European Parliament resolution on Iran, in particular the poisoning of hundreds of schoolgirls

(2023/2587(RSP))

The European Parliament,

A.  whereas women and girls in Iran have led large-scale peaceful protests demanding democracy and an end to systemic discrimination against women;

B. whereas thousands of girls and women across Iran have been attacked with toxic chemicals since November 2022, preventing girls from attending school;

C.  whereas this is happening at a time when repression against women who exercise their right to freedom is more severe than ever;

1. Condemns, in the strongest terms, this atrocious attempt to silence women and girls in Iran; expresses its deep solidarity with the Iranian students poisoned in the incidents and with their families;

2. Reiterates its condemnation of the regime’s anti-women and anti-girls policies and reaffirms its absolute support for Iranian women’s and girls’ demand to abolish all systemic discrimination;

3. Urges the UN Human Rights Council to task the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (IIFFM) with an independent investigation into the schoolgirl poisonings and calls for those responsible to be held to account; urges the Iranian authorities to grant full access to the UN IIFFM and the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran;

4.  Recalls that the Islamic Republic of Iran bears full responsibility for Iranian women’s and girls’ fundamental right to education and recalls that depriving girls of education has a devastating impact on their future; urges the Iranian authorities to guarantee non-discriminatory access to education for girls and repeal any legislation that discriminates against girls and women;

5.  Condemns the regime’s months-long failure to act on, and deliberate suppression of, credible reports of systematic toxic attacks against schoolgirls;

6.  Denounces any politically motivated legal proceedings against those reporting on the poisonings, particularly Ali Pourtabatabaei; insists that Iranians’ rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly and the freedom of the media must be respected; calls for the immediate unconditional release of all those imprisoned or prosecuted for exercising their fundamental rights and for all charges against them to be dropped;

7. Reiterates its call on the Council to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation and to expand the EU sanctions list, including under the EU Global Human Rights sanctions mechanisms, to all those responsible for human rights violations in Iran, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, President Ebrahim Raisi and Prosecutor-General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri;

8. Reiterates its call on the Commission and the Member States to increase technical and capacity support to Iranian civil society; urges the Member States to facilitate the issuance of visas and asylum and emergency grants to those who need to leave Iran, particularly women and girls;

9. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the VP/HR, the Islamic Consultative Assembly, and the Office of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran.