States Should Act to End War, Ensure Accountability
(Washington, D.C., March 11, 2026) – UN member states should take urgent action to end the war in Iran and ensure accountability for apparent U.S. and Israeli war crimes, said DAWN today. These war crimes reflect long-standing patterns of abuses by Israeli and U.S. authorities, for which they have enjoyed near-total impunity. The U.S.-Israeli war has resulted in the killing of more than 1,300 people including more than 200 children in Iran, and 634 people including 91 children in Lebanon.
"In mere days, U.S. and Israeli forces have launched a war of choice, killed hundreds of civilians, displaced hundreds of thousands, bombed scores of schools, health facilities, and fuel depots, and dropped white phosphorus on civilian communities," said Omar Shakir, DAWN's executive director. "The international community's failure to act when the most fundamental norms of international law are being challenged risks plunging the world further into a lawless era in which civilians across the globe are at risk."
The UN General Assembly should convene an emergency special session to demand an end to the illegal war on Iran. Iran and other countries in the region should file Article 12(3) declarations granting the International Criminal Court (ICC) jurisdiction over crimes committed on their territory, provide access to UN fact-finders and human rights mechanisms and preserve evidence of abuses.
The United States Constitution gives the power to declare war to Congress, and the War Powers Resolution of 1973 empowers Congress to authorize ongoing military action overseas. The U.S. decision to wage war against Iran violated international and domestic law, as DAWN has documented and members of Congress have stated, but Congress nevertheless failed to stop it. On March 4, the Senate rejected 53-47 a resolution, S.J.Res. 104, which called to end the war on largely party lines. On March 5, the House rejected a similar resolution, H.Con.Res. 38, with a vote of 219-212.
Congress' failure to use its constitutional authority forecloses the clearest path to ending the war domestically and underscores the need for action by other states. Already on the war's first day, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the US and Israel's use of force "undermine[s] international peace and security." A growing number of governments, including Spain, Switzerland, Oman, China, and Pakistan, have also called out the illegality of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
The UN Security Council held an emergency session on February 28, 2026, but failed to take any action or pass any resolution. When the Security Council fails or is unable to act, the UNGA can convene an emergency special session and recommend collective measures under a so-called Uniting for Peace resolution. These emergency special sessions can be initiated at the request of seven members of the UN Security Council or by a majority of UN member states. Given that the Security Council is unable to act in light of the United States' veto power, the UNGA should use that authority now.
"Declarations by states that the US-Israeli war on Iran is illegal are welcome, but are not enough," said Raed Jarrar, DAWN's advocacy director. "States should call for a Uniting for Peace emergency session of the UNGA to make clear that Washington's veto in the Security Council does not give it a veto over the enforcement of international law."
February 28 Strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh Girls' Elementary School
International humanitarian law, the laws of war, requires all parties to distinguish between military objectives and civilian objects, to ensure that civilian harm is not excessive in relation to anticipated military advantage, and to take all feasible precautions to minimize civilian casualties. Mounting evidence suggests that Israeli and U.S. forces are not following these basic norms and legal obligations, and have committed multiple war crimes.
On the morning of February 28, the first day of the war, a missile likely fired by the United States struck the Shajareh Tayyebeh Girls' Elementary School in Minab, in Iran's Hormozgan Province. According to the Guardian, at least 168 people were killed, including the principal, teachers, and scores of children.
The New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR, CNN, and CBS News concluded through analysis of satellite imagery, geolocated video, and weapons analysis that the school was likely struck by a U.S. Tomahawk cruise missile. Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute corroborated their analysis. The United States is the only party to this conflict that possesses Tomahawk cruise missiles. A video published by Bellingcat shows smoke rising from the school before a Tomahawk can be seen striking the adjacent Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps naval base, indicating the school may have been struck first. In years past, the school had reportedly been a part of the military compound. Two U.S. officials also told Reuters that military investigators believe it is likely U.S. forces were responsible.
Despite the mounting evidence, President Trump, on March 8, said in reference to the school strike: "In my opinion, based on what I've seen, that was done by Iran. They're very inaccurate with their munitions." U.S. Ambassador to the UN Michael Waltz told ABC News he would leave it to investigators and acknowledged that "sometimes tragic mistakes occur." UNESCO called the strike "a grave violation of humanitarian law." UN Special Rapporteurs called it "a grave assault on children, on education, and on the future of an entire community." Human Rights Watch said it "should be investigated as a war crime."
Targeting Critical Civilian Infrastructure
As of March 8, 2026, the Iranian Red Crescent said nearly 10,000 civilian structures had been struck or damaged in the first 10 days of the war, including 7,943 residential units, 65 schools, 32 medical and treatment centers, and 13 Red Crescent facilities. The World Health Organization on March 5 said it had "verified 13 attacks on health care in Iran." A desalination plant was struck on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian officials.
On March 7 and 8, Israeli forces struck 30 fuel depots across greater Tehran and Alborz Province, including the Tehran refinery and the Shahran and Aghdasieh oil depots. The fires released toxic hydrocarbon compounds, sulfur, and nitrogen oxides. Black acid rain fell across a city of 10 million people on March 8. Residents reported chemical burns to their skin and difficulty breathing, and experts warned of long-term contamination to soil, water, and food supplies. Article 56 of the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions expressly prohibits attacks on any works or installations that could result in "the release of dangerous forces." U.S. officials reportedly opposed Israeli strikes on fuel depots and facilities.
Alongside the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, Israel has intensified its assault on Lebanon, killing 634 people, injuring over 1,000, and displacing more than 750,000 since March 2.
Israeli forces also unlawfully used artillery-fired white phosphorus over residential areas in the southern Lebanese town of Yohmor on March 3, according to Human Rights Watch. HRW verified and geolocated eight images showing airburst white phosphorus munitions being deployed over homes. HRW has previously documented Israeli white phosphorus use in at least 17 Lebanese municipalities since October 2023, as well as in Gaza. Using airburst white phosphorus over populated civilian areas violates the international humanitarian law prohibition against indiscriminate attacks and requirement to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian harm.
In addition, on March 6, Israeli soldiers killed 41 civilians, according to Lebanon's army and Ministry of Public Health. According to CNN, the Lebanese military said Israeli forces disguised themselves, including by using vehicles and ambulances. Article 37 of the First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions prohibits perfidy, defined as feigning protected status, including that of medical vehicles, in order to kill, injure, or capture an adversary.
The attacks on civilian infrastructure in Iran and Lebanon follow a well-documented pattern of war crimes by Israel. Since October 2023, Israeli forces have deliberately attacked hospitals, medical personnel, ambulances and health infrastructure in Palestine. The Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel found that such attacks amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Israeli forces have also deliberately destroyed civilian infrastructure, razed entire areas and issued unlawfully sweeping evacuation orders for large parts of the civilian populations in Lebanon and Palestine, in acts that human rights organizations have found to amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.
"From deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure to forced displacement, Israel's war crimes in Iran and Lebanon are not isolated incidents — they reflect a longstanding political decision to disregard the laws of war and the protection of civilians," said Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, director for Israel-Palestine at DAWN. "Every government that failed to act as these abuses took place in Gaza effectively gave the green light for these crimes to be replicated again and again."
There also are harrowing reports of possible unlawfully indiscriminate attacks and other war crimes committed by Iranian forces throughout the region, including a ballistic missile strike on a synagogue in Beit Shemesh in Israel, which reportedly killed nine civilians, including three teenage siblings.
Fighting Impunity
International mechanisms for accountability were created for situations in which states are unwilling or unable to investigate allegations of their own war crimes and other violations of international law. Israel and the U.S. both have a years-long record of failing to hold perpetrators of grave abuses accountable.
In its review of 10 years of Israeli military investigations into alleged war crimes committed in Gaza, the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din said in a May 2024 report that, "it is highly doubtful that Israel has the ability to independently and fairly investigate allegations of breaches of international law," and concluded, "we cannot but grimly conclude that the Israeli law enforcement system has proven it is not interested in investigating suspicions of war crimes properly, and certainly not interested in investigating decisions such as its policy on use of fire." This comes on top of recent political interference with the bodies charged with investigating war crimes, most notably the indictment of the IDF's chief Military Advocate General relating to her investigation into torture, murder, and rape of Palestinian detainees.
The U.S. has failed to hold to account Americans who have carried out grave international crimes, including torture and war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq. President Trump has issued pardons in the few cases where Americans were actually convicted of war crimes, including cases where civilians were deliberately targeted in Afghanistan and Iraq. The U.S. has also put enormous pressure on international investigatory mechanisms, such as the International Criminal Court, to end its inquiries and investigations into international crimes committed by U.S. and Israeli nationals, including by putting sanctions on the Court's prosecutors and judges and human right defenders.
Beyond refusing to investigate, the U.S. has threatened to commit further war crimes. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth declared at a March 2 Pentagon press conference that the U.S. is operating with "no stupid rules of engagement" and "regardless of what so-called international institutions say." President Trump posted on Truth Social on March 9 that the U.S. would "take out easily destroyable targets that will make it virtually impossible for Iran to ever be built back, as a nation, again." Targeting civilian infrastructure with the stated aim of making national reconstruction "virtually impossible" is not a lawful military objective; it is a declared intent to destroy the means of civilian survival, in direct violation of the prohibition on collective punishment and the obligation to distinguish between military targets and civilian objects.
"U.S. officials are not just threatening to commit future war crimes — they're admitting that their current policy sanctions the commission of war crimes with impunity," Jarrar said. "Israeli and US authorities have designed a system to shield themselves from accountability for their grave crimes."
Iran, Israel, and the U.S. are not signatories to the Rome Statute, the treaty that gives the ICC jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute international crimes. The Iranian Red Crescent Society, however, this week wrote directly to the ICC prosecutor requesting a criminal investigation into attacks on civilian objects, citing field documentation of strikes on residential buildings, schools, health centers, and Red Crescent facilities, including the killing or injuring of seven Red Crescent relief workers.
For the ICC to investigate such crimes, the Iranian government should file an Article 12(3) declaration granting the Court jurisdiction over war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on Iranian territory since February 28, as DAWN has called for. This is an executive act requiring no legislation. Palestine used this mechanism in 2014. Ukraine has used it twice. The ICC subsequently issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Lebanon and other affected states in the Gulf and across the region should do the same.
Additionally, all affected states in the region should provide access to the UN's fact-finding human rights mechanisms, and secure, preserve and protect evidence of possible war crimes. The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, established by the UN Human Rights Council in November 2022 and extended in January 2026, has an active mandate to investigate violations on Iranian territory. Iran should cooperate fully and provide access to all strike sites, including Minab. They should act immediately, since evidence degrades over time and the window to preserve a factual record for future prosecutions is narrow and closing.
"The UN and International Criminal Court were created for moments like this when the most powerful decide the rules do not apply to them," said Shakir. "Governments unwilling to invoke international law when their allies commit crimes have no credibility when they invoke it against rivals."
