(Geneva) An independent UN expert has called for an international investigation into “crimes against humanity” and “genocide” perpetrated by the Iranian regime against “anti-Islam” opponents and the Baha’i minority in the 1980s.
“The Baha’is have been targeted with genocidal intent and persecutions and attacks against religious, ethnic and linguistic minorities and political opponents have continued with impunity” since the 1980s, denounces Javaid Rehman, special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran.
“There should be no impunity for such gross human rights violations, regardless of when they were committed,” Rehman was quoted as saying in a statement.
He insists that “the Iranian regime and its leaders should not be able to escape the consequences of their crimes against humanity and genocide.”
“The atrocities of summary, arbitrary and extrajudicial executions in 1981-1982 and 1988 amount to crimes against humanity of murder and extermination, as well as genocide,” Rehman said in a report released Monday.
“Among the executions were women – some of whom were allegedly raped before being executed – and many children” and “crimes against humanity also include imprisonment, torture and enforced disappearances,” added the expert, whose mandate ends on July 31.
Mandated by the Human Rights Council, these independent experts do not speak on behalf of the UN.
“The continued concealment of the fate of thousands of political opponents and the fate of their remains amounts to a crime against humanity of enforced disappearance,” the expert further stressed, calling for a transparent and impartial investigation under the aegis of international law.
Already in April, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) organization had stated that the persecution of the Baha’i minority by the Iranian authorities since 1979 constituted a “crime against humanity.”
Baha’i Faith is a monotheistic religion founded in the early 19th century.e century in Iran, whose spiritual center is in the Israeli city of Haifa, which regularly leads to its followers being accused of being agents of Israel, a country hated by Tehran.
Unlike other minorities, the Baha’i faith is not recognized by the Constitution. They have no representatives in Parliament. Their exact number in Iran is not known, but they could number several hundred thousand.