Joint statement by human rights organizations: Sanctions related to human rights violations in nuclear negotiations should not be lifted

The Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, along with eight other human rights organizations, today issued the following statement regarding the nuclear talks in Vienna. The statement stresses the importance of ensuring that sanctions over the Islamic Republic’s human rights abuses are not lifted during these talks:

We, the human rights organizations signing this letter, call on the governments negotiating with the Islamic Republic of Iran in the nuclear negotiations not to lift the sanctions related to human rights violations by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Sanctions that they have imposed on the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran due to the gross and widespread violations of human rights in Iran. The criminalization of peaceful popular protests, the killing of protesting citizens, the unlawful arrest and imprisonment, and the torture and execution of protesters, dissidents, and civil activists are some of the blatant violations of human rights in Iran.

Also, sanctions against Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi for human rights violations should not be lifted. Ebrahim Raisi has been one of the main human rights violators since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Some of the human rights violations in which Ebrahim Raisi participated have amounted to crimes against humanity.

Ebrahim Raisi was personally present on the "Death Committee," a committee whose members ordered the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners who had previously been tried and were serving sentences in prison in a completely extralegal process.

Since it is impossible to prosecute and punish human rights violators within Iran based on international law, the lifting of sanctions on human rights violations by the Islamic Republic for political expediency sends a dangerous message to all authoritarian and repressive governments around the world: that it will turn a blind eye to human rights violations when the interests of the international community are at stake.

Meanwhile, Ebrahim Raisi's lifting of sanctions over human rights violations demonstrates that heads of state can commit such crimes with impunity.

As negotiations on the resumption of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) have reached a decisive stage, we call on all parties negotiating with the Islamic Republic to adhere to the defense of human rights and international human rights standards as a serious and vital issue, and to view the issue of human rights with the same level and degree of concern as other issues discussed by the parties, regardless of political interests and exigencies.

Human Rights Campaign in Iran

Abdolrahman Boroumand Foundation for Human Rights in Iran

Justice for Iran

Iranian Human Rights Documentation Center

Human Rights Activists in Iran

Unity for Iran

Siamak Pourzand Foundation

Association for the Defense of Human Rights of Azerbaijanis in Iran

Human Rights Association in Iranian Kurdistan - Geneva

Source: Iran Human Rights Campaign