What changed

B100077/2026

B100071/2026

European Parliament resolution on the brutal repression against protestersprotestors in Iran

(2026/2565(RSP))

– having regard to its previous resolutions on Iran,

– having regard to the statement of 9 January 2026 by the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy on behalf of the EU on the situation in Iran,

– having regard to the joint declaration of 9 January 2026 of the leaders of France, Germany and the United Kingdom on the situation in Iran,

– having regard to the statement attributable to the Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General of 11 January 2026 on the Islamic Republic of Iran,

– having regard to the joint statement of 13 January 2026 by UN Special Rapporteurs and independent experts,

– having regard to the EU guidelines on violence against women and girls and combating all forms of discrimination against them,

– having regard to the awarding of the 2023 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to Jina Mahsa Amini and the Women, Life, Freedom Movement in Iran,

– having regard to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),

– having regard to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,

– having regard to the UN Charter,

– having regard to Rule 136(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas mass protests erupted across Iran on 28 December 2025, initiallydemonstrations broke out in responseIran toand soaringquickly inflation,developed risinginto foodnationwide prices,protests, thewith collapsetens of thousands of Iranians pouring onto the nationalstreets currencyacross different cities and deterioratingprovinces livingas conditions;of 8 January 2026; whereas the protestsdemonstrations spreadwere rapidlyinitiated acrossby thebazaar country’smerchants provinceswho andclosed majortheir cities,shops asto demonstratorsprotest voicedagainst Iran’s faltering economy, their dissatisfactionmarginalisation notwithin onlyit, withthe economiccollapse hardshipof butthe alsocurrency withand systemicthe restrictionserosion onof fundamentalliving rights;standards, whereasand thethey evolved into nationwide anti-government protests haverepresenting sincea escalatedwide tospectrum includeof anti-regimeIranian demands;society;

B. whereas the unrest has reportedly spread across all 31 provinces of Iran, particularly to major urban centres, such as Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan and Shiraz, and also to rural and border regions, including Kurdistan and Lorestan;

B. whereas according to analysts and human rights groups, the ongoing protests in Iran constitute the most intense unrest since the Women, Life, Freedom movement of 2022-23, reflecting widespread anger not only at economic hardship but at the ruling system itself;

C. whereas the Iranian security forces, including units of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the national police, have responded with disproportionate and often lethal force, using methods such as firing live ammunition, shooting shotguns and administering beatings to disperse and intimidate protesters; whereas the political and security apparatus of the Islamic Republic of Iran is characterised by deeply entrenched authoritarian structures, including the broad powers of the Supreme Leader, the IRGC, and intelligence services that operate without transparent civilian oversight; whereas these structures share a radical Islamist ideology;

C. whereas according to the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran, credible reports indicate that the Supreme National Security Council issued a statement ordering the security forces to wage a ‘decisive’ crackdown to end the protests;

D. whereas credible reports estimate that the government’s violent crackdown has resulted in thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of arrests, with the victims including children and uninvolved civilians; whereas other sources provide significantly higher estimates, underlining the extreme difficulty of verifying figures during communications blackouts;

D. whereas forces of the Iranian regime violently clamped down on the protests, carrying out large-scale killings across the country; whereas Iranian security forces fired live ammunition directly at protesters, unlawfully, deliberately and often at close range, and used batons and tear gas to kill, punish and coerce demonstrators; whereas videos emerging from Iran showed horrifying images of masses of wounded people and of mortuaries with body bags containing the bodies of demonstrators who had been killed; whereas according to the UN fact-finding mission, state violence was particularly brutal in ethnic minority regions;

E. whereas medical personnel in Tehran and other cities have documented hundreds of gunshot injuries to heads and eyes, indicating a deliberate pattern of violence aimed at inflicting permanent harm on demonstrators;

E. whereas Iranian security forces have killed more than 3 000 protesters, including children, according to the Norway-based non-governmental organisation Iran Human Rights, and thousands have been injured across Iran; whereas the number of people killed is currently underestimated because an internet blackout is impeding communication; whereas Iranian civil society organisations, the media and the Iranian authorities have reported that the death toll has exceeded several thousand;

F. whereas tens of thousands of people have reportedly been arrested and the regime is pursuing death sentences on charges such as ‘waging war against God’;

F. whereas since 8 January 2026, the Iranian authorities have imposed a country-wide communications blackout, cutting off internet access and shutting down mobile phone and landline networks in one of the most comprehensive and sophisticated blackouts in global history, hindering the ability of the Iranian people to communicate, organise and inform the outside world amid a brutal crackdown, with the aim of obscuring the true extent of the protests and the brutality of the crackdown and of hampering medical assistance; whereas Iran is a major perpetrator of internet shutdowns and has a long history of blocking internet and telecommunications access during times of unrest to silence dissent and crack down on protests;

G. whereas the protests largely remain decentralised and grassroots-level; whereas they are being driven by ordinary citizens, as they were initiated by shopkeepers and bazaar merchants suffering from the effects of severe inflation and economic collapse, but have expanded across society to include students, industrial and oil workers, truckers, teachers’ unions, retirees and civil society actors, with women and young people playing a prominent role;

G. whereas thousands of protesters and bystanders, including children, are being detained and risk being executed secretly and arbitrarily, because they are accused of being ‘enemies of God’, a charge that carries the death penalty; whereas state media broadcast the ‘confessions’ of individuals being held in detention facilities; whereas as the death toll rises, more than 30 national and international non-governmental organisations have raised the alarm about the dire situation of detained human rights defenders, including the violent arrests, arbitrary detention and reported ill treatment of Narges Mohammadi, Sepideh Qolian, Alieh Motalebzadeh, Javad Alikordi, Hasti Amiri, Pouran Nazemi and others following the memorial ceremony of 12 December 2025 in Mashhad;

H. whereas the Iranian regime has imposed widespread communications blackouts, severely restricting internet and mobile connectivity in an effort to conceal evidence of the crackdown, prevent the free flow of information and stop protesters from organising action; whereas satellite internet systems, such as Starlink, have reportedly provided limited workarounds for communication and documentation, though the Iranian authorities have attempted to disrupt these channels with technical countermeasures and jamming;

H. whereas on 14 January 2026, Iran’s Justice Minister reportedly stated that anyone arrested after 8 January 2026 was a criminal and terrorist, effectively criminalising peaceful protest and further repressing freedom of expression and assembly; whereas such rhetoric endorses arbitrary arrests and mass prosecutions and is incompatible with Iran’s obligations under international human rights law;

I. whereas diaspora communities have denounced the brutal tactics used by the regime, including the internet blackout and media suppression, as blatant attempts to hide state violence from both the Iranian people and international observers;

I. whereas credible reports indicate that Erfan Soltani, a 26-year-old Iranian who was detained for his alleged participation in the protests, has been sentenced to death following expedited judicial proceedings;

J. whereas Iran’s repression of women’s rights is long-standing and systemic, with the strict enforcement of compulsory veiling through fines, imprisonment and flogging, and widespread hostility to women’s autonomous participation in public life;

J. whereas the Iranian regime, notably Ayatollah Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian, is attempting to delegitimise the protests and brand the protesters as rioters and foreign agents; whereas credible media reports claim that Iran has invited foreign militias into the country to crack down on the protests;

K. whereas the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, launched in 2022 in response to the death of Jina Mahsa Amini, continues to inspire Iranians across generations, with women playing a central role in demanding equality, freedom and fundamental liberties;

K. whereas the US administration has signalled that it may intervene militarily in Iran; whereas the Iranian regime has threatened retaliation against foreign intervention; whereas some international diplomatic and military personnel are being withdrawn from the region in preparation for potential military escalation;

L. whereas the Islamic Republic of Iran continues to provide financial, military and logistical support to a network of armed non-state actors and terrorist groups across the Middle East, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and Shiite militias in Syria and Iraq;

L. whereas the EU has adopted three sanctions regimes against Iran: one in response to serious human rights violations in the country, renewed annually and last extended until 13 April 2026, one in relation to the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and the third in response to Iran’s military support for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and for armed groups and entities in the Middle East and the Red Sea region; whereas via these regimes more than 230 individuals and 40 entities in Iran, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), are currently under sanction;

M. whereas credible reports and judicial proceedings in several EU Member States, including Denmark, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Spain, have linked Iranian state actors, including operatives of the IRGC or its proxies, to targeted killings, surveillance operations and planned terrorist attacks;

M. whereas the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (VP/HR) and representatives of EU Member States have announced their intention to impose new sanctions on individuals in the Iranian regime who are responsible for the violent crackdown on protesters and on companies involved in producing drone technology;

1. Strongly condemns the brutal use of force by the security forces of Iran’s Islamic regime against demonstrators exercising their rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression; demands that the firing of live ammunition to repress protests cease immediately and that all those responsible for killing and abusing protesters be held fully accountable;

N. whereas public frustration in Iran has been mounting since the US administration’s decision, in 2018, to reimpose ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions on Iran, resulting in the steady erosion of state revenues, and widespread shortages that have prompted sharp increases in inflation and unemployment; whereas a growing share of Iran’s trade has moved into black markets, with economic mismanagement and corruption intensifying income inequality; whereas powerful networks, notably the IRGC, have consolidated their control over large segments of the economy, leaving most Iranians poor and resentful;

2. Expresses its profound solidarity with all the people of Iran, in particular protesters, victims of violence, detainees, and families who have lost loved ones in this unprecedented wave of repression; supports the Iranian people in their quest for freedom, national dignity, economic stability and the right to live without ideological and Islamist coercion;

O. whereas the granting of asylum to Iranian nationals in the EU has sharply declined since 2023, despite the continuous violent repression in the country; whereas both Iranian asylum seekers whose claims were rejected and Iranian visitors with Schengen visas are at risk of deportation, in violation of the principle of non-refoulement;

3. Condemns the Iranian Islamic regime’s sustained use of intimidation, arbitrary detention, torture and extrajudicial violence against journalists, artists, students, women, activists, ethnic and religious minorities and political opponents; notes that such practices are not isolated, but reflect a deliberate strategy aimed at silencing opposition and imposing a radical Islamist agenda;

P. whereas there is evidence that Iran deliberately uses transnational repression to oppress opposing voices abroad, notably within the EU;

4. Deplores the disproportionate targeting of women and girls and the enforcement of discriminatory laws, such as compulsory veiling; recalls that the oppression of women is inherent to Islamic fundamentalism and a direct result of the application of Sharia law;

Q. whereas credible evidence indicates that Iranian diplomatic representations in several Member States have been involved in propaganda, disinformation and intimidation targeting Iranian diaspora communities in Europe, in breach of international law and the principles governing diplomatic relations;

5. Condemns the intentional disruption of communications and information flows, which is aimed at obstructing the documentation of human rights violations and preventing citizens from accessing news and evidence and organising action;

R. whereas Iran has a long history of evading sanctions;

6. Condemns the fact that protesters are being sentenced to death without fair trial guarantees and reiterates that capital punishment should never be used against individuals engaged in peaceful protest or civil dissent;

1. Expresses its full solidarity with the people of Iran and its brave and legitimate protest movement which is demanding dignity, safety and respect for the rights of the Iranian people;

7. Calls on the Iranian authorities to immediately cease all use of lethal force against civilians, to release all those detained solely for political reasons and for participating in peaceful protests, and to guarantee due process and humane treatment for all detainees;

2. Calls on the Commission and the EU Member States to continue to condemn, publicly and privately, the Iranian regime’s violent crackdown on protests and to employ all diplomatic means to pressure Iranian authorities into stopping the killings and executions, releasing all detained protesters and restoring internet access and telecommunications;

8. Supports targeted sanctions against individuals and entities responsible for repression, including IRGC structures and the leaders of security forces, and calls for travel bans to be imposed on officials involved in the killing, mass arrest and censorship of Iranian civilians;

3. Condemns the Iranian regime’s lethal crackdown on protests and urges the authorities to immediately stop the bloodshed, cease criminalising protesters and ordering state violence against them, and adhere to international humanitarian law; recalls that peaceful assembly is enshrined in the ICCPR, to which Iran is a party; calls on all those responsible for these grave human rights violations to be held to account in line with international law;

9. Urges respect for fundamental human rights, including the freedoms of expression, assembly and peaceful protest, as enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a party;

4. Demands that the Iranian authorities immediately and unconditionally release and drop any charges against anyone who is imprisoned solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly in connection with the protests; reiterates the EU’s long-standing opposition to capital punishment and warns the Iranian regime not to employ the death penalty against demonstrators;

10. Encourages continued documentation and reporting by citizens, independent human rights mechanisms, civil society organisations and fact-finding missions, in order to monitor violations and support efforts to hold those responsible to account;

5. Condemns the internet shutdowns deliberately imposed by the Iranian authorities and urges the Iranian Government to immediately restore full access to the internet and telecommunications services across the country; stresses that restricting internet access and disrupting messenger services seriously interferes with people’s rights to freedom of expression and assembly, as enshrined in the ICCPR;

11. Condemns the Iranian regime’s ongoing support for armed non-state actors and terrorist groups engaged in terrorism, regional destabilisation and grave violations of international humanitarian law, particularly in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen;

6. Condemns the deliberate and widespread disruption of telecommunications services by the Iranian authorities, including the shutdown or throttling of mobile phone networks and landline and international telephone services; urges the Iranian Government to immediately restore full and reliable domestic and international telephone connectivity; stresses that the obstruction of telecommunications services constitutes a serious violation of the rights to freedom of expression, access to information and peaceful assembly, as guaranteed under the ICCPR, and further endangers access to emergency, medical and humanitarian assistance;

12. Calls for the EU to follow the example of the United States and Canada and list the IRGC as a terrorist organisation;

7. Reiterates its calls on Iran to grant immediate and unhindered access to the UN-mandated fact-finding mission, given the need for international scrutiny in this climate of total impunity in which the Iranian authorities have systematically committed serious crimes under international law, including murder, torture, rape and enforced disappearances to silence dissent, and the need for evidence to be collected and preserved to support future prosecutions;

13. Further condemns the Iranian Islamic regime’s repeated use of diplomatic channels, consular posts and state-linked institutions to facilitate violent covert operations and surveillance and influence operations within EU Member States;

8. Calls on the EU Member States and European External Action Service (EEAS) to request a special session of the UN Human Rights Council on the human rights crisis in Iran to demonstrate and foster legitimate international opposition to the conduct of the Iranian regime; calls on the EU to support the extension of the mandate of the UN fact-finding mission on Iran in the Human Rights Council;

14. Calls on the Council and the Commission to immediately suspend any financial aid to the Iranian authorities in response to their failure to uphold the most basic fundamental rights of Iran’s citizens;

9. Emphasises that the people of Iran are highly dissatisfied with the Islamic Republic and demand change; insists that it is up to the Iranian people to determine their future government, with full respect for their right to self-determination as guaranteed by the UN Charter; calls, in this regard, for the EU to support all those who are working towards free and fair elections and a democratic future for Iran;

15. Warns that the collapse of the Iranian regime’s domestic legitimacy may lead it to engage in external aggression as a diversionary tactic; urges the Member States to step up national security monitoring to address potential Iranian proxy operations, espionage, sabotage and terrorism on EU territory;

10. Welcomes the readiness of the VP/HR to propose additional sanctions against the Iranian regime in response to the brutal repression of the protests; calls on the Council and the Commission to ensure that all existing sanctions regimes are strictly implemented and to close possible loopholes for circumvention, particularly in relation to the ban on surveillance technology, crowd control and cyber forensics; reiterates its demand that EU restrictive measures be extended to all representatives of the Iranian Government who incite violence or are otherwise responsible for grave human rights violations, including the security forces and Iranian judges, prosecutors, prison governors and interrogators involved in violent repression, death sentences and executions; condemns Iranian-Russian cooperation on sanctions evasion, aided by third countries, and calls for the EU and its Member States to ensure close cooperation with like-minded partners on counteracting Iranian sanctions circumvention and conducting vigilant export control;

16. Recalls that the Iranian regime exports instability to Europe by means of terrorism, incitement and intimidation of diaspora communities, including Jewish communities and opponents of the regime;

11. Reiterates its call on the Council to designate the IRGC a terrorist organisation; calls on the Council and the VP/HR to ensure full transparency in this regard, including by clearly setting out the positions and objections of individual Member States and the reasons that could prevent the adoption of that designation;

17. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the Council, the Commission, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the governments and parliaments of the Member States and the Iranian authorities.

12. Calls on the Council and the Commission to strictly implement the freezing of assets of the Central Bank of Iran and of major Iranian commercial banks as agreed on 29 September 2025 and to follow the approach taken with regard to assets linked to the Russian state; stresses that such measures should be coordinated at EU level and implemented in accordance with international and EU law; considers asset freezes a key instrument with which to exert pressure on the Iranian authorities and prevent the use of EU-based resources to finance repression;

13. Condemns the systematic misuse by the Iranian regime of embassies, diplomatic missions and diplomatic privileges to conduct propaganda and disinformation activities and the intimidation, surveillance and transnational repression of Iranian nationals, civil society actors and political dissidents in the EU; states that those activities are in violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and fundamental EU values; calls on the Member States, in the light of the extraordinary and escalating situation in Iran, to take coordinated diplomatic measures, including the expulsion of Iranian ambassadors or other accredited regime representatives and the closure of embassies or consular offices where there is credible evidence of their involvement in repression, intimidation, propaganda, disinformation or hybrid influence activities on European soil;

14. Calls on the Commission and the EEAS, together with the Member States, civil society and technical partners, to assess the feasibility of an EU-supported digital connectivity relief package for the Iranian people, which would include internet access, offline ad hoc networks and alternative communication infrastructure, such as ‘direct to cell’ connectivity, to ensure uninterrupted information access, particularly in order to enable emergency communication and alerts via SMS;

15. Calls on the Member States to facilitate emergency protection pathways for individuals at immediate risk, including humanitarian visas and temporary relocation schemes for protesters, journalists, artists, students and human rights defenders, and to ensure fair asylum procedures for all Iranian nationals seeking protection in the EU; encourages the Member States, in this context, to admit to EU hospitals and to treat Iranians who have been injured or tortured by the Iranian regime, including offering psychosocial support; calls on the Member States to ensure that Iranian nationals currently visiting or residing in the EU can prolong their visas until such time as their return to Iran poses no security threats to them; urges the Member States to temporarily suspend any asylum-related returns to Iran, notably during pending asylum procedures, while there remains a risk of persecution, arbitrary detention and application of the death penalty;

16. Calls on the Member States to support Iranian refugees in third countries, notably in Türkiye and Armenia, including by providing them with medical and psychosocial support;

17. Acknowledges the essential and long-standing work of Iranian civil society within and outside Iran and highlights the importance of its role in shaping the future of Iran, notably through the work of women’s rights organisations; reiterates, in this context, its call on the Commission to increase its political and financial support for Iranian civil society and non-governmental organisations, in particular by minimising bureaucracy for activists within Iran when accessing EU funds;

18. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to support all accountability efforts within and outside the UN that are working towards the documentation of deaths and their prompt, independent and transparent investigation, including through the collection of testimonies and evidence from people fleeing the country;

19. Calls for the EU and its international partners to make full use of all relevant instruments to combat impunity, including support for universal jurisdiction at national level and special tribunals at national and international levels to prosecute the grave human rights violations committed by the Iranian regime against its people;

20. Emphasises that, during 2025, aside from harsh repression by the regime, Iranian people have suffered economic hardship, poverty and shortages of basic goods and resources, notably water, owing to extreme drought, and have been subjected to external military interventions that resulted in death and displacement; calls on the Commission and the Member States, in their foreign policy on Iran, to prioritise alleviating the suffering of millions of Iranians and to provide them with socio-economic support;

21. Condemns the Iranian authorities’ use of transnational repression, both online and offline, to silence, intimidate, repress, coerce or even abduct opponents, as well as to threaten their families abroad; calls on the Commission, in close cooperation with the Member States, to strengthen prevention, protection and response mechanisms within the EU and to ensure that all acts of transnational repression are effectively investigated and prosecuted;

22. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the Islamic Consultative Assembly, the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the Office of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran.