In a recent session of the Iranian regime’s Supreme Council of Human Rights Staff, regime officials discussed their concerns over the human rights records catching up with them. It is no surprise that among the attendees of the meeting were six officials who already have individual sanctions against them for human rights violations in the United States and the European Union.
Among the attendees at the session were: the regime’s Judiciary Chief Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei, who chaired the meeting; Ali Shamkhani, the Supreme National Security Council Secretary; Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian; Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib; Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi; Culture Minister Mohammad Mehdi Esmaili; and the Justice Minister Amin Hossein Rahimi.
The challenges regime is facing in the human rights domain were the topic of discussion. But this wasn’t a session about how to improve the human rights situation in Iran but how to deal with the backlash the mullahs are facing regarding its abysmal human rights record.
During the session, Ejei stated that several human rights conditions have been imposed on the regime and that ‘enemies’ are piling pressure on the regime to comply. He suggested that the regime should take an ‘active and offensive’ posture, instead of a ‘passive approach’ to human rights issues.
Shamkhani brought up the issue that the regime is ‘under fire for human rights violations’, while Esmaili suggested that the regime needs to ‘shift from defense to offense’ regarding human rights matters.
The question is, what is the regime worried about, and why are its officials suddenly scrambling to make these remarks on the human rights situation in the country?
Among the notable events currently taking place, related to the human rights issues in Iran, is the ongoing trial of former Iranian prison official Hamid Noury in Sweden for his involvement in the 1988 massacre of over 30,000 political prisoners. This trial has greatly highlighted the extent of the regime’s four decades’ worth of crimes against humanity.
During the recent 68th resolution of the UN General Assembly, the regime’s human rights abuses were widely condemned, while a UN workgroup has called for an independent investigation to be conducted regarding the 1988 massacre.
In other events, protest rallies organized by Iranian expats abroad, as well as continuing rallies inside Iran, have all highlighted the extent of the regime’s human rights abuses and have echoed calls to hold regime officials accountable for their involvement in these abuses.
These are just a glimpse of the attacks and the pressure which have raised alarm. Led by the Iranian Resistance the Justice Movement has become a nationwide and global cause, bringing the regime to a point that it is thinking about ‘structural solutions to the human rights issue.
The regime has no intentions to improve the human rights situation in Iran, especially as they continue to cling to power through their tactics of arrests, violence, imprisonment, torture, and executions.
With Iranian society on the verge of exploding in a big way, if the regime were to ease off on their human rights violations, the ensuing mass protests would likely bring them toppling down, a scenario that the regime is desperate to avoid at all costs.
As such, the regime has no other solution than to intensify repression. But at this point, it has already played all its cards and the officials are also warning that their human rights violations will eventually become their undoing.
