Justice for the Victims of the 1988 Massacre in Iran (JVMI)
Press Release | London – 19 November 2025
Justice for the Victims of the 1988 Massacre in Iran (JVMI) welcomes today’s landmark vote at the United Nations General Assembly’s Third Committee adopting resolution A/C.3/80/L.30, which for the first time acknowledges the 1988 massacre of thousands of political prisoners in Iran. This step should have occurred long ago. UN Member States should now take urgent action to end impunity in Iran.
Paragraph 29 of the resolution states:
“29. Expresses serious concern at the lack of accountability of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran in response to long-standing human rights violations involving the Iranian judiciary and security agencies, including ongoing enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions and the destruction of evidence and grave sites, whereby the lack of accountability of authorities enables the potential for violations to reoccur and persist, as well as ongoing systemic impunity for human rights violations, and expresses concern about reports of incitement to discrimination, hostility and violence in State-linked Persian and Arabic media outlets, echoing the 1988 reported summary and arbitrary executions;”
For nearly a decade, since July 2016, JVMI has campaigned tirelessly for international recognition of these atrocity crimes and accountability for their perpetrators. In 2024, the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran concluded after a six year investigation that the extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances of 1988 constitute ongoing crimes against humanity and genocide.
This recognition comes at a critical moment. On 7 July 2025, Fars News, affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, openly called for a repeat of the 1988 executions. On 27 July 2025, political prisoners Mehdi Hassani and Behrouz Ehsani were executed solely for their affiliation with the opposition People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI or MEK). At least 17 other political prisoners have been sentenced to execution in recent months for alleged affiliation with the PMOI.
“Today’s vote must be more than symbolic. With Iran’s authorities threatening to repeat the 1988 massacre, the international community has a duty to prevent the execution of political prisoners. Governments must move beyond words to ensure accountability for Iranian officials, end systemic impunity, and prevent further executions of dissidents,” said JVMI President Tahar Boumedra.
JVMI urges all UN member states to support the resolution when it reaches the General Assembly plenary in December and to immediately open criminal investigations against Iranian officials implicated in the 1988 crimes and ongoing execution spree in Iran, particularly targeting political dissidents.
Background to the 1988 Massacre:
In 1988, the government of Iran massacred an estimated 30,000 political and ideological prisoners. The extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances took place based on a fatwa by then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, targeting the PMOI. Three-member commissions known as ‘Death Commissions’ were formed across Iran, sending political prisoners who refused to abandon their beliefs to execution. Members of other leftist groups were also executed in a subsequent second wave. The victims were buried in secret mass graves. The perpetrators continue to enjoy impunity.