British lawmakers on Thursday called on the United Kingdom government to focus on human rights in its policy on Iran and to recognize the right of the Iranian people to overthrow their dictators. Cross-party Members of Parliament urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to press the United Nations to hold Iran’s regime accountable human rights abuses, in particular for the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners.
Speakers at the event included Dr Matthew Offord MP; Bob Blackman MP; Rt Hon David Jones MP; Sir David Amess MP; Steve Pound MP; Steve McCabe MP; Roger Godsiff MP; Lord Clarke of Hampstead CBE; Lord Singh of Wimbledon; Lord Maginnis of Drumglass; Tahar Boumedra, former Director of the United Nations Human Rights Office in Iraq; Jocelyn Scott, Australian Barrister and renowned writer and advocate of women's rights.
Family members of MEK members who perished in Iran’s 1988 massacre offered first-hand testimony at the conference.
Lord Clarke of Hampstead said: “[The Iranian regime’s President Hassan] Rouhani tells the world he is a moderate. He is the same person who lied about the nuclear program and boasted about duping negotiators about nuclear proliferation. In six years of his presidency, he has executed more than 3,800 people.”
“Tragically, executions this year include 11 women and eight juvenile offenders, many of them under the obscene charge of ‘waging war against god.’ Children have to wait until they’re 18 so they can be eligible for execution,” he said.
David Jones MP said: “There is widespread support for the need to address the regime’s human rights abuses, regional aggression. There’s a strong consensus that the regime must be held to account.”
Roger Godsiff MP said: “The only viable policy must include support for the Iranian people in considering the human rights abuses of the regime, which is its Achilles heel. It is naive to believe this regime is capable of moderating its behaviour.
MP Steve McCabe mentioned in his remarks, “It is a tragedy that the hope of the Iranian revolution 40 years ago has turned so sour. It is a shame that regime officials are still meeting with western diplomats. Our role here and in any civilized country is to put maximum pressure on our governments and the UN and tell them that we want the criminals tried.”
