Statement by UN experts on Iran’s disinformation campaign against former UN Special Rapporteur - September 2024
London, 9 September 2024 – More than 50 distinguished UN experts and Nobel laureates have published a statement denouncing an Iranian disinformation campaign targeting former UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, Prof. Javaid Rehman.
Distinguished Signatories
Sang-Hyun Song
President of the International Criminal Court (ICC) (2009-2015) - (South Korea)
Joachim Rücker
President of the UN Human Rights Council (2015); Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Germany to the UN in Geneva (2014-2016); Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) (2006-2008) - (Germany)
Mark Ellis
Executive Director, International Bar Association (IBA) - (United Kingdom)
Robert K. Goldman
President, International Commission of Jurists (ICJ); UN Independent Expert on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism (2004-2005); Former President, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) - (United States)
Melanie O'Brien
President, International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) - (Australia)
Dainius Pūras
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 - (Lithuania)
Clément Voule
UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association (2018-2024) - (Togo)
Oleksandra Matviichuk
2022 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate - (Ukraine)
Jody Williams
1997 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate - (United States)
Karen Smith
UN Assistant Secretary-General and Special Adviser of the UN Secretary-General on the Responsibility to Protect (2019-2021) - (South Africa)
Yasmin Sooka
Chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan (2016-present) - (South Africa)
Wolfgang Schomburg
Judge, UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) (2001-2008); former Judge, UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR); Judge, Federal Supreme Court of Germany (1995–2000) - (Germany)
Ana Brian Nougrères
UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy (2021-present)- (Uruguay)
Jan Pronk
Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sudan (2004-2006); Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations (1985-1986) - (The Netherlands)
Gabriela Knaul
UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers (2009-2015) - (Brazil)
François Crépeau
UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants (2011-2017) - (Canada)
Richard J. Goldstone
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; Chair of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (2009-2010) - (South Africa)
Heiner Bielefeldt
UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief (2010-2016); former Director, German Institute for Human Rights / Deutsche Institut für Menschenrechte (DIMR) - (Germany)
Maud De Boer-Buquicchio
UN Special Rapporteur on the Sale and Sexual Exploitation of Children (2014-2020); former Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe - (The Netherlands)
Miriam Ekiudoko
Member of the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent (2021-present)- (Hungary)
Amb. Hans Corell
Former Judge of Appeal; Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and the Legal Counsel of the United Nations (1994-2004) - (Sweden)
Michael Lynk
UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories (2016-2022) - (Canada)
Livingstone Sewanyana
UN Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order (2018-2024) - (Uganda)
Anand Grover
UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health (2008-2014) - (India)
Urmila Bhoola
UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery (2014-2020) - (South Africa)
Jean Ziegler
UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food (2000-2008); former Vice-President of the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee - (Switzerland)
Susan Bazilli
Member, UN Group of Independent Experts on the Human Rights Situation in Belarus (2024-present) - (Canada)
Dominique Day
Member of the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent (2018-present) - (United States)
Mike Smith
Chair of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea (2014-2016); Chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights (2004); Assistant Secretary-General of the UN in New York and Executive Director of the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (2007-2013); Permanent Representative of Australia to the UN in Geneva (2002-2006) - (Australia)
David M. Crane
Founding Chief Prosecutor, UN Special Court for Sierra Leone - (United States)
Alda M. Facio
Chair-Rapporteur and Member of the UN Working Group on Discrimination Against Women and Girls (2014-2020) - (Costa Rica)
Anne Ramberg
Co-Chair, International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI); Ad hoc Judge, European Court of Human Rights (ECHR); Board Member, European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights - (Sweden)
Jelena Aparac
Chair-Rapporteur and Member of the UN Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries (2018-2023) - (Croatia)
Henrikas Mickevičius
Member, UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) (2015-2022) - (Lithuania)
Sètondji Roland Adjovi
Member, UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (2014-2020) - (Benin)
Monika Płatek
UN Expert, OHCHR Examination of the Human Rights Situation in Belarus (2023-present) - (Poland)
Sonja Biserko
Member, UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (2013-2014); Founder and President of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia - (Serbia)
Gabor Rona
Chair-Rapporteur/Member of the UN Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries (2011-2019) - (United States)
Alexandro Álvarez
UN Expert, Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua (2022-2023) - (Chile)
Fernand de Varennes
UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues (2017-2023) - (Canada)
Apuk Hiljmnijeta
Winner, United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights for 2013 - (Kosovo)
Lincoln P. Bloomfield Jr.
US Special Envoy (2008-2009); US Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs (2001-2005) - (United States)
Steven M. Schneebaum
Adjunct Professor of International Law, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), The Johns Hopkins University - (United States)
Kenneth Lewis
Lawyer for the PMOI in the Swedish trial of former Iranian prison official Hamid Noury - (Sweden)
Tahar Boumedra
President, 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 - (United Kingdom)
Claudio Grossman
Special Adviser to the ICC Prosecutor (2021-present); Member, UN International Law Commission (ILC) (2016-present); President, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) (1996, 2001); Chair, UN Committee against Torture (CAT) (4 terms, from 2008-2015) - (Chile)
Christian Tomuschat
President of the OSCE Court of Conciliation and Arbitration (2013-2019); Member of the UN Human Rights Committee (1977-1986); Chairman/Member of the UN International Law Commission (1985-1996); Rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Commission on the Human Rights Situation in Guatemala (1990-1993) - (Germany)
Martti Koskenniemi
Member of the UN International Law Commission (2002-2006) - (Finland)
Houria Esslami
Chair-Rapporteur and Member of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) (2014-2020) - (Morocco)
Stefan Trechsel
President of the European Commission of Human Rights (1995–1999); Judge, UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) (2006-2013) - (Switzerland)
Okechukwu Ibeanu
Former UN Special Rapporteur on Toxics and Human Rights (2004-2010) - (Nigeria)
Melissa Parke
Member, UN Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen (2017–2021) - (Australia)