Ahmad Batebi, human rights activist and journalist, points at Gholamhossein Darzi, Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the UN, as he speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the situation in Iran at the United Nations headquarters on Jan. 15.
The United Nations Human Rights Council will hold an urgent special session this week on "the deteriorating human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran", a spokesman said Tuesday.
It follows a request from Britain, Germany, Iceland, Moldova and North Macedonia and will take place on Friday, council spokesman Pascal Sim told reporters in Geneva.
In a letter addressed to the council's president and seen by AFP, the five countries highlighted "credible reports of alarming violence, crackdowns on protesters and violations of international human rights law across the country".
The request had received backing from more than the one-third of the council's 47 members needed for a special session to go ahead.
The UN Security Council in New York met last week to discuss Iran, which is reeling from some of the biggest anti-government protests in its history and a crackdown that monitors said has killed thousands.
The scale of the crackdown has emerged piecemeal as Iran remains under an unprecedented internet shutdown that is now in its 11th day.
Despite difficulty accessing information, the Iran Human Rights non-governmental organisation says it has verified that 3,428 protesters were killed by security forces.
It warned the true toll is likely to be far higher. Media cannot independently confirm the figure and Iranian officials have not given an exact death toll.
