{"id":230866,"date":"2020-12-10T14:27:15","date_gmt":"2020-12-10T14:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=230866"},"modified":"2023-02-01T05:30:43","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T04:30:43","slug":"on-human-rights-day-international-community-should-end-of-irans-impunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/human-rights\/on-human-rights-day-international-community-should-end-of-irans-impunity\/","title":{"rendered":"On Human Rights Day: International Community Should End Iran\u2019s Impunity"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Museum 120 years of struggle for freedom in Iran- Ashraf-3 Albania<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thursday marks the UN\u2019s annual Human Rights Day, which raises the question of whether the year ahead will finally be the year when the international community takes serious measures to address crimes and abuses that have gone ignored for decades.<\/p>\n

After three decades of injustice, a group of United Nations human rights experts published<\/a> their letter to the regime\u2019s authorities on the 1988 massacre of Iranian political prisoners, saying the 1988 massacre<\/a> \u201cmay amount to crimes against humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

They also reiterated that if the regime refuses to investigate and \u201cuphold its obligations under international human rights law,\u201d they call \u201con the international community to take action to investigate the cases including through the establishment of an international investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The western governments\u2019 appeasement policy has emboldened the regime and given it a sense of impunity to continue its crimes against humanity. Now, after this letter, which the Amnesty International called<\/a> a \u201ctuning point,\u201d the international community has this opportunity to hold the regime to account for its crimes.<\/p>\n

It will be an absolute tragedy they won\u2019t. Even the past few years\u2019 developments are sufficient to demonstrate that further suffering looms for the Iranian people if the regime is not compelled to change its behavior. And when those recent developments are put in context with Iran\u2019s past abuses and crimes against humanity, it becomes clear that a weak response to the ongoing humanitarian crisis will pave the way for mass casualties.<\/p>\n

The current crisis began to unfold around the beginning of 2018, when the regime found itself rocked by a nearly unprecedented uprising<\/a>. The movement saw residents of well over 100 cities and towns chanting slogans like \u201cdeath to the dictator\u201d and demonstrating a collective commitment to installing an altogether new, entirely democratic system of government in Tehran. The nationwide protests naturally met with violent crackdowns by regime authorities, which left dozens dead and thousands in jail.<\/p>\n

But the legacy of those crackdowns now pales in comparison to that of another crackdown on an even larger uprising that took place just over a year ago. In November 2019, gasoline price increases served as a vivid reminder of the Iranian regime\u2019s disregard for people\u2019s plight. In response, protests<\/a> broke out in nearly 200 localities all at once, with participants reclaiming the same slogans that had defined the earlier uprising. This time, regime institutions like the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC<\/a>) responded with even deadlier intend, opening fire on crowds with live ammunition and shooting to kill.<\/p>\n

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Iran Protests: Nationwide Uprising in Iran- November 2019<\/div><\/div>
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