Department of Public Policy Assistant Professor Cameran Ashraf has joined the Atlantic Council, Amnesty International, UC Berkeley's Human Rights Center, UCLA's Promise Institute for Human Rights, and other prominent human rights organizations in launching the Iranian Archive, a landmark archive forensically preserving over 1,000,000 vulnerable digital artifacts recording serious human rights violations committed by the Islamic Republic of Iran against Woman, Life, Freedom movement protesters. The Iranian Archive will support United Nations and other future investigations and accountability proceedings.
Many of the events documented appear to be serious human rights violations and may amount to crimes against humanity. Evidence collected includes, among others: intentionally blinding protesters, forced disappearances and deaths of children, and targeted abuse based on gender, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation. Journalists and other frontline defenders have also been systematically targeted.
The coalition behind the Iranian Archive is led by the Atlantic Council’s Strategic Litigation Project and Mnemonic, in partnership with The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA Law, UC Berkeley’s Human Rights Center, Amnesty International’s Digital Verification Corps, the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center and Professor Ashraf's independent Azadi Archive. The archive joins other standalone archives created to support international investigations on atrocities in Syria, Yemen, Sudan, and Ukraine.
Due to security concerns, the Iranian Archive’s organizers are currently only making the records available to prosecutors, international investigative mechanisms and organizations working towards accountability for the violent crackdowns against civilians during the nationwide protests which began in 2022. Requests can be sent directly to Professor Ashraf.
Deatails can be read in the press release of the Atlantic Council.