UN rights body considers new scrutiny of Iran amid protests

Germany’s foreign minister appealed Thursday for greater scrutiny of Iran ahead of a special session by the U.N.s top human rights body devoted to the Islamic Republic’s bloody crackdown on protesters.
“All our efforts go to the people who demand their rights with courage and dignity,” Annalena Baerbock, the foreign minister, said in a statement. “For these demands alone, they are killed by the hundreds, arrested by the thousands, and oppressed by the millions.”
The Human Rights Council was set to debate and vote on a proposal, presented by Germany and Iceland and backed by dozens of other countries, to set up a team of independent investigators to monitor human rights in Iran as protests continue.
The protests were trigged by the death in mid-September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died while being held by the morality police for violating a strictly enforced Islamic dress code.
The session in Geneva is the latest international effort to put pressure on Iran over its crackdown, which has already drawn international sanctions and other measures.