Three times the remarks of political prisoner Shabnam Madadzadeh were interrupted by Iranian regime’s representative during the UN Human Rights Council, within 90 seconds. This interruption was due to her use of the term “regime,” refraining from using the title “Islamic Republic,” and exposing regime’s “crimes against humanity.”
On Monday afternoon, March 18, at the United Nations Human Rights Council session in Geneva, following the report of the International Fact-Finding Committee on the Iranian regime and the speeches of the Committee members, government representatives, and non-governmental organizations addressed the report. This report, for the first time, recognized the crimes of the Iranian regime as “crimes against humanity.”
The last speaker was political prisoner Shabnam Madadzadeh, who has spent five years in prisons including Evin, Gohardasht, and Qarchak Varamin. She is the sister of Mehdi and Akbar Madadzadeh, who sacrificed their lives on April 8, 2011, in Ashraf 1 in Iraq, in the armored attack by the criminal agents of Nouri al-Maliki and Qasem Soleimani.
During Shabnam Madadzadeh’s speech representing the “Women’s Human Rights International Association (WHRIA),” the regime’s representative at the Human Rights Council interrupted her remarks three times within 90 seconds. The representative of the regime, known as the regime of execution and mass murder, was severely infuriated by the use of the term “crimes against humanity” and specifically to the use of the word “regime” and refraining from using the term “Islamic Republic” by this former political prisoner. However, each time the session chair (the Vice President of the Human Rights Council) reminded the rules of the Human Rights Council sessions, and gave the floor back to Shabnam Madadzadeh.
She expressed gratitude for the precise term “crimes against humanity” regarding the regime’s atrocities, emphasizing that the fact-finding committee’s report, “only touches upon a small fraction of the regime’s crimes. Thousands of youth have not been able to testify.”
She added, ” As a former political prisoner in Iran with five years of imprisonment experience, I am here to testify about the regime’s crimes. Forough Taghipour and Marzieh Farsi, who were detained after the uprising were each sentenced to 15 years in prison. Maryam Akbari-Monfared, in her fifteenth year of imprisonment, was sentenced to an additional three years in prison for supporting the uprising.” She concluded, “It is time to bring the case of the Iranian regime for the crimes against humanity to the UN Security Council, not only for the 2022 uprising but also for the 45 years of violation of human rights, including the 1988massacre.”
At the United Nations Human Rights Council session, it was evident to all that the executioner regime cannot even tolerate 90 seconds of speech by a steadfast political prisoner and scandalously attempted to silence it even at the end of the session in Geneva. It is worth noting that in the same city, Dr. Kazem Rajavi was assassinated by the regime’s 13 terrorists holding diplomatic passports for defending human rights.
Simultaneously with today’s session, freedom-loving Iranian expatriates held demonstrations in front of the United Nations building in Geneva, demanding the expulsion of the illegitimate regime of the mullahs from the United Nations and the referral of the “crimes against humanity” dossier to the Security Council and the trial of Ali Khamenei, Ebrahim Raisi, and other regime leaders.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
18 March 2024
