UN rights council eyes probe of Iran crackdown

The United Nations' top rights body will hold an urgent meeting this week to consider launching an international investigation into the deadly crackdown on mass protests rocking Iran.

The UN Human Rights Council is due to host a special session on Thursday on "the deteriorating human rights situation", following a request by Germany and Iceland.

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The meeting follows two months of protests in Iran sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, after she was arrested for an alleged breach of the country's strict dress rules for women based on Islamic sharia law.

At least 378 people, including 47 children, have been killed in the crackdown since Amini's death, according to the Norway-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR).

The demonstrations have spread across the country and grown into a broad movement against the theocracy that has ruled Iran since the fall of the shah in 1979.

Thousands of peaceful protesters have also been arrested, according to UN rights experts, including many women, children and journalists, and six people have so far been handed death sentences over the demonstrations.

Agence France-Presse