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Outrage Grows Over Iran Minister of Justice Speaking in Geneva

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The Iranian Minister of Justice is scheduled to speak in front of the United Nations Human Rights Council on February 27 in Geneva. A twitter feed demonstrates the outrage of the international community due to the human rights record of Alireza Avaei.

“Avaei’s presence before the Human Rights Council would be nothing short of a mockery for the UN and would cause irreparable damage to the reputation of the OHCHR,” said the Justice for Victims of 1988 Massacre in Iran (JVMI) on February 20.

Critics have voiced outrage that Avaei, who was blacklisted by the European Union in 2011 for human rights violations, is being invited to speak in front of the Human Rights Council.

“As President of Tehran Judiciary, he has been responsible for human rights violations, arbitrary arrests, denials of prisoners’ rights and increase of executions,” said the EU in a statement in 2011.

Alireza Avaei is among roughly 100 government ministers and other dignitaries from around the world, which are due to address the opening of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s main annual session.

According to exiled members of the Iranian opposition, Avaei played a key role in the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners. Many of the individuals were executed and then buried in mass graves. The Iranian opposition groups put the figure as closer to 30,000. Avaei is banned from traveling to the EU, but the ban from Switzerland is only financial.

“Against this background, Mr. Avaei would be allowed to travel to Switzerland to participate in a UN conference without restrictions,” said Isabel Herkommer, an economic affairs ministry spokeswoman in an email to AFP. “The competent authorities in Switzerland can grant exceptions from travel bans to allow sanctioned persons to participate in international conferences. Such exceptions equally exist in the EU.”

The Iranian Resistance condemns in the strongest terms the planned trip by Avaei. Additionally, they called for his speech to be canceled, as well as for Avaei to face arrest and prosecution for crimes against humanity.

“Avaei was a perpetrator of the 1988 massacre of political prisoners and a member of the Death Commission in Khuzestan Province that sent many political prisoners to execution during the massacre…Allowing Avaei to address the Human Rights Council is disgraceful and would make a mockery of the United Nations and its human rights mechanisms. This must not happen. The world cannot turn a blind eye to crime against humanity,” said Shahin Gobadi, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), in a statement to The Media Express. “In addition to four decades of crimes against humanity, Avaei today as the regime’s Justice Minister bears responsibility for the brutal suppression of recent protests and the arrest of at least 8,000 people, and the torture to death of detainees.”

Part of the issue that critics point to is the fact that Iran has been given impunity from being held responsibility for their human rights violations.

“The only platform in Europe from which Avaei should be allowed to make an address is before the defendant’s stand at an international criminal tribunal,” said Gobadi.

The JVMI also points to Iran’s high execution rate and the fact that many of the individuals involved in the 1988 massacre are involved in the current Iranian administration and other areas of the government, perpetuating the continuing human rights violations and abuses.



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