On the brutal repression against protesters in Iran

B100077/2026

European Parliament resolution on the brutal repression against protesters in Iran

(2026/2565(RSP))

The European Parliament,

– having regard to its previous resolutions on Iran,

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

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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;

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;

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;

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;

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;

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;

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;

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;

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;

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;

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;

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;

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;

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;

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;

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;

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

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;

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;

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;

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;

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.