Condemns the intensified, targeted repression of women and girls by the Islamic Republic of Iran, both online and offline, and the lack of accountability and justice measures for human rights violations perpetrated against women and girls, and strongly urges the Islamic Republic of Iran to eliminate, in law and in practice, all forms of systemic discrimination and violence against women and girls, in public and private life, including sexual and gender-based violence, verbal and physical harassment, and related human rights violations against women and girls, and to ensure that grievances are taken seriously and investigations into alleged human rights violations and abuses are conducted promptly, effectively, independently, transparently and impartially in conformity with international law; acknowledges the bill to protect women against violence, and calls for its revision to ensure alignment with international human rights law and subsequent implementation, and for the Islamic Republic of Iran to take gender-responsive measures to prevent and ensure protection for women and girls against sexual and gender-based violence in all its forms, including sexual assault and intimate partner violence, to ensure women’s and girls’ equal protection and access to justice, including by preventing and prohibiting so-called honour killings, female genital mutilation and child, early and forced marriage, which is inherently destructive to the life of the girl child and has increased in the Islamic Republic of Iran in recent years, as recommended by the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Human Rights Committee, and to promote, support and enable women’s and girls’ full, equal and meaningful participation and leadership in political and other decision-making processes, and, while recognizing the high enrolment of girls and women in all levels of education in the Islamic Republic of Iran, to lift restrictions on women’s and girls’ equal access to free, equitable primary and secondary education and on equal access to higher education, and to take appropriate prevention and protection measures to protect schools and students, including girls, and remove legal, regulatory and cultural barriers to women’s free, equal and meaningful participation and leadership in the labour market and in all aspects of economic, cultural, social and political life, including unrestricted participation in and attendance at sporting events; and expresses grave concern that the bill on youth and protection of the family undermines the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health for women and girls;
