United Against Executions in Iran /Unis contre les exécutions en Iran Newsletter: Latest Update
(Issue 3) April 5 2024
Many Iranians face imminent execution. They need help not in a month, but now. Yet the time and energy spent becoming familiar with these cases, responding to Urgent Actions, writing letters of support that one hopes will eventually reach the victims or their families, comes at the expense of the time and energy one needs for the long-term strategies one hopes will change minds if not regimes.
How do we address the concerns of the Iranian diaspora for the men and women whose lives are hanging in the balance and still deal with the head-scratching challenge of shifting Iran’s entire future away from these monstrous abuses. The brief answer is: collectively.
In the short term, we have the case of Abbas Deris. The Tri-cities Amnesty group is taking action to halt his execution. Sohila Sherbafi reports recent developments around an Urgent Action letter the group sent to the offices of Liberal Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam MP Mr Ron McKinnon and Ms Melanie Joly, the Foreign Minister, on March 8th, 2024. She writes:
‘I received a response from Mr. McKinnon on March 27th. In his letter, Mr. McKinnon acknowledged the human rights violations in Iran and emphasized Canada’s commitment to maintain sanctions on Iran, including through the Special Economic Measures Act. (https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/international_relations-relations_internationales/sanctions/iran.aspx?lang=eng) He also recommended directing our concerns to Seyyed Mohammad Ali Rabat Jezi, the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Brussels. In addition to the above-mentioned letters, a paper petition was prepared by Tri-Cities Amnesty on March 11th and presented at two events, collecting a total of 41 signatures. The petition was scanned and emailed to the offices of Mr. McKinnon and the Foreign Minister. As of now, we have not received a response regarding the second petition.’
What are We Doing…
…about a regime that has already ‘priced in’ the social and political cost of the x-number of Iranians who are yet children or not even born who will be seized à la Mahsa Amini, accused of committing terror, murder, and crimes against God, and made to disappear or serve lengthy prison sentences or be hanged? What are we doing about a regime that when judged by the terms of the Constitution of Iran (1979 – read Chapter III, The Rights of the People) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is one of the world’s worst human rights violators? What are we doing about a regime that rewards its regime officials and loyalists for the crimes they commit with handsome compensation and immunity from prosecution?
We are drafting two petitions to Government of Canada.
Iran’s use of execution. We are asking the government of the day to address Iran’s use of the death penalty; to employ all the tools at its disposal, and invent tools if need be, to shed light on Iran’s human rights abuses, to demand that Iran be held accountable to its domestic and international obligations, to use Canada’s once-vaunted middle-power to bring a clear, coherent, urgent, multi-national campaign that Iran cannot afford to ignore.
The second deals with the laxness of Canadian immigration that allows Iranian officials and former officials to travel and live in Canada while threatening the rights of 400,000 Iranian-Canadians to peaceful assembly and peaceful expression of their criticisms of the Iranian regime. The FBI and US State Department are reportedly treating Canada as the second most dangerous place to be Iranian next to Iran itself.
What are we asking of this network?
We began the process by meeting with a few MPs. They have all stated their willingness to authorize our petitions. Once published, we will begin our campaign for at least 500 signatures for each.
At present we are in Lower Mainland British Columbia, Regina, Saskatoon, Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Quebec City. But the MPs representing these regions make up a fraction of the total of 338. Which says nothing about the 105 Senators. It’s our goal to get the same profile for Iran as people like Conservative MP Michael Chong have gotten for China human rights abuses, its retaliatory intrusions in the lives of Chinese-Canadians.
But we need to find ways to get our message to people living in other regions. How do we do that? Who do we know who might help? What can you suggest?
The windows of opportunity to meet our MPs face-to-face are April 20-28, May 11-20, June 22-September 16.
Let’s remember that the Liberal Government mandate expires in just over a year. The ‘soft’ campaigning has already begun.
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‘Call for joint action to stop drug-related executions in Iran’
Katyoun Navabi has provided this appeal from Dr Amiry-Moghaddam. He is a medical researcher at the University of Oslo and award-winning human rights defender.
He writes: ‘The death penalty or state murder is the Islamic Republic’s most important tool for instilling societal fear to maintain power. Executions in Iran increased dramatically following the “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising, with at least 834 people executed in 2023.
In 2023, more than half of all recorded executions in Iran were for drug-related charges. At least 471 people were executed without any backlash or political cost for the Islamic Republic. The majority of those executed are from deprived and marginalized communities. The number of executions carried out in the ethnic regions, particularly the Kurd and Baluch, is disproportionally high compared to their population. In 2023, a third of those executed for drug-related charges were Baluch people.
Drug defendants are sentenced to death by Revolutionary Courts based on torture-tainted confessions, without due process and fair trial rights and often without access to a lawyer.
Drug-related executions have not received appropriate international reaction and their daily implementation is met with media silence. This has led to the authorities carrying out 18 times more drug executions in 2023 compared to 2020 with the lowest political cost.
On the other hand, the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) which cooperates with Iran in combating drug trafficking, has not only remained silent about the sharp hike in drug executions, but signed a new agreement with the Islamic Republic in May 2023. In addition to legitimizing the state’s use of the death penalty, this cooperation also leads to more executions through financial aid and equipment.
We are concerned that hundreds more will be executed in the coming months if we do not increase the political cost of these executions for the Islamic Republic. We call on all human rights organizations and activists to take part in a special global campaign to stop drug-related executions in Iran.
The aim of the campaign is to echo the voice of the most voiceless victims of the Islamic Republic’s execution and intimidation machine. We also urge the UNODC to make any cooperation with the Islamic Republic contingent on a complete halt on drug-related executions.