To the Honourable Prime Minister of Japan
December 18, 2019
His Excellency Mr. Shinzo Abe
1-6-1 Nagata-cho, Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo 100-8968, Japan
Fax: +81-3-3592-0179
Your Excellency,
We are, Hassan Shariatmadari, the Head of the Iran Transition Council (ITC), and Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay, ITC Senior Advisor of ITC on Human Rights .
The ITC is an umbrella organization, bringing together representatives of the overwhelming majority of democratic parties, forces, and movements confronting the current Iranian regime. ITC members and affiliates are based in the worldwide Iranian community, and within Iran itself. We are an expatriate organization whose mission is to facilitate and mange Iran’s transition to democracy.
We are writing to you on behalf of ITC in the eve of President Rouhani’s visit to Japan in order to bring to your Excellency’s attention our concern regarding the systematic violation of human rights in Iran. While we are quite aware of your Excellency’s constructive attempts to ease the tension between the Islamic Republic and the United States and to prevent further escalation of these hostilities, by addressing the security and the economic concerns of both sides, we are disheartened that the violation of human rights’ in Iran has not been a part of these discussions at all. Just this month, during the recent protests, instigated by a threefold increase in fuel prices, 304 people have been killed and thousands are injured or arrested in Iran. The number of people killed is much larger, new corpses are discovered every day across the country. The right to peaceably assemble, the right to free speech and of freedom of the press, the right to due process and the right of access to information were all wilfully and systematically violated by the current government in Iran.
In a recent letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Iran Transition Council requested that the recently committed atrocities be referred to the UN Security Council. We would like to ask you Excellency to support our concern to the Secretary General of the United Nations.
Your Excellency, now that you have extended your Excellency’s goodwill toward the two countries and have graciously offered to mediate for an amicable resolution to the conflict between the two nation-states, we respectfully ask your excellency to include the Iranian people’s human rights concerns in these discussions and negations as well.
Two issues are of utmost importance to the people of Iran in this regard: responsibility and accountability; neither of which is meaningful without informational transparency and without an impartial fact finder. Thus, we request that your Excellency interject the following two items into the discussions and negotiations in Japan:
1) that the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic be allowed to continue his work in Iran
2) that the Islamic Republic commits to the free flow of information and never again engage in the intentional blackout of the Internet.
Your Excellency, history will always remember your genuine efforts in the cause of peace and of upholding of human rights but the people of Iran and ITC will never forget your goodwill toward them.
Most Respectfully,
Hassan Shariatmadari
General Secretary of the Iran Transition Council
Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay
Senior Advisor on Human Rights
