Signatories of urgent letter to UN to save the life of Iranian boxer on death row
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 read the text of the letter.
Here are the 110 distinguished signatories:
Co-Signatory NGOs
Distinguished Signatories
Amb. Juan Esteban Aguirre Martinez
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) – (Paraguay)
Hiljmnijeta Apuk
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 – (Kosovo)
Paulo Ilich Bacca
Deputy Director, Center for Law, Justice and Society, Dejusticia; Lecturer in Legal Theory, Javeriana University – (Colombia)
Maude Barlow
Former Senior Advisor on Water to the President of the United Nations General Assembly; Former Chairperson of the Council of Canadians – (Canada)
Susan Bazilli
UN Expert in the OHCHR examination of the human rights situation in Belarus; Director of International Women’s Rights Project (IWRP) – (Canada)
Sonja Biserko
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 – (Serbia)
Greg Boos
Member of the List of Counsel for the International Criminal Court (ICC) – (United States)
Tahar Boumedra
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)
Stephen E. Bronner
Co-Director, International Council for Diplomacy and Dialogue (ICDD); Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Rutgers University – (United States)
Andreas Bummel
Executive Director, Democracy Without Borders – (Germany)
Toby Cadman
Co-founder of Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers – (United Kingdom)
Achille Campagna
Member of the List of Counsel for the International Criminal Court (ICC) – (San Marino)
Peter Carter KC
Barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, London; former Chair of Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC); patron of Amicus – (United Kingdom)
Frank Chalk
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) – (Canada)
Sara Chandler KC
Secretary to the Human Rights Commission of the European Bars Federation (FBE) and Former President of the FBE; Former Chair of the Human Rights Committee, Law Society of England & Wales – (United Kingdom)
Angana Chatterji
Co-chair, Initiative on Political Conflict, Gender and People's Rights, Center for Race and Gender, University of California, Berkeley – (United States)
Rebecca Cook
Professor Emerita, Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto – (Canada)
Rabbi Abraham Cooper
Chair, United States Commission on International Religious Freedom; Associate Dean, Simon Wiesenthal Center – (United States)
François Crépeau
Former UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants (2011-2017); Faculty of Law, McGill University – (Canada)
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)
José Luís da Cruz Vilaça
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); Professor of EU Law – (Portugal)
Theresia Degener
Former Chairperson, UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD); Director of Bochum Center for Disability Studies (BODYS) – (Germany)
Brice Dickson
Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (1999-2005); Professor of International and Comparative Law, Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) – (United Kingdom)
Predrag Dojčinović
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) – (United States)
Clair Duffy
Former Prosecution Appeals Counsel, UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) – (Australia)
Ariel E. Dulitzky
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 – (Argentina)
Debórah Dwork
Director, Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity at The Graduate Center—City University of New York (CUNY) – (United States)
Hilary Earl
Professor of European History and Genocide Studies, Nipissing University; former Member of the Advisory Board, International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) – ((Canada))
Sir David Edward KCMG KC
Judge, European Court of Justice (1992-2004); Professor Emeritus, University of Edinburgh – (United Kingdom)
Tracy Edwards MBE
Founder, The Maiden Factor – (United Kingdom)
Nigel Edwards KC
Head of International Law, 33 Bedford Row – (United Kingdom)
Amb. Amanda Ellis
Ambassador and Permanent Representative of New Zealand to the UN in Geneva (2013-2016) – (New Zealand)
Mark Ellis
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 – (United Kingdom)
Felicity Gerry KC
Barrister, Libertas Chambers; Professor of Legal Practice, Deakin University; Member of the List of Counsel for the International Criminal Court (ICC) – (United Kingdom)
Sheldon Glashow
1979 Nobel Laureate in Physics – (United States)
Robert K. Goldman
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, Washington College of Law, American University – (United States)
Hon. 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; Honorary President of the International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) – (South Africa)
Giovanni Grasso
Former International Judge of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina; former Judge of the Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia and Herzegovina – (Italy)
Nicholas Grief
Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Kent; Barrister, Doughty Street Chambers – (United Kingdom)
Anand Grover
UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health (2008-2014); Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India; Adjunct Professor, Georgetown Law Center, Georgetown University; Director, Lawyers Collective – (India)
Oliver Hart
2016 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences – (United States)
Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann
Professor Emerita, Wilfrid Laurier University; Canada Research Chair in International Human Rights (2003-2016); Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada – (Canada)
Okechukwu Ibeanu
Former UN Special Rapporteur on Toxics and Human Rights (2004-2010) – (Nigeria)
Steven Leonard Jacobs
Professor of Religious Studies, University of Alabama; former First Vice-President, International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) – (United States)
Elfriede Jelinek
2004 Nobel Laureate in Literature – (Austria)
Abbé Jolles
International Human Rights Litigator – (United States)
Ellen J. Kennedy
Executive Director, World Without Genocide – (United States)
Michael Kirby
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
Former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Albania to the United Nations in Geneva – (Albania)
Roger Kornberg
2006 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry – (United States)
Élise Le Gall
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) – (France)
Alastair Logan OBE
Chair, Solicitors International Human Rights Group; Council Member of The Law Society of England and Wales – (United Kingdom)
Rashida Manjoo
UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its Causes and Consequences (2009-2015); Emeritus Professor, University of Cape Town – (South Africa)
Juan Carlos Manriquez
Member of the List of Counsel for the International Criminal Court (ICC); Professor of Criminal Law, Criminal Proceedings and International Criminal Law – (Chile)
Amb. Zorica Marić-Djordjević
Ambassador of Montenegro to the UN Human Rights Council and World Trade Organization (2013-2018); Senior Peace Fellow at PILPG – (Montenegro)
Irene Victoria Massimino
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) – (Argentina)
David Matas
Human rights lawyer and Co-Founder of International Coalition To End Transplant Abuse In China – (Canada)
Kyle Matthews
Executive Director of the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS) at Concordia University – (Canada)
Oleksandra Matviichuk
2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate; Head of Center for Civil Liberties (CCL) – (Ukraine)
Michel Mayor
2019 Nobel Laureate in Physics – (Switzerland)
Timothy Patrick McCarthy
Lecturer on Education, Harvard University; Faculty Affiliate at the Center for Public Leadership and Carr Center for Human Rights Policy – (United States)
R. Bruce McColm
President, Institute for Democratic Strategies; former Executive Director, Freedom House – (United States)
James Mehigan
Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Canterbury; Barrister, Garden Court Chambers; Member of the List of Counsel for the International Criminal Court (ICC) – (Ireland / United States)
Errol P. Mendes
President, International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Canadian Section; Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa – (Canada)
Alexander Motyl
Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University – (United States)
Kumi Naidoo
Secretary General, Amnesty International (2018-2020) – (South Africa)
Tali Nates
Founder and Executive Director, Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Center – (South Africa)
Sir Geoffrey Nice KC
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 – (United Kingdom)
Melanie O'Brien
President, International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS); Associate Professor of International Law, University of Western Australia – (Australia)
Rory O’Connell
Professor of Human Rights and Constitutional Law, Transitional Justice Institute (TJI) & School of Law, Ulster University – (United Kingdom)
Stanislav Pavlovschi
Minister of Justice of Moldova (2019); Judge, European Court of Human Rights (2001-2008) – (Moldova)
Dainius Pūras
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 – (Lithuania)
Elisabeth Rabesandratana
Member of the List of Counsel for the International Criminal Court (ICC) – (France)
Amb. Stephen J. Rapp
US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice (2009-2015); Prosecutor of the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) (2007-2009) – (United States)
Sir Richard J. Roberts
1993 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine – (United Kingdom)
Geoffrey Robertson AO KC
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 – (Australia)
Amb. Joachim Rücker
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) – (Germany)
David Russell
UK Coordinator, Survivors Fund (SURF) – (United Kingdom)
Hamid Sabi
London-based human rights lawyer who has served the Iran Tribunal, Aban Tribunal, China Tribunal and Uyghur Tribunal – (United Kingdom)
Pierre Sané
Secretary General, Amnesty International (1992-2001); Assistant Director-General, UNESCO (2001-2010) – (Senegal)
Victoria Sanford
Founding Director, Center for Human Rights & Peace Studies at Lehman College-City University of New York (CUNI); Lehman Professor of Excellence, 2021-2024 – (United States)
Jeremy Sarkin
Former Chair-Rapporteur of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) – (South Africa)
Jean-Pierre Sauvage
2016 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry – (France)
William A. Schabas
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); Professor of international law at Middlesex University in London – (Canada)
Steven M. Schneebaum
International Law and Organizations Program, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), The Johns Hopkins University – (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)
Judge Sang-Hyun Song
President of the International Criminal Court (ICC) (2009-2015) – (South Korea)
Mélanie Sonhaye-Kombate
Executive Director, West Africa Human Rights Defenders Network (WAHRDN / ROADDH) – (Togo)
Eric Sottas
Founder and former Secretary General of Organisation Mondiale Contre la Torture - World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) – (Switzerland)
Victor Tsilonis
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) – (Greece)
Elisa von Joeden-Forgey
Executive Director, Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention; Endowed Chair, Department of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Keene State College – (United States)
Amos Waldman
Barrister at Doughty Street Chambers; Member of the List of Counsel for the International Criminal Court (ICC) – (United Kingdom)
Jerry P. White
Professor Emeritus, Sociology, Western University; Director, Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium – (Canada)
Dr. Rowan Williams
Former Archbishop of Canterbury; former Master of Magdalene College, University of Cambridge – (United Kingdom)
Sir Gregory P. Winter
2018 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry – (United Kingdom)
James Wood KC
Barrister at Doughty Street Chambers; Member of the List of Counsel for the International Criminal Court (ICC) – (United Kingdom)
Jennifer Wright Knust
Professor of Religious Studies, Duke University; Director, Elizabeth A. Clark Center for Late Ancient Studies; Co-Director, Franklin Humanities Institute Manuscript Migration Lab – (United Kingdom)
Amb. François Zimeray
French Human Rights Ambassador-at-large (2008-2013); Member of the European Parliament (1999-2004); Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark (2013-2018) – (France)