BUENOS AIRES / WASHINGTON, DC — December 22, 2025 —The Atlantic Council’s Strategic Litigation Project supported the filing of the first-ever criminal complaint targeting Iranian officials for crimes against humanity during the “Women, Life, Freedom” protest movement.  

The criminal complaint, filed in an Argentine federal court, states that Iranian officials and security forces committed crimes against humanity against civilians during its violent crackdown on protesters demanding an end to discriminatory hijab laws and respect for the fundamental human rights.

A group of Iranian survivors and the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC) filed the complaint, which calls on Argentine judicial authorities to open a formal criminal investigation into senior officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI).

“The UN Fact-Finding Mission made clear that accountability for Iran’s crimes will not come from within Iran,” said Gissou Nia, director of the Strategic Litigation Project. “This complaint responds directly to that call, using the tools of international law to ensure that survivors are heard and perpetrators are put on notice that impunity will not last forever.” 

“This filing is a significant step toward justice for victims of the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement,” said Nia. “It sends a clear message: international crimes will be pursued wherever jurisdiction allows.” 

The complaint was filed by the survivors and the IHRDC with Argentine lawyer Máximo Castex, with the support of the Strategic Litigation Project. 

The complaint, filed on December 16, 2025, requests that an investigative judge in Argentina open a criminal investigation into senior members of the IRI’s intelligence services, military, police forces, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and civilian government officials. It alleges that these actors bear responsibility for a widespread and systematic attack against civilians, including acts amounting to gender persecution, murder, torture, and other inhumane acts, notably the targeted blinding of protesters. 

The case invokes Argentina’s long-standing commitment to universal jurisdiction, and its constitutional authority to investigate and prosecute core international crimes, including crimes against humanity, regardless of where they were committed or the nationality of the perpetrators or victims.  

“What is most important is that Argentina does not require the perpetrators to be within its territory to begin seeking justice,” said Nizar El Fakih, a member of the legal team filing the complaint. “Today, a group of Iranian women victims of these atrocities are paving a new path, opening the doors to justice for thousands of women and Iranian civil society. It is a powerful reminder that justice knows no borders, and that no atrocity, no matter how distant, will go unpunished.” 

The complaint is firmly grounded in international law and draws extensively on the findings of the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran (FFMI), established by the UN Human Rights Council in November 2022. In its March 2024 report and subsequent findings, the FFMI concluded that the IRI committed crimes against humanity during its crackdown on the Woman, Life, Freedom protests, including murder, imprisonment, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, persecution, enforced disappearance, and other inhumane acts. Additionally, the FFMI determined that there are no viable domestic avenues for accountability within Iran. 

Argentina has a well-established history of exercising universal jurisdiction, with prior cases addressing crimes against humanity committed in Venezuela, genocide against the Rohingya by Myanmar authorities, and atrocities carried out under Spain’s Franco regime. Under Argentine law, the physical presence of alleged perpetrators is not required for an investigation to begin, making it a critical forum for accountability where other pathways are blocked. 

The Iranian government’s violent repression of the Woman, Life, Freedom protests resulted in more than 500 protesters killed, thousands injured, and mass arrests, torture, and executions—some of which continue to this day. 

The publicly identified survivors bringing the complaint include Kosar Eftekhari and Mersedeh Shahinkar, both of whom suffer permanent blindness after IRI security forces shot them in the eye at protests at close range. Others include Mahsa Piraei, whose mother, Minoo Majidi, was killed after being struck by metal pellets fired by state security forces. Majidi, a sixty-two-year-old Kurdish woman, was protesting in the early days of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement when she was killed. 

Majidi’s murder drew international attention after an image of her daughter, Roya Piraei, standing defiantly beside her mother’s photograph at her gravesite went viral worldwide. Now, Majidi’s other daughter, Mahsa Piraei, is seeking justice outside Iran after all domestic avenues proved impossible. 

“In our own country, Iran, we were unable to find justice for my mother’s killing because there is no fair or independent judiciary,” said Piraei. “Today, I am happy that this crime failed to kill our hope for justice, and that our efforts have borne fruit. With the help of human rights lawyers, we are taking our case to courts outside of Iran. I believe that our perseverance as justice-seeking families, and our insistence on preserving human dignity, is a global cause that knows no borders.” 

Mersedeh Shahinkar was thirty-eight years old when she was shot in the right eye at close range during a protest. After enduring severe injuries and painful surgeries, she continued to protest publicly, wearing an eye patch as a symbol of resistance. 

“We will stand, to our last breath, against this major dictatorship that has caused widespread human rights violations in Iran and the Middle East,” said Shahinkar. “We will continue our struggle against the Islamic Republic despite all obstacles and attempts to impede us.” 

Kosar Eftekhari was just twenty-three years old when she was similarly blinded after she was shot at close range by security forces. Video footage of her injury spread rapidly on social media, becoming emblematic of the regime’s brutal tactics. 

“Those who shot at me and my fellow citizens—whom we witnessed killing people in the streets of Iran, killing Iranians through direct gunfire—were members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” said Eftekhari. “In this country where this case will be opened, we stand as living witnesses to the criminal nature of the IRGC and the Islamic Republic. I further hope that this action will extend from one country to all of Europe: that the leaders of the Islamic Republic and the IRGC will be tried by all countries.” 

More information on this case is available on our website.  

Media Contact: For inquiries in Persian, English, or Spanish, or to arrange interviews with the complainants or legal team, please contact Gissou Nia at gnia@atlanticcouncil.org .