GENEVA - The United Nations' human rights office pressed the parties behind a strike on a girls' school in Iran to investigate the event and make their findings public, while stopping short of identifying which forces carried out the attack.
At a Geneva press briefing, U.N. human rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani relayed the call from High Commissioner Volker Turk for a "prompt, impartial and thorough investigation into the circumstances of the attack." Shamdasani described the incident as "horrific" and emphasized that "the onus is on the forces that carried out the attack to investigate it." The office did not name the forces it referred to.
"The High Commissioner (Volker Turk) calls for a prompt, impartial and thorough investigation into the circumstances of the attack. The onus is on the forces that carried out the attack to investigate it," U.N. human rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said, describing the incident as "horrific."
The statement followed reports from Iranian state media that more than 160 people were killed on the first day of strikes attributed to U.S. and Israeli forces against Iran. In response to those reports, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said U.S. forces "would not deliberately target a school."
The U.N. office's appeal for an inquiry focused on the need for promptness, impartiality and thoroughness, and placed responsibility for initiating and conducting that investigation on the forces that carried out the attack. The briefing reiterated the office's concern over the severity of the incident by using the word "horrific" to characterize the attack.
Public officials cited in the statements included High Commissioner Volker Turk, the U.N. human rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The casualty figure referenced in the remarks comes from Iranian state media reports, which put the death toll at over 160 on the first day of the reported U.S. and Israeli attacks.
Details about the exact circumstances of the strike, including independent verification of the casualties and confirmation of the identity of those who carried out the attack, were not provided in the statements reported at the Geneva briefing.
Note: The U.N. human rights office did not name the forces it called on to investigate the attack, and the casualty figure cited was reported by Iranian state media.