LONDON, 28 July 2023 – JVMI is among 110 international NGOs, current and former United Nations officials, human rights and legal experts, and Nobel laureates that have sent an urgent letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, requesting his urgent intervention to prevent the imminent execution of Mohammad Javad Vafa’i Thani, an Iranian boxing champion who is on death row in Iran for taking part in the anti-government protests.
Click here to see the profiles of the urgent letter’s signatories
The text of the letter and list of co-signatories is included below:
H.E. Volker Türk
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
URGENT – BY EMAIL
Copies:
Javaid Rehman, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran
Morris Tidball-Binz, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions
Josep Borrell, EU High Representative/Vice-President
Foreign Ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, United States
19 July 2023
Dear High Commissioner,
We request your urgent public intervention to save the life of Iranian political prisoner Mohammad Javad Vafa’i Thani.
According to information received from Vakil-Abad Prison in the city of Mashhad, earlier this morning a prison judge went to the political prisoners’ ward, where he informed Vafa’i Thani that his execution verdict had been finalised.
Vafa’i Thani was then summoned and taken by a prison guard to an unknown location. There is no further information about his current whereabouts.
Vafa’i Thani, 27, is a local boxing champion in Mashhad and a supporter of the main opposition group People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI or MEK).
He was arrested in March 2020 (Persian calendar month of Esfand 1398) for taking part in the November 2019 anti-government protests. He was tortured for several months and eventually handed down an execution sentence for “efsad-fil-arz” (“corruption on Earth”) by Branch Four of the Mashhad Revolutionary Court.
In recent months, the Iranian authorities have executed at least seven other protesters on similar bogus charges with total impunity. These political executions are a callous attempt by the authorities to frighten and silence an increasingly restive population no longer willing to accept their corrupt and oppressive rule.
We ask that you make an urgent public call for the Iranian authorities to halt Vafa’i Thani’s imminent execution sentence.
Sincerely,
SIGNED:
Individual co-signatories:
Amb. Juan Esteban Aguirre Martinez – (Paraguay)
Foreign Minister of Paraguay (2000-2001); former Ambassador of Paraguay to the United Nations Office in Geneva; Vice President of the UN Human Rights Council (2015)
Hiljmnijeta Apuk – (Kosovo)
Winner, United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights for 2013; Director, Little People of Kosova; Member, Ad Hoc Committee of the UN General Assembly on drafting of the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Dr. Paulo Ilich Bacca – (Colombia)
Deputy Director, Center for Law, Justice and Society, Dejusticia; Lecturer in Legal Theory, Javeriana University
Dr. Maude Barlow – (Canada)
Former Senior Advisor on Water to the President of the United Nations General Assembly; Former Chairperson of the Council of Canadians
Susan Bazilli – (Canada)
UN Expert in the OHCHR examination of the human rights situation in Belarus; Director of International Women’s Rights Project (IWRP)
Sonja Biserko – (Serbia)
Former Member of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights Violations in North Korea (DPRK); Founder and President of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia
Greg Boos – (United States)
Member of the List of Counsel for the International Criminal Court (ICC)
Tahar Boumedra – (United Kingdom)
Justice for the Victims of the 1988 Massacre in Iran (JVMI); former Chief of UNAMI Human Rights Office and Representative of the HCHR in Iraq
Prof. Stephen Eric Bronner – (United States)
Co-Director, International Council for Diplomacy and Dialogue (ICDD); Board of Governors Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Rutgers University; Affiliate Distinguished Fellow, Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights (CGHR), Rutgers University
Andreas Bummel – (Germany)
Executive Director, Democracy Without Borders
Toby Cadman – (United Kingdom)
Co-founder of Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers
Achille Campagna – (San Marino)
Member of the List of Counsel for the International Criminal Court (ICC)
Peter Carter KC – (United Kingdom)
Barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, London; former Chair of Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC); patron of Amicus
Dr. Frank Chalk – (Canada)
Emeritus Professor of History and Founding Co-director, The Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, Concordia University; President, the Association of Genocide Scholars (1999-2001)
Prof. Sara Chandler KC – (United Kingdom)
Secretary to the Human Rights Commission of the European Bars Federation (Fédération des Barreaux d’Europe – FBE) and Former President of the FBE; Former Chair of the Human Rights Committee, Law Society of England & Wales
Prof. Angana Chatterji – (United States)
Co-chair, Initiative on Political Conflict, Gender and People’s Rights, Center for Race and Gender, University of California, Berkeley
Prof. Rebecca Cook – (Canada)
Professor Emerita, Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto
Rabbi Abraham Cooper – (United States)
Chair, United States Commission on International Religious Freedom; Associate Dean, Simon Wiesenthal Center
Prof. François Crépeau – (Canada)
Former UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants (2011-2017); Faculty of Law, McGill University
Maud De Boer-Buquicchio – (The Netherlands)
UN Special Rapporteur on the Sale and Sexual Exploitation of Children (2014-2020); former Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe
Prof. José Luís da Cruz Vilaça – (Portugal)
President of the Court of First Instance of the European Communities (1989-1995); Judge of the Court of Justice of the European Union (2012-2018); Member of the Portuguese Government (1980-1983); Professor of EU Law; Attorney at law, founder and managing partner of Cruz Vilaça Advogados
Prof. Theresia Degener – (Germany)
Former Chairperson, UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD); Director of Bochum Center for Disability Studies (BODYS)
Prof. Brice Dickson – (United Kingdom)
Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (1999-2005); Professor of International and Comparative Law, Queen’s University Belfast (QUB)
Prof. Predrag Dojčinović – (United States)
Adjunct Professor and Research Affiliate at the Human Rights Institute at the University of Connecticut; War Crimes expert at the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) (1998-2017)
Clair Duffy – (Australia)
Former Prosecution Appeals Counsel, UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)
Prof. Ariel E. Dulitzky – (Argentina)
Former Chair-Rapporteur of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID); Director of the Human Rights Clinic of the School of Law at University of Texas at Austin
Prof. Debórah Dwork – (United States)
Director, Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity at The Graduate Center—City University of New York (CUNY)
Prof. Hilary Earl – (Canada)
Professor of European History and Genocide Studies, Nipissing University; former Member of the Advisory Board, International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS)
Sir David Edward KCMG KC – (United Kingdom)
Judge, European Court of Justice (1992-2004); Professor Emeritus, University of Edinburgh
Tracy Edwards MBE – (United Kingdom)
Founder, The Maiden Factor
Nigel Edwards KC – (United Kingdom)
Head of International Law, 33 Bedford Row
Amb. Amanda Ellis – (New Zealand)
Ambassador and Permanent Representative of New Zealand to the UN in Geneva (2013-2016)
Dr. Mark Ellis – (United Kingdom)
Executive Director, International Bar Association (IBA); former Chair of the UN Advisory Panel on Matters Relating to Defence Counsel of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals
Prof. Felicity Gerry KC – (United Kingdom)
Barrister, Libertas Chambers; Professor of Legal Practice, Deakin University; Member of the List of Counsel for the International Criminal Court (ICC)
Prof. Sheldon Glashow – (United States)
1979 Nobel Laureate in Physics
Prof. Robert K. Goldman – (United States)
Former UN Independent Expert on the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism; President, International Commission of Jurists (ICJ); Former President and member, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR); Professor of Law & Louis C James Scholar, Washington College of Law, American University
Hon. Richard J. Goldstone – (South Africa)
Former Judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa; Former Chief Prosecutor of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda; Honorary President of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI)
Prof. Giovanni Grasso – (Italy)
Former International Judge of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina; former Judge of the Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia and Herzegovina
Prof. Nicholas Grief – (United Kingdom)
Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Kent; Barrister, Doughty Street Chambers
Anand Grover – (India)
UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health (2008-2014); Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India; Adjunct Professor, Georgetown Law Center, Georgetown University, Washington; Member, Global Commission on Drug Policy; Director, Lawyers Collective
Prof. Oliver Hart – (United States)
2016 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences
Prof. Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann – (Canada)
Professor Emerita, Wilfrid Laurier University; Canada Research Chair in International Human Rights (2003-2016); Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
Prof. Okechukwu Ibeanu – (Nigeria)
Former UN Special Rapporteur on Toxics and Human Rights (2004-2010)
Dr. Steven Leonard Jacobs – (United States)
Professor of Religious Studies, University of Alabama; former First Vice-President, International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS)
Elfriede Jelinek – (Austria)
2004 Nobel Laureate in Literature
Abbé Jolles – (United States)
International Human Rights Litigator
Dr. Ellen J. Kennedy – (United States)
Executive Director, World Without Genocide
Hon. Michael Kirby – (Australia)
Former Chair of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights Violations in North Korea (DPRK), former UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Cambodia (1993-1996), former Justice of the High Court of Australia
Amb. Filloreta Kodra – (Albania)
Former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Albania to the United Nations in Geneva
Prof. Roger Kornberg – (United States)
2006 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
Dr. Élise Le Gall – (France)
President, French Association for the Promotion of Universal Jurisdiction – Association Française pour la Promotion de la Compétence Universelle (AFPCU); Member of the List of Counsel for the International Criminal Court (ICC)
Alastair Logan OBE, LL.B – (United Kingdom)
Chair, Solicitors International Human Rights Group; Council Member of The Law Society of England and Wales
Prof. Rashida Manjoo – (South Africa)
UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its Causes and Consequences (2009-2015); Emeritus Professor, University of Cape Town
Prof. Juan Carlos Manriquez – (Chile)
Member of the List of Counsel for the International Criminal Court (ICC); Professor of Criminal Law, Criminal Proceedings and International Criminal Law
Amb. Zorica Marić-Djordjević – (Montenegro)
Ambassador of Montenegro to the UN Human Rights Council and World Trade Organization (2013-2018); Senior Peace Fellow at PILPG
Irene Victoria Massimino – (Argentina)
Co-President of the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention; Professor of Jurisprudence and Human Rights; Former High Criminal Court Rapporteur of Buenos Aires, Argentina (2016-2020)
David Matas – (Canada)
Human rights lawyer and Co-Founder of International Coalition To End Transplant Abuse In China
Kyle Matthews – (Canada)
Executive Director of the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS) at Concordia University
Oleksandra Matviichuk – (Ukraine)
2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate; Head of Center for Civil Liberties (CCL)
Prof. Michel Mayor – (Switzerland)
2019 Nobel Laureate in Physics
Prof. Timothy Patrick McCarthy – (United States)
Lecturer on Education, Harvard University; Faculty Affiliate at the Center for Public Leadership and Carr Center for Human Rights Policy
R. Bruce McColm – (United States)
President, Institute for Democratic Strategies; former Executive Director, Freedom House
Dr. James Mehigan – (Ireland / United States)
Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Canterbury; Barrister, Garden Court Chambers; Member of the List of Counsel for the International Criminal Court (ICC)
Professor Errol P. Mendes – (Canada)
President, International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Canadian Section; Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa; Editor-in-Chief, National Journal of Constitutional Law; Latest Book: Peace and Justice at the International Criminal Court, 2020
Prof. Alexander Motyl – (United States)
Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University
Kumi Naidoo – (South Africa)
Secretary General, Amnesty International (2018-2020)
Tali Nates – (South Africa)
Founder and Executive Director, Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Center
Prof. Sir Geoffrey Nice KC – (United Kingdom)
Chair Uyghur Tribunal; Chair China Tribunal; Lead prosecutor at the trial of Slobodan Milošević in The Hague; prosecuted the case of Bosnian Croat Dario Kordić at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), successfully prosecuted Goran Jelisić at the ICTY
Dr. Melanie O’Brien – (Australia)
President, International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS); Associate Professor of International Law, University of Western Australia
Prof. Rory O’Connell – (United Kingdom)
Professor of Human Rights and Constitutional Law, Transitional Justice Institute (TJI) & School of Law, Ulster University
Stanislav Pavlovschi – (Moldova)
Minister of Justice of Moldova (2019); Judge, European Court of Human Rights (2001-2008)
Dainius Pūras – (Lithuania)
Former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health (2014-2020); Chairman of the Coordination Committee of the Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council (2018-2019); Director of the Human Rights Monitoring Institute / VŠĮ Žmogaus Teisių Stebėjimo Institutas
Elisabeth Rabesandratana – (France)
Member of the List of Counsel for the International Criminal Court (ICC)
Amb. Stephen J. Rapp – (United States)
US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice (2009-2015); Prosecutor of the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) (2007-2009); Senior Fellow at Center for the Prevention of Genocide of US Holocaust Memorial Museum and at Center for Ethics, Law & Armed Conflict (ELAC) of Oxford University
Sir Richard J. Roberts Ph.D. F.R.S. – (United Kingdom)
1993 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine
Geoffrey Robertson AO KC – (Australia)
First President, UN Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL); ‘Distinguished jurist’ on the UN Internal Justice Council (2008-2012); Founder and Head, Doughty Street Chambers; author ‘Crimes Against Humanity,’ ‘Mullahs without Mercy’ and ‘The Massacre of Political Prisoners in Iran, 1988’
Amb. Joachim Rücker – (Germany)
President of the UN Human Rights Council (2015); Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Germany to the UN in Geneva (2014-2016); Inspector General of the Federal Foreign Office (2011-2014); Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) (2006-2008)
David Russell – (United Kingdom)
UK Coordinator, Survivors Fund (SURF)
Hamid Sabi – (United Kingdom)
London-based human rights lawyer who has served the Iran Tribunal, Aban Tribunal, China Tribunal and Uyghur Tribunal
Prof. Pierre Sané – (Senegal)
Secretary General, Amnesty International (1992-2001); Assistant Director-General, UNESCO (2001-2010)
Dr. Victoria Sanford – (United States)
Founding Director, Center for Human Rights & Peace Studies at Lehman College-City University of New York (CUNI); Lehman Professor of Excellence, 2021-2024
Prof. Jeremy Sarkin – (South Africa)
Former Chair-Rapporteur of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID)
Prof. Jean-Pierre Sauvage – (France)
2016 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
Prof. William A. Schabas – (Canada)
Chair of the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict (2014-2015); Member of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2002-2004); Chair of the Board of Trustees at the UN Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation in the Field of Human Rights (2009-2011); President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (2009-2011); President of the Institute for International Criminal Investigation (2021-present); Professor of international law at Middlesex University in London; Professor emeritus, Leiden University; professor emeritus, University of Galway
Prof. Steven M. Schneebaum – (United States)
International Law and Organizations Program, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), The Johns Hopkins University
Dr. Karen Smith – (South Africa)
United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Special Adviser of the UN Secretary-General on the Responsibility to Protect (2019-2021)
Judge Sang-Hyun Song – (South Korea)
President of the International Criminal Court (ICC) (2009-2015)
Mélanie Sonhaye-Kombate – (Togo)
Executive Director, West Africa Human Rights Defenders Network (WAHRDN / ROADDH)
Eric Sottas – (Switzerland)
Founder and former Secretary General of Organisation Mondiale Contre la Torture – World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)
Dr. Victor Tsilonis – (Greece)
Member of ICC Appeals Disciplinary Board (2023-2027); Greece’s 2020 ICC Judicial Nominee; Executive Council Member of the International Criminal Court Bar Association (ICCBA); Member of the List of Counsel for the International Criminal Court (ICC); Academic tutor at the Hellenic Open University
Dr. Elisa von Joeden-Forgey – (United States)
Executive Director, Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention; Endowed Chair, Department of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Keene State College
Amos Waldman – (United Kingdom)
Barrister at Doughty Street Chambers; Member of the List of Counsel for the International Criminal Court (ICC)
Prof. Jerry P. White – (Canada)
Professor Emeritus, Sociology, Western University; Director, Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium
Dr. Rowan Williams – (United Kingdom)
Former Archbishop of Canterbury; former Master of Magdalene College, University of Cambridge
Sir Gregory P. Winter – (United Kingdom)
2018 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
James Wood KC – (United Kingdom)
Barrister at Doughty Street Chambers; Member of the List of Counsel for the International Criminal Court (ICC)
Prof. Jennifer Wright Knust – (United Kingdom)
Professor of Religious Studies, Duke University; Director, Elizabeth A. Clark Center for Late Ancient Studies; Co-Director, Franklin Humanities Institute Manuscript Migration Lab
Amb. François Zimeray – (France)
French Human Rights Ambassador-at-large (2008-2013); Member of the European Parliament (1999-2004); Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark (2013-2018)
Co-signatory NGOs and institutions:
Justice for the Victims of the 1988 Massacre in Iran (JVMI) – (United Kingdom)
The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention – (United States)
CIVICUS – (South Africa)
German Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (GCADP) – (Germany)
Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS) – Concordia University – (Canada)
Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity, The Graduate Center—City University of New York (CUNY) – (United States)
Women’s Network for Change (WNC) – (France)
World Without Genocide – (United States)
Les Femmes, La Force du Changement – (France)
Community Work Ireland (CWI) – (Ireland)
Greater Caribbean for Life – (Puerto Rico)
NGO Little People of Kosova – (Kosovo)