UN human rights experts warn the Iranian government about the massacre of prisoners in the summer of 1988
9-December-2020
Category: executions
Breathing in Confinement, December 9, 2020: A group of UN human rights experts, in an unprecedented act, have warned the Iranian government that past and ongoing human rights violations related to prison massacres in 1988 may amount to crimes against humanity and that they will call for an international investigation if these violations persist.
UN experts, in their 18-page letter, which was first sent privately to the Iranian government on September 3,2020, state that they “are seriously concerned by the alleged continued refusal to disclose the fate and whereabouts” of these individuals.
Amnesty International quotes Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, as saying: “The UN experts’ communication is a momentous breakthrough. It marks a turning point in the long-standing struggles of victims’ families and survivors, supported by Iranian human rights organizations and Amnesty International, to end these crimes and obtain truth, justice and reparation.”
Eltahawy added: ” Top UN human rights experts have now sent an unequivocal, and long overdue, message: the ongoing crimes of mass enforced disappearances resulting from the secret extrajudicial executions of 1988 can no longer go unaddressed and unpunished.”