Sanctioning Iranian Officials in Connection with Human Rights Violations

The United States is today designating 12 individuals in connection with Iran’s violent and coercive tactics, both inside and outside Iran.  We are taking these actions in coordination with Australia and Canada, who are each also rolling out new sanctions this week against those responsible for human rights abuses in Iran. 

Today’s actions target members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, officials of Iran’s Prisons Organization, and those responsible for lethal operations overseas.  Certain individuals sanctioned today were responsible for human rights abuses, including those involving the deaths and violent repression of prisoners protesting their conditions, the use of torture and sexual assault against prisoners, the denial of medical care to political prisoners, and the kidnapping of regime critics abroad.

In the two years since Mahsa Zhina Amini’s senseless killing in the custody of Iran’s so-called Morality Police, the Iranian regime has continued to systematically violate the human rights of the Iranian people.  Mahsa’s arrest and death for challenging the regime’s mandatory hijab laws sparked a nationwide movement and call: “Woman, Life, Freedom”.  The Iranian government responded to this movement with brutal suppression, including murder, torture, sexual violence, and other acts of repression.  The United States remains committed to exposing and sanctioning Iranian officials responsible for human rights abuses. 

Our sanctions actions are just one of the many ways the United States supports the human rights of the Iranian people.  This past year, the United States led the effort to renew the mandates of the UN Special Rapporteur and Fact-Finding Mission on the human rights situation in Iran, ensuring documentation and future accountability for the Iranian regimes’ crimes against its people.  We also continue to ensure millions of Iranians have access to the global internet through support for anti-censorship tools, which enable the Iranian people to exercise their fundamental freedoms of expression and speech.   

The voices of the Iranian people demanding basic freedoms deserve to be heard.  The United States will continue to work with our allies and partners to promote accountability for the regime’s human rights abuses.