UN Human Rights Council to hold urgent Iran meeting on Friday

Iranians walk past shops at the Grand Bazaar in the capital Tehran on January 20, 2026. (AFP)
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Updated 20 January 2026
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UN Human Rights Council to hold urgent Iran meeting on Friday

  • Any attack on Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei would trigger a declaration of holy war, the national ‌security ‌ parliamentary commission ​said on Tuesday

GENEVA: The UN 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, 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 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 anti-government protests.
Any attack on Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei would trigger a declaration of holy war, the national ‌security ‌parliamentary commission ​said on Tuesday.
“Any attack on the Supreme Leader means ​a declaration of war with the entire ⁠Islamic world and must await the issuance of a Jihad decree by Islamic scholars and the response of Islam’s soldiers in all parts of ‌the world,” the parliamentary commission was quoted as saying by Iranian Students News Agency .

 


Drone attack by paramilitary group in Sudan kills 24, including 8 children, doctors’ group says

Updated 07 February 2026
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Drone attack by paramilitary group in Sudan kills 24, including 8 children, doctors’ group says

  • Saturday’s attack by RSF occurred close to the city of Rahad in North Kordofan province, said the Sudan Doctors Network
  • The vehicle was transporting displaced people who fled fighting in the Dubeiker area

CAIRO: A drone attack by a notorious paramilitary group hit a vehicle carrying displaced families in central Sudan Saturday, killing at least 24 people, including eight children, a doctors’ group said, a day after a World Food Program aid convoy was targeted.
Saturday’s attack by the Rapid Support Forces occurred close to the city of Rahad in North Kordofan province, said the Sudan Doctors Network, which tracks the country’s ongoing war.

The vehicle was transporting displaced people who fled fighting in the Dubeiker area, the group said in a statement. Among the dead children were two infants.
Several others were wounded and taken for treatment in Rahad, which suffers severe medical supplies shortages, like many areas in the Kordofan region, the statement said.
The doctors’ group urged the international community and rights organizations to “take immediate action to protect civilians and hold the RSF leadership directly accountable for these violations.”
There was no immediate comment from the RSF, which has been at war against the Sudanese military for control of the country for about three years.
Sudan plunged into chaos in April 2023 when a power struggle between the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country, leaving tens of thousands dead and millions displaced.