{"id":250962,"date":"2021-11-18T05:05:47","date_gmt":"2021-11-18T10:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=250962"},"modified":"2023-02-02T07:48:34","modified_gmt":"2023-02-02T06:48:34","slug":"another-anniversary-highlights-ongoing-failure-to-address-irans-human-rights-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/iran-protests\/another-anniversary-highlights-ongoing-failure-to-address-irans-human-rights-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Another Anniversary Highlights Ongoing Failure To Address Iranian Regime\u2019s Human Rights Issues\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"uprising-2\"<\/p>\n

Monday marked the second anniversary of the nationwide uprising in Iran. In a matter of only 5 days in November 2019, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard<\/a> Corps killed\u00a0over\u00a01,500 peaceful protesters. About 12,000 participants were then arrested and subjected to indefinite detention amidst inhumane conditions, and frequently to extensive bouts of torture as well.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sadly, the international community had little to say about the crackdown at the time. Not much changed with the passage of its first anniversary, and now with the second anniversary looming, the Iranian regime has\u00a0made it abundantly clear that it does not take seriously any of the toothless condemnations of its human rights record. The regime\u2019s assertion of impunity reflects the ongoing impact of backlash against the 2019 uprising, but it also underlines the legacy of violations stretching back more than three decades, including the most serious crime against humanity<\/a> for which no one has been held accountable to this day.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The clearest indication of that impunity came in June when, following a tightly controlled electoral process, it was confirmed that Ebrahim Raisi would be the\u00a0regime\u2019s\u00a0new president. At the time of the 2019 uprising, Raisi was head of Iran\u2019s judiciary and thus\u00a0he played a leading role in the torture campaign that followed it. Details of that campaign were recorded and labeled with the title\u00a0<\/span>Trampling Humanity<\/span><\/i>\u00a0in a 2020 Amnesty International report. The human rights organization was later quick to respond to Raisi\u2019s \u201celection\u201d by calling it a \u201cgrim reminder that impunity reigns supreme in Iran.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Director-General Agnes Callamard was certainly making reference to the 2019 crackdown when she issued her statement to this effect. But her observation that Raisi should have been \u201cinvestigated<\/a> for the crimes against humanity of mass murder, enforced disappearance, and torture\u201d was based primarily on accounts of his role in the 1988 massacre of political prisoners. As one of four officials who sat on the Tehran \u201cdeath commission\u201d in the summer of that year, Raisi helped to set the pace of executions that would soon overtake the entire country and lead to over 30,000 hangings and deaths by firing squad over a period of about three months.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The world\u2019s silence on the 2019 crackdown<\/a> is a direct analog to its silence on the 1988 massacre, with both serving as powerful contributors to the regime\u2019s sense of impunity. In September 2020, when some human rights defenders were still assessing the severity of the previous year\u2019s repression, seven UN experts wrote an open letter to Iranian authorities urging transparency over the 1988 massacre and an end to a pattern of harassment targeting victims’ families. But the letter seemed to acknowledge that there were no chances of a serious Iranian response and to assign some blame for that situation to the UN and its leading member states.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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