OPINION:
We are deeply concerned by the Iranian regime’s ruthless suppression of the people of Iran, including ethnic and religious minorities. During the 2022 uprising, according to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran, “verified videos show security forces deliberately shooting unarmed protesters from a short distance”.
Iran remains the world’s leading per capita executioner, hanging at least 864 people in 2023. In 1988 alone, 30,000 political prisoners were massacred within weeks following the decree by the regime’s Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini to execute affiliates of the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK) who persisted in supporting the organisation.
The Iranian regime has recently initiated a farcical trial in absentia for the Iranian Resistance leadership and 100 members of the PMOI, alleging crimes such as Moharebeh (waging war against God). This trial is evidently a pretext for laying the groundwork to commit terrorist acts against them, particularly in Europe, and to pressure European authorities to restrict dissidents, particularly those residing in Ashraf-3, Albania. The Iranian judiciary serves as Khamenei’s repressive tool for killing and terrorism.
Europe has become the roaming ground for Iran’s state terrorism. In February 2021, a court in Antwerp, Belgium, sentenced a serving Iranian diplomat to 20 years in prison for attempting to bomb the annual summit of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in a Paris suburb.
The ruling religious dictatorship is incapable of reform. During the 2022 uprising, the Iranian people rejected any form of dictatorship, whether monarchical or theocratic, and called for regime change to establish a democratic republic.
The people of Iran are being denied all of their political and civil rights; whereas, the Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights underscores the fundamental rights of all human beings, and states: “It is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law”.
The Iranian regime is the driving force behind the war in the Middle East and attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. It is also sending drones to be used in the war against the people of Ukraine, in breach of international law. The head of the snake is in Iran. Through proxy groups, the IRGC spreads terrorism and obstructs regional and global peace and security.
1. We condemn the flagrant violations of human rights, particularly the suppression of women, and we call for the perpetrators of the 1988 massacre to be held accountable for ongoing crimes against humanity.
2. The people of Iran deserve a democratic system. We urge all governments to support NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi’s Ten-point Plan for a democratic republic based on the separation of religion and state and gender equality.
3. We strongly condemn the Iranian regime’s actions against Iranian dissidents in Ashraf-3, Albania, and we reaffirm their rights under the 1951 Geneva Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights.
4. As the Iranian regime has blocked all political avenues for change, the free world must, consistent with internationally recognised laws based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, recognise the rights of the Iranian people and the MEK Resistance Units to rise up and confront the IRGC.
5. We strongly condemn the Iranian regime’s destructive role in the Middle East and its belligerent policies. We call for the terrorist designation of the IRGC and the implementation of oil sanctions on the regime.
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