End 'culture of impunity' in Iran, human rights authorities urge UN

Khavaran cemetery in Tehran, where many of those killed in 1988 are believed to rest
Khavaran cemetery in Tehran, where many of those killed in 1988 are believed to rest

A group of world-leading experts on human rights and international law, including current and former UN officials, have called for actions that would help bring justice to those who suffered in Iran’s mass killing of political prisoners 35 years ago.

In an open letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, 285 distinguished individuals and 28 organizations have endorsed a “landmark report” by Javaid Rehman, the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, which accuses the Islamic Republic of “ongoing crimes against humanity.”

“The Special Rapporteur’s report opens a pathway to justice and an end to impunity in Iran,” the open letter published Friday reads. “In line with his recommendations, we urge Your Excellency to use your good offices and call on the Human Rights Council to establish an international accountability mechanism to take actionable measures aimed at ending impunity for Iran’s atrocity crimes, chief among them the 1988 massacre.”

In 1988, thousands of political prisoners were summarily and extrajudicially executed on the orders of Iran’s first Supreme Leader, Rouhollah Khomeini. The precise number of those killed is unknown but estimated to be between 3,000 and 5,000, based on extensive research by human rights groups.

“The willful executioners implemented Khomeini’s fatwa in full knowledge that they were committing international crimes by systematically and deliberately murdering political prisoners all across the country in a coordinated manner,” Rehman wrote in his latest report.

Welcoming Rehman's report, the signatories of the letter have commended the former special rapporteur for challenging the “culture of impunity in Iran” by affirming that the 1988 massacre constitutes “ongoing crimes against humanity.”

Signatories of the open letter to the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights include the Presidents of the International Bar Association (IBA), the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), and the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), and the Secretary General of the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT).

“In light of the Special Rapporteur’s landmark report, we also encourage the co-sponsors of the Canadian-led annual UN Third Committee resolution on Iran to include a specific reference to the 1988 massacre in this year’s resolution to meaningfully counter the ongoing culture of impunity in Iran,” they write in their letter.

Iran has never acknowledged that such crimes were committed and have even prosecuted those seeking justice. No official of any rank has ever been investigated, let alone tried, in relation to the 1988 massacre in Iran.

The only person to have ever stood trial for the killings is Hamid Nouri, a former prison official arrested in Sweden. In 2022, a court in Stockholm sentenced Nouri to life in prison for his role in the 1988 mass executions in Iran. The court found him guilty of “grave breaches of international humanitarian law and murder.”

Nouri's conviction was deemed a landmark victory for those Iranians who had sought truth and justice for more than three decades. However, in June 2024, the Swedish government extradited Nouri to Iran in exchange for the release of two of its citizens that were prisoned in Iran.