UN warns Iran to end violence against children as ITV News told 61 killed amid protests

Video report by Lucy Watson; words and montage by Roohi Hasan and Mona Larijani

The UN's Human Rights Council has demanded Iran end violence against its people, including its women and children.  

The appeal came as ITV News was told that the number of children thought to have been killed in Iran’s protests has crossed 60 in just over 60 days since they began.

The youngest child, a girl aged just seven years old – Hasti Narouye. 

With help from human rights organisations, ITV News has managed to identify some of those children. 

The news comes as members of the UN’s Human Rights council today met and voted in a large majority in Geneva to create a fact-finding mission to investigate alleged human rights violations by the Iranian government since the protests began on 16th September.  

The protests started after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini who died after being arrested by the Iranian regime for allegedly not fully covering her head.

Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights told the special UN session: "We are now in a full-fledged human rights crisis. It pains me to see what is happening in the country.

'It is not only the extent of the suffering that has struck me covering this story, but it is the bravery of those who've been prepared to talk to us' - ITV News' Lucy Watson reports

"The images of children killed. Of women beaten in the streets. Of people sentenced to death. The unnecessary and disproportionate use of force must come to an end." 

Thousands turned out at his funeral. His mother blames the government for his killing. 

Videos from the family reveal a happy-go-lucky, dancing little boy who liked to play and invent things.

Videos of the 16-year-old Sarina Esmailzadah have emerged too since her death. In them, she documents daily life as well as her fight for freedom on YouTube.  

Among the dozens of children killed is 10-year-old Kian, shot dead whilst in a car with his mother

She was allegedly beaten to death at a protest eight weeks ago. 

The brother of another teenager killed spoke to ITV News anonymously, from his home in Iran, blaming the regime’s security forces: "All of these children have been brutally killed by the government. They don't deserve this."    

He became emotional as he described the impact of this tragedy on their family, adding: "The pain that we are going through is unbearable. My brother was the one who made our house a home. He had so many dreams, he was so full of life. But, he has become a hero. A slap in the face of the regime. I hope they pay for taking children's lives. I hope for freedom for Iran."

At the UN special session today, the Iranian Regime representative blamed outside forces for the violence saying: “The biased and hasty reaction of a number of western authorities and their interventions in internal affairs of Iran, turned the peaceful assemblies into riots and violence, setting the ground for terrorist attacks in several cities.”

Sarina Esmailzadah documented her daily life as well as her fight for freedom on YouTube before she was killed

Gissou Niaa, a human rights lawyer who has been briefing the UN Human Rights Council's member countries ahead of today’s vote, told ITV News she has no doubt as to where the responsibility for the ongoing violence lies: “We want this to give pause to the Iranian authorities and realise that they should stop killing children, stop killing women and girls, and stop killing all these innocent individuals who are merely expressing their freedom of expression assembly and association." 

She said building a criminal case is the next aspiration, but access into the country in spite of today’s vote passing, remains a key concern.

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