30th July 2024 - Professor Javaid Rehman, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran has issued his final damning report about the Iranian Regime's "Atrocity Crimes and Genocide" before the end of his tenure. In this report which he dedicates "to the victims of 'Atrocity Crimes', their families and their loved ones", Professor Rehman touched on several topics surrounding the Iranian regime's crimes against the people of Iran, paying close attention to the 1980s and the mass killings which took place in that decade which he classifies a "genocide"
The report highlights the extensive and brutal campaigns of mass murder through summary, arbitrary, and extrajudicial executions, imprisonments, torture, rape, and other inhumane acts against tens of thousands of political and religious dissidents. These acts were part of a state policy to suppress perceived enemies of the theocratic rule, encompassing a broad category of citizens including intellectuals, artists, socialists, and members of various political organizations.
Members of the PMOI were significantly targeted during this period.Rehman highlighted the genocidal intent behind these actions, particularly towards the PMOI. He provided substantial evidence from statements and fatwas issued by senior Iranian officials, including the Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini, demonstrating a clear intent to destroy these groups.The 1988 massacre is highlighted as a particularly egregious instance of atrocity crimes, involving the systematic execution of thousands of political prisoners, predominantly PMOI members and sympathizers.
These executions were carried out following a fatwa by Ruhollah Khomeini and involved the extrajudicial killing and enforced disappearance of thousands. The victims were buried in unmarked mass graves, and their families have been denied information about their fate, constituting ongoing enforced disappearances.Rehman stressed the need for an international investigative and accountability mechanism to address these crimes. “The continued concealment of the fate of thousands of political opponents and the whereabouts of their remains amounts to the crime against humanity of enforced disappearance,” he stated.
The full report can be read here.
