The President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), Maryam Rajavi, has welcomed the United Nations’ adoption of a 67th resolution condemning Iran’s systematic human rights violations.
Rajavi said that those responsible for the crimes listed in the resolution are the same people who shot dead at least 1,500 protesters, injured 4,000, and arrested 12,000 more during the November 2019 uprising, as well as being responsible for the 1988 massacre of political prisoners and many other crimes against humanity for the last 40 years.
The resolution expressed concern at the “alarmingly high” use of the death penalty, especially when used against prisoners who were tortured into making false confessions, those under 18, or those who had not committed serious crimes, which the UN points out is a violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
I welcome the adoption of the 67th United Nations resolution condemning the grave and systematic violations of #HumanRights in #Iran. https://t.co/7V920SdXms pic.twitter.com/YWYWVrjEfC
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) November 18, 2020
It further voiced alarm at the “widespread and systematic” use of:
- arbitrary arrests and detention
- torture to extract confessions
- suspicious deaths in custody
- enforced disappearances
- extrajudicial executions
- suppression of the freedoms of expression, association, and peaceful assembly
- harassment, intimidation, and persecution against dissidents
- all forms of human rights violations against women
Rajavi said that this resolution – passed by 79 votes- did not go far enough to address many flagrant violations of human rights, but advised that there could be “no doubt” that the Iranian regime is the “world’s leading abuser of human rights” and in “in no way compatible with the twenty-first century”. She called on the international community to ban the regime and end the impunity of its leaders.
She said that these leaders are “terrified” of repercussions both domestic and international for its massacre of protesters last November, so they refuse to admit the true number that was killed, wounded, and arrested. Instead, they keep torturing protesters to force confessions that would be televised.
“This horrific crime and the 1988 massacre of 30,000 defenseless political prisoners, in which the regime’s former and current leaders have been involved and continue to brazenly defend, are the most manifest cases of crime against humanity,” the NCRI President-elect said.
“The lack of action vis-à-vis continuing crime against humanity is a scar on the conscience of humanity. As such, an investigation into these two horrific mass murders and the prosecution of those responsible is the litmus test before the international community,” Maryam Rajavi concluded.
