The United Nations’ top human rights official has urged the United States to swiftly finish its investigation into a deadly airstrike that hit a primary school in Iran, killing more than 175 children and teachers, according to Reuters.
Speaking at a heated UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva, Human Rights Chief Volker Türk called for full transparency and accountability. “There must be justice for the terrible harm done,” he said via video link, after meetings in Washington earlier in the week.
The emergency debate was called by Iran to address the attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh School, an incident Tehran described as a “heartbreaking massacre” on the first day of a war that erupted in late February after joint U.S.-Israeli strikes.
A Reuters investigation earlier this month reported that U.S. military officials believe American forces were likely responsible for the strike, though their formal inquiry remains incomplete. Israel has also launched its own probe.
In the council debate, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi demanded global justice. “This atrocity cannot be justified, cannot be concealed, and must not be met with silence,” he declared.
Representatives from countries including Pakistan, China, and Britain expressed horror at the attack. China’s ambassador, Jia Guide, called it “a breach of human morality” and “a blatant contempt for international humanitarian law.”
However, some nations used the moment to highlight Iran’s own human rights record, citing its violent crackdown on protesters earlier this year and its ongoing attacks on Israel, U.S. bases, and Gulf states since the conflict began. Brazil’s ambassador, Tovar da Silva Nunes, lamented the “selective outrage,” saying the debate had failed to reflect the wider suffering across the region.
As diplomats exchanged accusations, one voice cut through the politics that of Mohaddeseh Fallahat, a mother who lost her child in the school strike. In tears, she pleaded, “The world must know that children’s lives are not worthless.”
