One year since the State-Sanctioned execution of four Kurdish political prisoners: Enforced Disappearance as a crime against humanity
A year has passed since the state-sanctioned execution of four Kurdish political prisoners—Pejman Fatehi, Vafa Azarbar, Mohammad (Hajir) Faramarzi, and Mohsen Mazloum—members of the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, by the Islamic Republic of Iran. These death sentences were carried out as part of the systematic suppression of political dissent, particularly among Kurds, and represent a blatant example of enforced disappearance, torture, and extrajudicial killings by the Iranian government.
Enforced Disappearance: A tool of repression against Kurdish Political Prisoners
These four political prisoners were sentenced to death on fabricated charges such as “collaboration with Israel” and “terrorism.” Throughout their detention, they were victims of enforced disappearance. Their families were left in the dark about their conditions, and their lawyer was denied access to their case files. The only information publicly available came from forced confessions released by the government to legitimize its repression.
Even after their execution, the Islamic Republic of Iran, in a common practice against Kurdish political prisoners, refused to return their bodies to their families and kept the burial locations secret. This act constitutes a clear crime against humanity and a severe violation of international law.
Enforced Disappearance as a state policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran
The use of enforced disappearance as a tool of repression has a long history in the Islamic Republic of Iran’s policies, especially against Kurdish political prisoners, leftists, Baha’is, and members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI). Similar cases include the enforced disappearance and execution of Farzad Kamangar, Sherko Moarefi, and dozens of other political prisoners who met the same fate.
The Global Community’s responsibility: The time to act is now
The families of these four political prisoners announced on September 30, 2023, that they had filed a complaint with the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances. While this is a crucial step toward justice, it is not enough.
Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, while supporting this complaint and the pursuit of justice for all executed and disappeared individuals, calls on the global community, the United Nations, the European Union, and all human rights organizations to:
1. Recognize enforced disappearance as a systematic crime committed by the Islamic Republic of Iran and condemn it at an international level.
2. Launch independent international investigations into enforced disappearances and the execution of political prisoners in Iran, particularly among Kurds.
3. Hold those responsible for these crimes, including security and judicial officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran, accountable in international courts.
4. Impose more targeted sanctions against individuals involved in enforced disappearances and political executions.
Enforced Disappearance is a crime against humanity
The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2006, defines widespread or systematic enforced disappearance as a crime against humanity. Accordingly, the Islamic Republic of Iran, as a perpetrator of this crime, must be held accountable on an international level.
The global community can no longer remain silent in the face of such atrocities. It is time for the Iranian government to be held accountable for decades of repression, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial executions.
Hengaw Organization for Human Rights
