Ezat Mossallanejed holds a Ph.D. in Political Economy. A victim of torture in Iran, he escaped to Canada in 1985. In Montreal, he was a founding member of the Iranian Cultural and Community Centre, Institut Éducatif pour les Jeunes Iraniens, and the Montreal Democratic Forum. In Toronto, he worked as a Youth Counsellor with St. Christopher House and as a Refugee Policy Analyst, and later was the Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service – Canada.
At present, Ezat is a full-time Counsellor and Policy Analyst with the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture (CCVT). He is a member of the Editorial Board of Refugee Update, a journal of refugee protection and advocacy in Canada. Sleeping Giant Productions has made a documentary about Ezat’s experience of torture which has frequently been broadcast by Vision TV.
Ezat was the Chair of the Board of Culturelink and is on the Board of the Canadian Centre for International Justice. He is the author of four books in Persian and two books in English: 1) Torture in the Age of Fear, Seraphim Editions, Canada 2005; 2) Political Economy of Oil, Criterion Publication, New Delhi, India 1986. He has contributed a chapter in Haideh Mogissi’s book, Moslems in Diaspora, published by Oxford University Press.
“Khomeini and Crimes against Humanity”
Crimes against Humanity are those types of horrible, inhuman and cruel acts that travel beyond national borders and shock human conscience in any corner of the globe. They are usually committed in mass-scale and are considered a serious and everlasting blow against human dignity. It may also be committed against one person but with a severe impact on the dignity of humanity.
As a service to the Iranian history and as a tool of advocacy against gross human rights violations in Iran, it crucial to examine cases and instances of the perpetration of crimes against humanity by Khomieni. He is the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and his disciples rule the country today.
The first time this term was used in a legal context was during the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal, which took place from 1945 to 1949 and sought the prosecution of a number of high profile Nazi leaders.
Following the adoption of the Rome Statute, the International Criminal Court (ICC) was founded and started its work in July 2002. The court has jurisdiction with respect to: (a) The crime of genocide; (b) Crimes against humanity; (c) War crimes; (d) The crime of aggression. (Article 5). The concept of “crime against humanity" is well defined in the Article 7 of the Rome Statute, with the following acts constituting crimes against humanity when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack: (a) Murder; (b) Extermination; (c) Enslavement; (d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population; (e) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law; (f) Torture; (g) Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity; (h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender grounds….; (i) Enforced disappearance of persons; (j) The crime of apartheid; (k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character.
The Iranian clerical regime since its establishment by Khomeini up to today has been involved in massive murder (cases of the Iranian Arabs, Turkemans and Kurds, Mujaheddin and leftists), extermination (massacres in Kurdistan), massacre of political prisoners, torture, rape (as a technique of torture and war), Bahais’ genocide and persecution of other religious minorities, stoning women and men to death, public hangings by cranes, etc. It is important to examine these crimes with respect to the definition of crimes against humanity and with the view of addressing the problem of impunity.
Video in English with Farsi voice over
Lousnak • Elahe Machouf • Red Names • Shirin • Ms.sun • Looli • Hossein Afsahi • Saeed Yousef • Danielle Ouanes
Hassan Pooya • Soudabeh Ardavan • Setareh Abbasi • Shohreh Kia • Mahbubeh • Payam Akhavan • Shahrzad Mojab
Béatrice Vaugrante • Masoud Raouf • Mostafa Henaway • Stephan Kazemi • Saiid Ismati • Zari Daknema • Antigone
Marie Boti • Felicitas Treue • Bahram Ghadimi • Shokoufe Sakhi • Iraj Mesdaghi • Reza Gahfari • Ezat Mossallanejed