Iran's government gave 3,117 as the January 2026 protest death toll; HRANA said it had confirmed at least 5,137 and a UN fact-finding mission found crimes against humanity
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Iran's envoy told the UN Human Rights Council that 3,117 people were killed in the January 2026 protests, 2,427 of them by 'terrorists' the government says were armed and funded by foreign states. HRANA, a US-based monitor, said in January that it had confirmed at least 5,137 deaths (a figure not independently verified) and was investigating thousands more, and UN special rapporteur Mai Sato said the toll could reach 20,000 or more (Al Jazeera could not independently verify this). The Council adopted a resolution condemning the crackdown on 23 January 2026 (25 in favour, 7 against, 14 abstentions), which Iran rejected. In a September 2026 report the UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission concluded that murder, imprisonment, torture and other violations were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack on a civilian population, amounting to crimes against humanity; it found large-scale killings by security forces in all 31 provinces, said it could not establish a definitive toll, and had strong grounds to believe the true number is significantly higher than the government's figures.
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