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Following Professor Javaid Rehman’s final report as the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, the Iranian regime has launched a vehement series of attacks against him. Released in July at the end of his six-year mandate, Rehman’s report highlights the systematic and widespread atrocities committed by Iranian authorities between 1979 and 1988, including the extrajudicial killing of thousands of political prisoners, particularly members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (PMOI/MEK). He categorizes these actions as crimes against humanity and genocide driven by a state policy aimed at eliminating perceived religious enemies of the theocratic regime.
Naser Kanaani, Spokesperson for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, wrote in English on his X account, “Rehman has provided many services to the MKO, and it was not expected that he would not participate in the gathering of the terrorist organization.” Additionally, Iranian state media reported that Kazem Gharibabadi, Secretary of the regime’s High Council for Human Rights, has composed a “comprehensive response” to Omar Zniber, President of the Human Rights Council, and Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, detailing a litany of grievances against both the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and Professor Rehman.
For a regime that has systematically rejected numerous UN General Assembly resolutions and countless condemnations of its human rights abuses, such an overreaction to the mere presence of a former UN official at an event held by a group Tehran has repeatedly dismissed as insignificant might seem inexplicable at first glance. Yet, Tehran’s furious response, filled with slanders and accusations against the MEK, claiming that any association with the group undermines the credibility of the entire United Nations, reveals a deeper narrative.
Former UN Special Rapporteur Javaid Rehman Calls for Accountability for #Iranian Regime’s Atrocity Crimeshttps://t.co/TvoIJlPTmq
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) August 28, 2024
Upon closer examination, Tehran’s reaction becomes more comprehensible and sheds light on a strategic vulnerability within the regime.
For decades, the Iranian regime has attempted to cover up its crimes from the 1980s, particularly the 1988 massacre in which over 30,000 political prisoners were executed. Despite these efforts, the Iranian Resistance has persistently exposed these atrocities, which have now been officially documented in Professor Javaid Rehman’s report.
The regime’s recent attacks on Rehman, especially over his focus on the executions of members of the MEK and his characterization of the massacre as genocide, reflect its desperate attempt to suppress the truth about these long-hidden crimes. By condemning Rehman’s report and alleging bias due to his inclusion of the MEK’s plight, the Iranian authorities aim to silence any discourse on their human rights abuses, particularly the genocide against MEK members. The regime’s strategy includes slander against the MEK, trying to discredit any discussion of the crimes against them by portraying it as criminal or biased reporting. Furthermore, the regime’s appeals to international bodies, such as writing to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, seek to pressure the global community into silence, making them complicit in the cover-up.
These attacks also reveal the regime’s deep fear of the MEK as the primary force of resistance within Iran. The regime’s actions underscore its recognition of the MEK’s significant role in challenging its authority and exposing its human rights violations.
For decades, thousands of courageous Iranians and their international supporters have endured the regime’s relentless campaigns of oppression, defamation, and even assassination attempts. These efforts by Tehran aim to dehumanize and delegitimize the PMOI, the only well-organized dissident group presenting a viable alternative to the current clerical rule.
JVMI Welcomes Today’s Landmark UN Report Decrying Iran’s #1988Massacre as Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide
The JVMI calls on UN Member States to establish an international tribunal to bring perpetrators of the 1988 massacre to justice.https://t.co/WKheTERMEk
— Justice for the Victims of 1988 Massacre in Iran (@jvmifoundation) July 22, 2024
However, the latest torrent of attacks against Professor Rehman reveals an emerging phenomenon: the Iranian regime is increasingly entangled not only with its grim future but also with its own haunting past.
In an event on August 24, Professor Rehman emphasized, “There is considerable evidence that mass killings, torture, and other inhumane acts against members of the PMOI were conducted with genocidal intent.”
He also highlighted a pivotal point, one that exposes the roots of the regime’s enmity towards the PMOI: “Insofar as the Iranian theocracy was concerned, the PMOI was perceived as a religious group, albeit a deviant and heretical group, with legitimate religious justification for mass executions, torture, and mental and physical harm to members of this group.”
These sentences, while framed in straightforward legal terminology suitable for a UN document, encapsulate the ultimate sacrifice of tens of thousands of Iran’s bravest individuals—freedom-loving souls who laid down their lives believing in a version of Islam that champions tolerance, peace, and love for all humankind. These men and women, young and old, from diverse backgrounds, stood in defiance of a brutal regime led by a Supreme Leader whose inaugural foreign policy move was to instigate a devastating war with Iraq, crying out for “the liberation of Jerusalem via Karbala.” A leader who has sought conflict wrought destruction across the Middle East and destabilized social and economic structures globally for many decades.
Professor Rehman’s bold act of shedding light on these truths, daring to uncover what the regime thought it had buried in the darkest recesses of mass graves, is not merely an excavation of the past. It represents a beacon of hope for the future of Iran.
The international community must resist the manipulative strategy of the Iranian regime, which seeks to double the suffering of its victims by denying their reality. Instead, the world should amplify the truth and hold the regime accountable for its crimes.
