UN Human Rights Council
UN Human Rights CouncilReuters

The UN Human Rights Council voted on Thursday to condemn the bloody crackdown on peaceful protests in Iran and create an independent fact-finding mission to investigate alleged abuses, particularly those committed against women and children, The Associated Press reported.

A resolution put forward by Germany and Iceland was backed by 25 nations, including the United States and many European, Latin American, Asian and African nations.

Six countries opposed the move -- China, Pakistan, Cuba, Eritrea, Venezuela and Armenia – and 16 abstained.

The resolution follows two months of protests in Iran sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on September 16, after she was arrested for an alleged breach of the country's strict dress rules for women based on Islamic sharia law.

As of Thursday, at least 426 people have been killed in the crackdown since Amini's death.

UN rights experts say thousands of peaceful protesters have also been arrested, including many women, children and journalists, and at least six people have so far been handed death sentences over the demonstrations.

The United Nations' top human rights official, Volker Turk, had earlier appealed to Iran's government to halt the crackdown against protesters, but Tehran's envoy at a special Human Rights Council on the country's "deteriorating" rights situation was defiant and unbowed, blasting the initiative as "politically motivated."