His Excellency Ban Ki-moon
Secretary General of United Nations
The United Nations
New York, N.Y. 10017
Re: Human Rights Violations by the Theocratic Regime in Iran
Your Excellency,
At the 69th session of the UN General Assembly, world leaders have a historic opportunity to address human rights violations in different hotspots around the world, and to renew their commitments to uphold and respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. While the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, attends the current session and portrays himself as a reform minded statesman, the theocratic regime in Teheran continues its policy of systemic human rights abuses and political suppression at an alarming level. I join my fellow compatriots in urging the international community to hold President Rouhani accountable for the theocratic regime’s ongoing human rights violations.
While the United Nations is uniquely positioned to rally the international community in promoting human rights as a universal value, Iranians expect the UN’s moral leadership in demanding the unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience and an end to public executions in their homeland. We are reminded of the atrocities by the theocratic regime based on daily reports of arbitrary arrests, imprisonments, rapes, tortures, assassination of dissidents, gender and religious discrimination, public executions, and other shameful crimes against humanity.
According to reports by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), the latest atrocity involves the execution of Mohsen Amir Aslani, a prisoner of conscience under falsified charges of ‘insult to the prophet and religion’. This will likely not be the last of public executions and more innocent Iranians are expected to be arbitrarily arrested based on similar charges, unless the world community acts in unison. Over the past thirty-five years, Iranians of different ethnic, religious and other backgrounds have been subjected to inhumane acts of suppression. Religious minorities, including the Sunnis, Baha’is, Christians, Zoroastrians and Jews, are equally victimized.
I urge you and the international community to support the people of Iran in its strive for the release of all prisoners of conscience and an end to public executions. I extend my compatriots’ endless gratitude for the United Nations’ endorsement of its inalienable rights for freedom, and offer our unconditional assistance in realizing the noble ideals entrenched in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Yours sincerely,
Reza Pahlavi
President of the Iran National Council for Free Elections