, a Canada-US dual citizen, an Australian Citizen, a Polish citizen, and three UK citizens.

“These are the heroes of WCK. These 7 beautiful souls were killed by the IDF in a strike as they were returning from a full day's mission. Their smiles, laughter, and voices are forever embedded in our memories.” - Erin Gore, CEO. Read more: https://t.co/4f38RQ1l4I pic.twitter.com/neAsSzKVP5

— World Central Kitchen (@WCKitchen) April 2, 2024

The charity stated: "Despite coordinating movements with the [Israeli army], the convoy was hit as it was leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse, where the team unloaded more than 100 tonnes of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route."

WCK chief executive, Erin Gore said: "This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war. This is unforgivable."

In the aftermath of the attack, WCK along with other aid organizations such as Anera and Hope have announced that they will be pausing operations in Gaza to protect their staff. 

A report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) partnership published last month warned that famine in Gaza is imminent. The report notes that without an immediate increase in aid deliveries conditions would continue to deteriorate.  

A statement from the Israeli forces said: "The IDF makes extensive efforts to enable the safe delivery of humanitarian aid, and has been working closely with WCK in their vital efforts to provide food and humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza."

Aid agencies have faced several obstacles in their attempts to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza due to unclear restrictions imposed by Israel. The UN has stated that Israel regularly denies approval for aid convoys. 

Before 7 October, an average of 500 trucks would enter Gaza every day carrying about 7,500 tonnes of goods. This number has since fallen to roughly 1,500 tonnes a day.

In late February, at least 118 Palestinians were killed and 760 injured after Israeli forces opened fire on civilians lining up for aid and food from a humanitarian aid truck. 

Israel has been facing pressure from the international community to increase the flow of aid. 

World Central Kitchen organized 400 tonnes of food supplies - enough for 1m meals - to be delivered. Workers were only able to offload around 100 tonnes before the Israeli attack forced WCK to stop its lifesaving work in Gaza. 

Read more here, here, and here. 

The UN warns of a deteriorating situation in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as M23 rebels continue to make gains, pushing hundreds of thousands of civilians from their homes. 

Heavy fighting between the DRC government forces and armed group M23 has intensified in the eastern part of the country since February, forcing hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee their homes as the rebels make territorial gains.

“One Congolese person out of four faces hunger and malnutrition,” Bintou Keita, the head of the UN’s DRC peacekeeping mission MONUSCO, told the UN Security Council this week, warning of a rapidly deteriorating security situation and a humanitarian crisis reaching near catastrophic levels.

“More than 7.1 million people have been displaced in the country. That is 800,000 people more since my last briefing three months ago,” she said.

The armed group “is making significant advances and expanding its territory to unprecedented levels”, Keita said at the UN on Wednesday.

This comes as fierce battles between the army and rebels have reached the outskirts of Sake, a village about 25km (15.5 miles) from regional economic hub Goma – marking a major advancement for M23.

“Things are at a breaking point,” said Shelley Thakral, a World Food Programme spokesperson, after returning to Kinshasa from a trip to Goma. “It’s quite overwhelming – people are living in desperate conditions,” she told Al Jazeera. Many people have fled in a hurry with no belongings and now find themselves in cramped camps with little prospect of returning, she added.

The effects are also being felt inside Goma, where civilians have seen the price of basic commodities skyrocketing and health services being disrupted by a steady stream of refugees coming in. “The situation is at its worst and war is at the door,” said John Anibal, an activist with civil society group LUCHA based in Goma.

The eastern region of the DRC has been plagued by violence for 30 years.

More than 200 armed groups roam the area, vying for control of its minerals, including cobalt and coltan – two key elements needed to produce batteries for electric vehicles and gadgets, such as PlayStations and smartphones.

Among the groups, M23 has posed the biggest threat to the government since 2022 when it picked up arms again after being dormant for more than a decade. Back then, it had conquered large swaths of territory, including Goma, before being pushed back by government forces.

Read more at Al Jazeera 

Israel told four European countries on Monday that their plan to take steps towards recognizing a Palestinian state constitutes a “prize for terrorism”.

On Friday Spain joined Ireland, Malta, and Slovenia in agreeing to take the first steps toward recognizing statehood declared by Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

 “Recognition of a Palestinian state following the 7 October massacre send a message to Hamas and the other Palestinian terrorist organizations that murderous terror attacks on Israelis will be reciprocated with political gestures to the Palestinians,” Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, said on X.

Katz continued, “A resolution of the conflict will only be possible through direct negotiations between the parties. Any engagement in the recognition of a Palestinian State only distances reaching a resolution and increases regional instability.”

Katz did not specify what a negotiated solution would look like.

Read more here. 

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the United States abstained from the vote.

Resolution 2728 was proposed by 10 elected members of the council, 14 council members voted in favour.

The resolution demands an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan, which will end in two weeks. Additionally, it called on Hamas to enact the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.

The Security Council just approved a long-awaited resolution on Gaza, demanding an immediate ceasefire, and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.

This resolution must be implemented. Failure would be unforgivable.

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) March 25, 2024

Hamas has welcomed the UNSC resolution, however, the group has emphasized the necessity of a permanent ceasefire that will ultimately lead to the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza.

Basem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau welcomes the resolution but notes that the release of the more than 7,000 Palestinians being detained by Israel is necessary.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Naim says “We have at least 7,000 Palestinians kidnapped by the Israelis and we consider them all hostages. If it has to come to release the hostages, it has to be applied to both sides.”

Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir says “the United Nations is a wasteland” in reaction to the UN Security Council vote.

US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield stated that the US abstained from the vote because the US request to add a condemnation of Hamas was ignored. The White House says that its abstention from the UNSC resolution for a ceasefire does not represent a shift in its policy towards Gaza. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled a delegation in Washington to discuss the planned ground invasion of Rafah. Netanyahu accused the US of hurting Israel’s war effort after failing to veto the UNSC ceasefire resolution.

As the UNSC resolution was approved, Israel continued to besiege Al-Amal Hospital and Al-Naser Hospital.

At least 32,333 Palestinians have been killed and 74,694 wounded in Israeli attacks against Gaza since 7 October. The death toll in Israel from the Hamas attack stands at 1,139 with dozens being held as hostages.

Read more here and here. 

The Indian government has enacted a controversial citizenship law that has been described as discriminatory towards Muslims by critics. 

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), proposed by the Modi government, explicitly makes religion the basis for acquiring Indian citizenship. 

Under the CAA, Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Christians who entered India from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan before December 2014 can fast track to Indian nationality. Muslims are excluded from the same rights. 

The law was originally passed in 2019, however, its implementation was delayed after widespread protests erupted in response. During the uprisings, thousands were arrested, and more than 100 people were reportedly killed. 

Activists, lawyers, and citizens have criticized the law stating that it would legitimize discrimination against Muslims and undermine India's secular foundations as enshrined in the constitution. 

On Monday night just weeks before Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads into a general election, the Minister of Home Affairs, Amit Shah, announced that the CAA had been enacted. "These rules will now enable minorities persecuted on religious grounds in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan to acquire citizenship in our nation", said Shah. 

Chief Ministers in states ruled by opposition parties including Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have stated that they would not be implementing the CAA in their states. However, the new legislation will largely be under the central government, leaving state governments with little option. 

Muslims in neighboring countries that are facing persecution such as Rohingya Muslims are left without protection under the CAA. Further, the new legislation also excludes migrants fleeing persecution from non-muslim countries including Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka. 

Read more here and here. 

Source: Flickr, July 29, 2016 

While attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea, about 60 migrants have died after the engine of their small dinghy broke down. 

On Wednesday, the dinghy was spotted by a ship belonging to the humanitarian organization, SOS Mediterranee. The humanitarian group was able to rescue 25 survivors who were showing signs of dehydration. 

The survivors told their rescuers they departed from Zawiya on the Libyan coast several days earlier. They had been adrift for four days without food or water.

According to the survivors, the victims are believed to have died from dehydration and hunger. The victims include women and at least one child. 

SOS Mediterranee stated that there were only male survivors, half of them boys.

The director of SOS Mediterranee, Valeria Taurino, stated that the situation on board was "disastrous."  The migrants on board were coming from Gambia, Mali, and Senegal, said Ms.Taurino.

The U.N. International Organization for Migration reports that 227 migrants have died on the Mediterranean route this year. 

Read more here and here. 

A UN fact-finding mission (FFM) has concluded that the Iranian regime’s human rights violations during its brutal suppression of protests in 2022 amount to crimes against humanity.

In November 2022, the UN Human Rights Council established an FFM two months after the Woman, Life, Freedom protests that swept the country. The protests were in response to the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died while in police custody. 

The FFM report states that the regime carried out widespread and sustained human rights violations specifically targetting women and girls which amount to international human rights violations. 

According to the UN report, the FFM has

"established that many of the serious human rights violations … amount to crimes against humanity – specifically those of murder; imprisonment; torture; rape and other forms of sexual violence; persecution; enforced disappearance and other inhumane acts – that have been committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against a civilian population, namely women, girls and others expressing support for human rights."

Human Rights Watch has reported that during the protests over 20,000 people were arrested, and more than 500 people were killed by security forces. 

The report also found that those who were arrested and detained including children were subjected to sexual assault, electrocution, beatings, and rape.

The FFM team has concluded that throughout the protests the Iranian government, 

“committed a series of extensive, sustained and continuing acts that individually constitute human rights violations directed against women, girls and persons expressing support for gender equality and the rights of women and girls and, cumulatively, constitute what the mission assesses to be gender persecution in the context of the protests and associated repression of fundamental rights”

Chair of the FFM, Sara Hossain urged the government to " immediately halt the repression of those who have engaged in peaceful protests, in particular women and girls.”

The FFM team is expected to present its findings in the 400-page report to the UN in Geneva at the end of March. 

Read more in the Guardian.