Enforced disappearance is among the worst violations of human rights. There is no crime crueler than the “disappearance” of a human being. Enforced disappearances are a tool of terror with a devastating impact that strikes not just individuals and their families, but the entire society.
Impunity and attempts to destroy evidence of past violations continued during the reporting period, including in relation to the summary executions and enforced disappearances of political dissidents in 1988.
The Iranian authorities forcibly disappeared and executed thousands of imprisoned political dissidents in secret and dumped their bodies, mostly in unmarked mass graves, between July and September 1988.
They have concealed the killings as state secrets, tormenting the relatives by refusing to tell them how and why their loved ones were killed and where they are buried. No official has been brought to justice and, in some cases, those involved hold or have held positions of power in Iran. The Iranian Resistance has called on the UN to set up an independent investigation to help bring those responsible for these abhorrent crimes to justice.