In continuation of the Free Iran 2023 world summit in France, human rights experts, jurists, and politicians gathered for a conference on human rights violations in Iran and the imperative to hold Iranian regime leaders accountable for their crimes against humanity.
The conference highlighted the massacre of more than 30,000 political prisoners in 1988 as well as the continued killing of dissidents and protesters by Iran’s regime.
During her keynote address, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), paid tribute to the martyrs of the 1988 massacre and said, “The untainted blood of those innocent souls massacred in 1988 resonates today in the ongoing uprisings of the Iranian people and continues to inspire and motivate rebellious youths across generations.”
Mrs. Rajavi said that despite the efforts by the Iranian Resistance, international jurists, and human rights activists, the international community’s response to the 1988 massacre has fallen woefully short of what is necessary and expected and the lack of action regarding the 1988 massacre in Iran raises questions about the reasons behind this inaction. “I reiterate that granting impunity to the masterminds of the massacre is seen as characteristic of the West’s policy of appeasement, which needs to end,” she said.
Mrs. Rajavi stressed that the Call For Justice Movement, which was launched by the Iranian Resistance in 2016, seeks to punish the 1988 massacre, the massacre of protesters in 2019 and 2022, the killing of Kurd and Baluch people, and all the regime’s crimes.
“This campaign will continue until it brings Khamenei, Raisi, and other masterminds of this crime against humanity to justice. The Call for Justice is indispensable to the Resistance to overthrow the mullahs’ religious fascism,” she said.
Dr. Tahar Boumedra, the former Chief of the Human Rights Office of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the chair of the Justice for the Victims of the 1988 Massacre in Iran (JVMI), recounted his experience in learning about the MEK and their suffering at the hands of the mullahs’ regime and the investigation of the 1988 massacre.
“When I went to Iraq, I knew nothing about the Iranian Resistance movement, and I knew nothing about the Mujahedin. And when I arrived in Iraq, I was given an induction course about my mission as the chief of the human rights office of the United Nations in Iraq,” he said. “During that induction, I was warned to be careful about those people living in Camp Ashraf, that I have to be careful because I had to deal with a group of terrorists. I listened to all parties, Iraqis, and the Iranian embassy in Baghdad, and I visited Camp Ashraf on a weekly basis. And I came to the conclusion based on my own personal observations that whatever comes to me through the Ashrafis turned out to be right. And anything that reached me through the Iraqi Prime Minister’s office and the Iranian embassy in Baghdad was aimed to denigrate these people, and all the denigration always turned out to be wrong.
“I was really put in a situation where I couldn’t continue my mission in Iraq. I had to resign and when they left Iraq, I went back to England I met a number of British lawyers and we decided to establish JVMI in order to give a voice to the families of the victims and to the survivors of the prosecution.”
Joachim Rücker, the former President of the UN Human Rights Council, said that the Fact-Finding Mission established by the UNHRC for the crimes committed by Iranian security forces during the protests that began in September is a very positive development.
“We all agree that it’s not enough that the UN Fact-finding Commission was set up for the ongoing persecution of people since September 16. But we would really want to see something happen in regard to 1988,” he said. “We should jointly continue to appeal, as we’ve done in the last couple of months intensively, to the international community as such, but also to the High Commissioner for Human Rights and to the Human Rights Council to set up an investigation Commission into the massacres of 1988.”
Kenneth Lewis, renowned Swedish lawyer representing the PMOI/MEK in the Hamid Noury case in Sweden, said, “I can tell you that the investigation presented in the Stockholm District Court is the best Fact-finding Commission that you can imagine. The court went on for 92 days. The investigation is more than 11,000 pages.”
Lewis said that senior regime officials such as Ebrahim Raisi and Ali Khamenei must eventually be tried for their crimes. “The important thing is this trial happened, the evidence has been presented and we know not only that Hamid Nouri is guilty, we know that all of these leaders are guilty,” he said.
Prof. Ariel E Dulitzky, former Chair of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, spoke about his experience with the enforced disappearances in home country Argentina during the 1970s and 80s and how they relate to the 1988 massacre.
“When we talk about disappearances, we don’t talk about your disappearance. We are not talking about their disappearance. We are talking about our disappearance. We are all responsible for the clarification of the disappearances of everybody,” he said.
“These are not numbers, these are real people, fathers, and mothers, daughters and sons, wives and husbands, friends. They all had hopes and ideas. Remember 30,000 people, individuals. By definition of enforced disappearance, every single enforced disappearance is a state crime because it’s carried out by state officials.
“For all the relatives of the people who disappeared in 1998, this is a continuous crime. It continues until the fate and whereabouts of the person who disappeared are clarified until the families receive information on what happened with their loved ones until the bodies of those who disappeared are returned to their families so they can give a proper burial and they have a place where they can remember and pay their due respects. Until then, the crimes will keep being committed every single day.”
Dr. Melanie O’Brien, President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, said that the Iranian regime is not going to hold itself accountable for crimes, including executions, torture, and enforced disappearance, especially as some of those responsible for the 1988 crimes have since been promoted up the ranks to high government positions, including the current president Ebraham Raisi, who was a Death Commission member.
“The international community thus needs to unequivocally support accountability processes to ensure justice for the victims and their families who have not been permitted to properly mourn their loved ones,” she said. She provided some clear guidelines on what nation states and the international community can do and called on leaders at national and international levels to implement these solutions to ensure the justice of torture, enforced disappearance, and executions in Iran.
Pierre Sané, former Secretary General of Amnesty International, criticized the international communities penchant to turn a blind eye on human rights abuses in Iran. “Irrespective of the context, irrespective of geopolitical developments, we cannot—because of politics—sacrifice our duty of solidarity to all those who are victims of human rights violations and to all those who are fighting for a human rights regime. That starts with the end of impunity. There cannot be human rights if impunity is allowed to prosper. And the end of impunity is the basis for international solidarity, which is nothing more than the expression of our obligations towards other fellow human beings,” he said. “Irrespective of the context, irrespective of geopolitical developments, we cannot—because of politics—sacrifice our duty of solidarity to all those who are victims of human rights violations and to all those who are fighting for a human rights regime. That starts with the end of impunity. There cannot be human rights if impunity is allowed to prosper. And the end of impunity is the basis for international solidarity, which is nothing more than the expression of our obligations towards other fellow human beings.”
Anand Grover, the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, expressed his admiration for the steadfastness of the victims of the 1988 massacre in their ideals. “For me, this is one of the finest moments for people who believe in something so simple. I will not agree with you and I’m prepared to die. Can you think about this? It’s an amazing feat of human effort to be able to do it. Please appreciate the conviction of their beliefs, the bravery, and the courage of their conviction,” he said. “Whenever I think about these people, I can only salute the brave and courageous people of Iran who gave up their lives for an idea. And what is that idea? It is an idea that one can have a belief different from those who rule in a society and they can voice it without any reprisal. It is an idea that people of different faiths, ethnicities, races, and gender can live in the same societies as sisters and brothers and exercise their thoughts by speech and beliefs free from reprisal. That is the future of the idea of a free Iran, in my opinion.”
