Press Conference: Global Call for Accountability Over Iran's 1988 Massacre – London, 27 Jan. 2022
Channel: Justice for Victims of 1988 Massacre in Iran
Date: 2022-02-27

Hundreds of international human rights and legal experts, including the former head of the International Criminal Court and more than 100 current and former United Nations officials, in letters to the UN Human Rights Council and High Commissioner for Human Rights said the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran is believed to amount to “crimes against humanity” and “genocide,” and they called for the establishment of an international inquiry that would bring its perpetrators to justice.

The letters were unveiled at a press conference in London on 27 January 2022 organised by Justice for the Victims of the 1988 Massacre in Iran (JVMI).

In the summer of 1988 based on a fatwa by Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, as many as 30,000 political prisoners were extra-judicially executed or forcibly disappeared. Victims were from various political groups. The majority were activists of the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI or MEK).

Altogether 470 individuals and organisations, representing the global human rights community at large, have co-signed the open letter to the Human Rights Council, dated 25 January 2022 and organised by Justice for the Victims of the 1988 Massacre in Iran (JVMI).

“Human rights experts believe that the extrajudicial executions in 1988 in Iran amount to crimes against humanity and genocide,” the signatories said.

The signatories include a former President of the International Criminal Court (ICC), a former President of the UN Human Rights Council, a former President of the UN Security Council, a former President of the European Commission, three former Presidents of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), a former President of the Court of First Instance of the European Communities, a former President of the OSCE Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, a former NATO Commander, a former President of the Appeals Division of the ICC, a former President of the Council of the European Union, a former President of the European Commission of Human Rights, a former Chairman of the UN International Law Commission, 19 Nobel laureates, 108 current and former UN officials, including 39 former UN Special Rapporteurs.

Other notable signatories include a former Special Adviser to the UN Secretary General on the Prevention of Genocide, two former Special Advisers to the UN Secretary General on the Responsibility to Protect, two current members of the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee, a former Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, the current and former chairs of UN inquiries, and dozens of international judges and prosecutors, including two current Judges of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the first President of the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone, the former Chief Prosecutor of the UN International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, a former Special Prosecutor at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, and the lead prosecutor at the trial of Slobodan Milošević in The Hague. The Special Adviser on Crimes Against Humanity to the ICC Prosecutor and the Special Adviser on War Crimes to the ICC Prosecutor are among a number of current Special Advisers to the ICC Prosecutor who have signed the letter. Other esteemed signatories include the former Presidents of Chile and Timor-Leste, the former Prime Ministers of Belgium and Luxembourg, and the former Foreign Ministers of Australia, Canada, Italy, Kosovo, and Poland.

The appeal to the Human Rights Council and High Commissioner for Human Rights represents the largest international call on the UN in history by the international expert and human rights community to hold Iranian officials accountable over the 1988 massacre.

The letter singled out Iran’s current President Ebrahim Raisi and Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei as key perpetrators of the 1988 massacre who “continue to enjoy impunity.”

“Therefore, we urge the UN Human Rights Council to urgently challenge the impunity enjoyed by Iranian officials by mandating an international investigation into the 1988 mass executions and enforced disappearances of thousands of political prisoners which constitute ongoing crimes against humanity,” the letter stated.

“We are concerned that lack of accountability for the perpetrators by the international community could embolden the Iranian authorities to commit further atrocities against dissident protesters and political prisoners, as was witnessed during the deadly crackdown on the nationwide protests of 2019. We believe it’s long overdue for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet to investigate the 1988 massacre.”

That criticism of the UN’s previous failure to act over the 1988 massacre was also reiterated in a separate letter sent simultaneously to High Commissioner Bachelet by a number of the former UN officials who appealed for a public commitment by the OHCHR to the establishment of an inquiry into the 1988 massacre.