By providing a forum for murderers, the UN Human Rights Council undermines its own mission
by Giulio Terzi | Feb 28, 2018, 12:01 AM Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Email this article Share on LinkedIn Print this article
Seyyed Alireza Avaei, minister of justice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, addressed the U.N. Human Rights Council on Tuesday. (Valentin Flauraud/Keystone via AP
The United Nations Human Rights Council convened a new session on Monday, and it will no doubt initiate important dialogue on how the world might make life better for all of its people.
With the council now in its 12th year, one wonders whether it could have prevented atrocities and widespread abuses had it been founded much earlier than 2006. The free and democratic nations of the world have shamefully turned a blind eye to mass killings and systematic repression at various points in recent history.
One of the worst instances of past neglect occurred in the summer of 1988, when the Islamic Republic of Iran undertook a campaign of mass executions. An estimated 30,000 political prisoners were killed. Activists made every effort to bring the killings to the attention of Western policymakers and the global media, but few journalists or politicians took up the cause.
Many of the victims’ families remain in the dark about the locations of mass graves where the executed political prisoners were buried. Not one of the officials responsible for the massacre has ever been brought to justice, and many remain in highly influential positions in Iranian government and state-affiliated institutions.
One such figure, Seyyed Alireza Avaei, was given the opportunity to address the U.N. Human Rights Council on Tuesday. The decision to let him do so is a testament to the shameful legacy of silence on Iranian human rights violations.
Avaei now holds the position of justice minister in Iran, having previously served as the judiciary chief in Tehran Province. In 1988, he was a prosecutor for the Revolutionary Court in the city of Dezful. As such, he played a leading role in determining which of that city’s political prisoners would be sent to the gallows in the midst of the nationwide massacre. Testimony from eyewitnesses describes how Avaei personally sent a number of juvenile detainees to be executed in groups.
Avaei is relatively new to his current position, having been appointed following President Hassan Rouhani’s re-election in May of last year. But his violent legacy is no secret and neither is the deep-seated irony of the position of “justice minister” in the Islamic Republic.
Rouhani’s predecessor, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, played a similar role in 1988 as a member of the “death commission” in the capital city of Tehran. Pourmohammadi was effectively forced out of the Justice Ministry after newly leaked information about the massacre brought him newfound domestic notoriety.
By replacing him with Avaei, the regime sent the message that it did not foresee any consequences for continued defense of the massacre’s legacy and its perpetrators. And the U.N. Human Rights Council’s decision to provide Avaei with a public forum suggests that the regime could be right about this.
The European Union sanctioned Avaei in October 2011 for his role in torture, politically motivated killings, and other human rights violations, but the value of such measures is greatly diminished when that same person is afforded all the legitimacy of any other official when he asks to speak to the world. The contradictory message is made all the worse when he is invited to speak to the very body that is tasked with protecting the world from people just like him.
Avaei’s welcome before the U.N. Human Rights Council suggests disregard for the council’s mission and founding principles. It sends the worst signal to the survivors of the 1988 massacre and to the families of victims.
If the council is truly to live up to its vitally important purpose, it must do more than promote dialogue about emerging human rights crises; it must also recall attention to those crises that have escaped the public consciousness.
It is sad indeed that instead of giving a voice to mankind’s better nature in this case, the international human rights body would provide a forum for a man and a regime that embody some of the worst human barbarity. It all undermines the credibility of an extremely important body of the United Nations.
Giulio Terzi, a former foreign minister of Italy, is a member of United Against Nuclear Iran's Advisory Board.
If you would like to write an op-ed for the Washington Examiner, please read our guidelines on submissions here.
by Giulio Terzi | Feb 28, 2018, 12:01 AM Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Email this article Share on LinkedIn Print this article
Seyyed Alireza Avaei, minister of justice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, addressed the U.N. Human Rights Council on Tuesday. (Valentin Flauraud/Keystone via APThe United Nations Human Rights Council convened a new session on Monday, and it will no doubt initiate important dialogue on how the world might make life better for all of its people.
With the council now in its 12th year, one wonders whether it could have prevented atrocities and widespread abuses had it been founded much earlier than 2006. The free and democratic nations of the world have shamefully turned a blind eye to mass killings and systematic repression at various points in recent history.
One of the worst instances of past neglect occurred in the summer of 1988, when the Islamic Republic of Iran undertook a campaign of mass executions. An estimated 30,000 political prisoners were killed. Activists made every effort to bring the killings to the attention of Western policymakers and the global media, but few journalists or politicians took up the cause.
Many of the victims’ families remain in the dark about the locations of mass graves where the executed political prisoners were buried. Not one of the officials responsible for the massacre has ever been brought to justice, and many remain in highly influential positions in Iranian government and state-affiliated institutions.
One such figure, Seyyed Alireza Avaei, was given the opportunity to address the U.N. Human Rights Council on Tuesday. The decision to let him do so is a testament to the shameful legacy of silence on Iranian human rights violations.
Avaei now holds the position of justice minister in Iran, having previously served as the judiciary chief in Tehran Province. In 1988, he was a prosecutor for the Revolutionary Court in the city of Dezful. As such, he played a leading role in determining which of that city’s political prisoners would be sent to the gallows in the midst of the nationwide massacre. Testimony from eyewitnesses describes how Avaei personally sent a number of juvenile detainees to be executed in groups.
Avaei is relatively new to his current position, having been appointed following President Hassan Rouhani’s re-election in May of last year. But his violent legacy is no secret and neither is the deep-seated irony of the position of “justice minister” in the Islamic Republic.
Rouhani’s predecessor, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, played a similar role in 1988 as a member of the “death commission” in the capital city of Tehran. Pourmohammadi was effectively forced out of the Justice Ministry after newly leaked information about the massacre brought him newfound domestic notoriety.
By replacing him with Avaei, the regime sent the message that it did not foresee any consequences for continued defense of the massacre’s legacy and its perpetrators. And the U.N. Human Rights Council’s decision to provide Avaei with a public forum suggests that the regime could be right about this.
The European Union sanctioned Avaei in October 2011 for his role in torture, politically motivated killings, and other human rights violations, but the value of such measures is greatly diminished when that same person is afforded all the legitimacy of any other official when he asks to speak to the world. The contradictory message is made all the worse when he is invited to speak to the very body that is tasked with protecting the world from people just like him.
Avaei’s welcome before the U.N. Human Rights Council suggests disregard for the council’s mission and founding principles. It sends the worst signal to the survivors of the 1988 massacre and to the families of victims.
If the council is truly to live up to its vitally important purpose, it must do more than promote dialogue about emerging human rights crises; it must also recall attention to those crises that have escaped the public consciousness.
It is sad indeed that instead of giving a voice to mankind’s better nature in this case, the international human rights body would provide a forum for a man and a regime that embody some of the worst human barbarity. It all undermines the credibility of an extremely important body of the United Nations.
Giulio Terzi, a former foreign minister of Italy, is a member of United Against Nuclear Iran's Advisory Board.
If you would like to write an op-ed for the Washington Examiner, please read our guidelines on submissions here.
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