What changed

B100095/2026

B100077/2026

European Parliament resolution on the brutal repression against protesters in Iran

The European Parliament,

– having regard to its previous resolutions on Iran;Iran,

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

A. whereas thousands of people are reported to have been killed following Iran’s brutal crackdown on the anti-regime protests that began over two weeks ago; whereas more than 10 000 people are estimated to have been arrested;

A. whereas mass protests erupted across Iran on 28 December 2025, initially in response to soaring inflation, rising food prices, the collapse of the national currency and deteriorating living conditions; whereas the protests spread rapidly across the country’s provinces and major cities, as demonstrators voiced their dissatisfaction not only with economic hardship but also with systemic restrictions on fundamental rights; whereas the protests have since escalated to include anti-regime demands;

B. whereas despite internet shutdowns and communication blockages, there have been international reports of terrible levels of death and destruction;

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;

C. whereas Iran’s last nationwide uprising – the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement of September 2022, sparked by the killing of 22-year-old Jina Mahsa Amini by the country’s morality police – also met with brutal repression, targeting women with shotgun fire to their faces, breasts and genitals;

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;

D. whereas according to the United Nations Statistics Division, nearly 60 % of Iran’s population is under the age of 39, and most of the population was born after the 1979 Islamic Revolution;

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;

E. whereas Parliament has consistently and unequivocally condemned the Iranian regime’s oppression and violence against its own people, including the use of executions, the imposition of death sentences following unfair trials, inhumane detention conditions, and the systematic targeting of political activists and of ethnic and religious communities; whereas executions in 2025 reached a level not seen in Iran since 1989;

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;

F. whereas Parliament has repeatedly called for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to be designated a terrorist organisation;

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’;

G. whereas the Islamic Republic of Iran’s destabilising actions, particularly those carried out by the IRGC, have extended beyond Iran’s borders and endangered regional stability;

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;

H. whereas Parliament’s President decided to prohibit the staff and other officials of Iranian diplomatic missions from accessing Parliament’s premises;

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;

I. whereas the International Atomic Energy Agency recently concluded that Iran has failed to comply with its nuclear safeguard obligations owing to its continued failure to cooperate fully, provide credible explanations with regard to undeclared nuclear material and grant the necessary access to inspectors;

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;

Condemnation of the repression

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;

1. Expresses its strong condemnation of and deep outrage at the brutal repression and mass killings perpetrated by the Iranian regime against protesters who have taken to the streets in dozens of cities over the past two weeks;

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;

2. Considers that the scale of the protests, the demonstrators’ courage and the brutality of the repression further demonstrate the Islamic Republic of Iran’s weakness and the erosion of its legitimacy, as well as the deep political and administrative deadlock in which its inhumane regime, opposed as it is to religious, cultural and ethnic pluralism, finds itself;

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;

3. Expresses its profound indignation at reports of attacks and intimidation carried out by oppressive security forces and members of the IRGC against the families and relatives of those killed during the protests;

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;

4. Condemns the Iranian regime’s efforts to censor the protests by cutting internet access and telephone networks across the country;

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;

5. Is alarmed that the killing of thousands of protesters signals a chilling shift in the Iranian regime’s policy of suppression, from deterrence to strategic elimination; deplores the fact that these widespread killings are not the result of sporadic clashes but of a widespread and systematic policy, and of a premeditated decision to eliminate any resistance and protests;

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;

6. Recalls its numerous recent resolutions denouncing the Iranian regime’s unrestrained and escalating human rights violations, notably its systemic discrimination against women and young people and its persecution of human rights defenders and ethnic and religious communities, including through arbitrary detention, unfair trials and systematic harassment;

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;

7. Demands that the Iranian authorities immediately and unconditionally release all persons imprisoned solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly in connection with the protests, and drop all charges against them;

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;

8. Urges the UN Human Rights Council to establish an international investigative and accountability mechanism for human rights violations perpetrated by the Islamic Republic of Iran, which include violent repression, arbitrary arrests and the unlawful killing of peaceful protesters;

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;

9. Calls on the Member States to hold Iranian officials who are proven to be directly involved in the ongoing repression accountable for their crimes under international law;

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;

Situation in the country

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;

10. Categorically rejects the Iranian authorities’ claims that the protests were instigated by foreign agents; notes that the protests stem from the profound discontent of large segments of Iranian society, particularly young people, women and minority groups, with the deep and multiple crises facing the country, and from a growing rejection of the increasingly authoritarian and oppressive political system;

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;

11. Pays tribute to and expresses its strong support for the courageous Iranian people who, for weeks, have taken to the streets to protest against extremely difficult economic and social conditions and against the oppression of the regime; expresses particular admiration for the many young people, women and human rights defenders who continue to fight for their rights despite the personal repercussions and brutal repression they face;

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;

12. Recognises in the vast wave of protests against the regime an unequivocal demand for change after years of oppression; extends its full solidarity to the Iranian diaspora, which plays a crucial role in demanding freedom and democracy and supporting the protests;

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;

13. Recognises the crucial role played by the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement in instilling courage in the population and protesters and in exposing the regime’s weakness and detachment from the Iranian people; recalls that this movement too has been violently repressed, through the killing of more than 500 people and the arrest of over 22 000 individuals, demonstrating the entrenched nature of the Iranian regime’s brutality;

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;

14. Condemns the Iranian regime’s links with and support for the former repressive dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen, and underlines Iran’s weakness and diminished regional influence;

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

15. Expresses concern at the multifaceted climate crisis afflicting the country, including the most severe water crisis in more than six decades, which is causing frequent water outages, informal rationing of drinking water and a deterioration in water quality; underlines the danger that Tehran, home to 10 million people, may have to be evacuated on account of water shortages; notes with concern that this situation is compounded by political ineffectiveness;

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;

16. Expresses solidarity with all individuals in Iran persecuted for their beliefs or identity and recognises the courage of minority communities facing systemic discrimination; calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all persons detained solely for exercising their freedom of religion or belief;

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;

17. Observes that a combination of mismanagement, corruption, international sanctions linked to Iran’s nuclear programme and the consequences of the war of June 2025 have caused rampant inflation and unemployment, steadily weakening the middle class and expanding the ranks of the struggling poor;

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;

18. Condemns the Islamic Republic of Iran’s systemic discrimination against women and other vulnerable groups through laws and regulations that severely restrict freedoms and rights, including the degrading compulsory veiling law and its abusive enforcement, severe restrictions on women’s sexual and reproductive health rights, and violations of women’s political, social, economic, cultural and personal rights;

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;

EU action

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.

19. Calls on the EU institutions to exert the strongest possible diplomatic influence in support of the protests; calls on the Commission and the Member States to further isolate the regime and to urge Iran’s neighbouring countries and partners to work immediately on diplomatic solutions that promote freedom and democracy in Iran;

20. Calls on the European External Action Service to produce regular reports on the situation in Iran; suggests establishing or identifying a domain in which the names of all victims of the recent massacres can be registered, in order to document and preserve records of those killed or harmed;

21. Welcomes the commitment of the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (VP/HR) to implement further restrictive measures against Iran; calls on the Council and the Member States to swiftly expand existing restrictive measures in order to respond urgently and appropriately to the ongoing repression; deplores some Member States’ abiding opposition to strengthening restrictive measures against Iran’s regime;

22. Reiterates its call for the Council to designate the IRGC a terrorist organisation and to extend EU sanctions to all IRGC members; stresses that this decision is long overdue;

23. Calls for targeted personal sanctions against regime officials responsible for repression and human rights violations;

24. Highlights the numerous cases of IRGC-led assassinations and attempted assassinations on European soil in recent years; urges the Member States to take immediate legal action against the IRGC at national level;

25. Demands tighter controls on the export of technologies and other dual-use items that could be used for surveillance or internal repression; urges the Commission and the Member States to take diplomatic and technical measures to help circumvent internet shutdowns in Iran and to actively support the visibility and dissemination of information from Iranian civil society and protesters when access to free communication is denied;

26. Recalls that a substantial part of Iran’s economy is under IRGC control and that any policy of engagement or financial facilitation effectively strengthens an institution that poses a direct threat to European and allied security interests;

27. Calls for Member States’ domestic intelligence services to be strengthened to avert potential threats emanating from Iran, including those directed against the Iranian exile community;

28. Encourages the Commission to expand technical and financial assistance to Iranian civil society; calls on the Member States to facilitate visa, asylum and emergency grant procedures for those forced to flee Iran, particularly trade unionists, human and women’s rights activists, journalists, civil society members and representatives of minorities;

29. Urges Iran to grant the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran and the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Iran full and unrestricted access to the country; calls for the EU and the Member States to fully support the UN Special Rapporteur and to advocate for the extension of the Fact-Finding Mission beyond April 2026;

30. Reiterates its condemnation of Iran’s hostage diplomacy; urges the EU to develop a strategy to counter hostage-taking, including the creation of a dedicated task force to identify areas in which it can leverage influence against the Iranian regime, assist detainees’ families and prevent further hostage-taking; calls on Iran to immediately and unconditionally release all EU nationals who remain in detention in the country;

31. Calls on the Member States’ intelligence services and the StratCom Task Force to cooperate actively in countering online disinformation, cyber operations and intimidation directed against the Iranian diaspora;

32. Notes that Iran and Russia have increasingly shared critical intelligence and cooperated on evading sanctions through front companies, banking links and oil transfers with tracking devices turned off; calls for better enforcement of EU sanctions, an urgent upgrade of automatic identification systems to counter sanctions and embargo evasion, and increased surveillance and inspections of suspected Iranian vessels;

33. Invites the VP/HR to initiate an inclusive dialogue with the full spectrum of the Iranian opposition, with the aim of promoting a democratic, free and pluralistic future for Iran;

34. Highlights the significant potential of Iranian society, given its educated and globally connected population and the country’s vast natural resources; is convinced that promoting the country’s diverse communities and fundamental regional, cultural and ethnic diversity is key to securing a democratic and peaceful future for Iran;

35. Reaffirms its solidarity with the Iranian people and its support for the goal of establishing a free Iran in which universal human rights and equality prevail, shaped peacefully and by the sovereign will of the Iranian people themselves, without external interference;

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36. 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, and the Government and Parliament of Iran, and asks for this resolution to be translated into Persian.