591 Dead and More Than 3,000 Tortured: Inside Iran’s Brutal Repression of Peaceful Protest

As Iran’s protests enter another week, the streets of its cities are scarred by a scale of violence that no official statement can conceal. According to our data, at least 591 people have been killed since the beginning of the unrest, turning what started as peaceful demonstrations into a national tragedy measured in human lives.

Our observers on the ground

According to our data, staff members of the international human rights agency West Support, operating inside Iran, are conducting systematic, day‑by‑day monitoring of the protest movement in multiple regions of the country. Our observers follow the course of the demonstrations on the ground, documenting the use of force, the pattern of arrests and the growing pressure on protesters and their families.

What they describe is not a series of isolated clashes, but a coordinated campaign to extinguish dissent. Streets that only weeks ago filled with peaceful crowds now bear the marks of live fire, shell fragments and burned vehicles, while hospitals quietly receive the wounded under the watchful eye of security forces.

From peaceful protest to deadly force

The current wave of protests began as peaceful gatherings, with citizens rallying behind calls for dignity, accountability and political change. Instead of dialogue, the response of the authorities has relied on lethal methods: the use of live ammunition against crowds, deployment of drones, and, in several documented episodes, the use of heavy weaponry that has no place in policing assemblies.

By January 12, according to our data, at least 591 people had been killed and thousands injured, many with gunshot wounds to the head, chest and upper body, suggesting that deadly force was not accidental but intentional. The number of victims continues to rise as new information emerges from cities where communication remains severely restricted and families are afraid to speak publicly.

Families targeted, fear spread

Repression has reached far beyond the front lines of the protests. According to our data, the relatives of protesters — including parents, siblings and more distant family members — are being targeted despite having no participation in the demonstrations themselves. Security forces arrive at homes at night, detain family members, and use threats and humiliation to force people to abandon the streets and remain silent.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and other security units have already carried out more than three thousand arrests, according to our information, turning detention centers into an extension of the protest battlefield. For many families, the fear is now twofold: fear of bullets during the day and fear of a knock on the door after dark.

Brief legal assessment

Under international law, the events unfolding in Iran cannot be described simply as “restoring order”. Article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) recognizes the right of peaceful assembly and allows restrictions only when they are lawful, strictly necessary and proportionate in a democratic society — conditions that indiscriminate live fire and the use of heavy weapons against crowds plainly do not meet.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights reinforces these guarantees. Article 19 protects freedom of opinion and expression, while Article 20 safeguards the right to peaceful assembly and association; punishing people and their families for taking part in non‑violent protests is at odds with these core principles. The U.N. Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials further state, in Principles 12, 13 and 14, that during assemblies force must be strictly necessary and proportionate, and that firearms may be used only as a last resort to protect life, not as a routine tool of crowd control. The documented use of live ammunition, drones and heavy weaponry against predominantly peaceful protesters, and the campaign of intimidation against their relatives, stands in clear violation of these standards.

A call to Iran’s authorities and the world

According to our data, Iran is facing not just a political crisis, but a profound human rights emergency. The authorities in Tehran must immediately halt the use of live ammunition, drones and heavy weaponry against protesters, end reprisals against their families, and release all those arbitrarily detained for exercising their fundamental rights.

West Support calls on Iran to bring its conduct into full compliance with its international obligations under the ICCPR and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to allow an independent international investigation into every death and serious injury connected to the protests. The international community, in turn, must move beyond statements of concern and employ every available diplomatic, legal and targeted measure to ensure that no government can kill its own citizens with impunity for demanding the freedoms that international law already promises them.

Team West Support