The United Nations Human Rights Council will hold an emergency session on Friday to discuss the “alarming violence” used in Iran against anti-regime protesters, while a group of states will call on UN investigators to document alleged abuses for future trials.

Rights groups say thousands were killed during the protests, which represented the biggest challenge to Iran’s clerical authoritarian government since 2022. As verifications of deaths mount, tensions have persisted between Iran and US President Donald Trump, who had previously said his threats to strike Iran resulted in the regime halting the deaths of more than 800 protesters. An Iranian official denied that claim on Thursday.

At least 50 countries backed the call for a special session of the UN Human Rights Council to address credible reports of violence, crackdowns on protesters and violations of international human rights law across the country, according to a letter drafted by Iceland.

“The scale of the crimes is unprecedented,” Payam Akhavan, a former UN prosecutor of Iranian-Canadian nationality, told Reuters ahead of the session, where he is set to speak.

“We are trying to set the stage for transitional justice in Iran, for the country’s Nuremberg moment, should that come to pass,” he said, referring to the landmark criminal trials of Nazi leaders following World War II.

Iran’s diplomatic mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters. Authorities have blamed the unrest and deaths on “terrorists and rioters” backed by exiled opponents and foreign adversaries such as the United States and Israel.

The proposal before the Geneva body seeks to extend by two........

© The Times of Israel