Outrage Over Iranian regime Minister's Presence At UN Rights Meet
2/23/2018 9:37:10 AM
stice for the Victims of 1988 Massacre in Iran Alireza Avaie
Alireza Avaei figures among some 100 government ministers and other dignitaries from around the world due to address the opening of the United Nations Human Rights Council's main annual session.
Geneva, Switzerland, AFP, Feb. 23, 2018 - Critics voiced outrage Thursday that Iran's justice minister will travel to Geneva next week to address the UN's top human rights body despite facing Swiss and EU sanctions over rights violations.
Alireza Avaei figures among some 100 government ministers and other dignitaries from around the world due to address the opening of the United Nations Human Rights Council's main annual session.
Brussels and Bern have slapped sanctions on him, maintaining that as Tehran's former top prosecutor he was 'responsible for human rights violations, arbitrary arrests, denials of prisoners' rights and an increase in executions.'
According to exiled members of the Iranian opposition, he played a key role in a 1988 massacre of political prisoners.
Amnesty International has said nearly 5,000 prisoners were executed in a matter of months, while Iranian opposition groups put the figure closer to 30,000.
'Allowing Avaei to address the Human Rights Council is disgraceful and would make a mockery of the United Nations and its human rights mechanisms,' said Shahin Gobadi, a member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran.
'This must not happen,' he told AFP in an email, also insisting that as the current justice minister of Iran, Avaei 'bears responsibility for the brutal suppression of recent protests' in the country.He said a protest was planned in front of the UN headquarters in Geneva next Tuesday, when Avaei is due to speak.
2/23/2018 9:37:10 AM
stice for the Victims of 1988 Massacre in Iran Alireza Avaie
Alireza Avaei figures among some 100 government ministers and other dignitaries from around the world due to address the opening of the United Nations Human Rights Council's main annual session.
Geneva, Switzerland, AFP, Feb. 23, 2018 - Critics voiced outrage Thursday that Iran's justice minister will travel to Geneva next week to address the UN's top human rights body despite facing Swiss and EU sanctions over rights violations.
Alireza Avaei figures among some 100 government ministers and other dignitaries from around the world due to address the opening of the United Nations Human Rights Council's main annual session.
Brussels and Bern have slapped sanctions on him, maintaining that as Tehran's former top prosecutor he was 'responsible for human rights violations, arbitrary arrests, denials of prisoners' rights and an increase in executions.'
According to exiled members of the Iranian opposition, he played a key role in a 1988 massacre of political prisoners.
Amnesty International has said nearly 5,000 prisoners were executed in a matter of months, while Iranian opposition groups put the figure closer to 30,000.
'Allowing Avaei to address the Human Rights Council is disgraceful and would make a mockery of the United Nations and its human rights mechanisms,' said Shahin Gobadi, a member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran.
'This must not happen,' he told AFP in an email, also insisting that as the current justice minister of Iran, Avaei 'bears responsibility for the brutal suppression of recent protests' in the country.He said a protest was planned in front of the UN headquarters in Geneva next Tuesday, when Avaei is due to speak.
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