Paris Conference warns of repeating 1988 massacre in Iran

Strong solidarity with the people of Iran and the NCRI - but more support will be needed to free the Iranian people. Foto: private

(KD/KL) – On August 26, 2025, a high-profile conference was held at the Town Hall of Paris’ 17th District, shedding light on the alarming surge in executions and human rights violations in Iran. The event, organized by the “Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Iran” (CSDHI), in collaboration with the Town Hall of Paris 17 and the Committee of French Mayors for a Democratic Iran, drew international attention to the regime’s escalating repression.

The conference brought together a distinguished panel of international legal experts and human rights advocates, underscoring the gravity of the situation in Iran. Among the speakers were Professor Javaid Rehman, former UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran; Mark Ellis, Executive Director of the International Bar Association; Herta Däubler-Gmelin, former German Federal Minister of Justice; Wolfgang Schomburg, former Judge at the German Federal Supreme Court and International Criminal Tribunals; Dominique Attias, former President of the Federation of European Bars; Jean-François Legaret, President of the Middle East Studies Foundation; Gilbert Mitterrand, President of the François Mitterrand Foundation; Joachim Rücker, former President of the UN Human Rights Council; Sonia Biserko, founder and president of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia and former member of the UN Commission of Inquiry on human rights violations in North Korea, and Alain Vivien, former French Minister. The keynote address was delivered by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), whose powerful remarks framed the conference’s urgent call for justice and a rethinking of Western policy toward the Iranian regime.

Timed to coincide with the anniversary of the 1988 massacre of over 30,000 political prisoners in Iran, the conference featured a powerful exhibition portraying the brutal realities of repression under the Iranian regime. The event highlighted the regime’s recent wave of executions, including at least 108 in July alone, and over 1,630 executions during the first year of President Masoud Pezeshkian’s term.

Geoffroy Boulard, the Mayor of Paris’s 17th District, along with several other French mayors, spoke at the conference. They expressed strong support for Mrs. Rajavi’s 10-point plan for a free and democratic Iran, emphasizing the importance of international solidarity with the Iranian people’s aspirations for a free and democratic Iran. Mr. Boulard said: “I firmly condemn the death penalty in Iran and have decided to unconditionally support Mrs. Maryam Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan – who we are honored that she is among us here today. This plan calls for the abolition of the death penalty, advocates for gender equality between women and men, and demands the separation of religion from the state”.

Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), delivered the keynote speech, invoking the historical significance of the venue and the date: “Conference at the District 17 Municipality of Paris. On August 26, 1789, the French National Constituent Assembly proclaimed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen – an immortal milestone in humanity’s march toward liberty and justice. And yet, how is it possible that in our time, governments continue to appease a regime that violates every principle enshrined in that Declaration?”

Maryam Rajavi emphasized the regime’s long-standing campaign of repression: “For more than four decades, the clerical regime in Iran has waged a campaign of repression and bloodshed against the people of Iran – without ever facing accountability. During the single year of Masoud Pezeshkian’s presidency – a man the regime paraded as a ‘moderate’ – no fewer than 1630 executions were carried out”.

Those who commit these crimes today are the very same individuals who carried out the mass killings of the 1980s, above all the 1988 Massacre, and who have never been brought to justice. In that decade, the regime executed tens of thousands of its opponents. In 1988, Khomeini issued a fatwa that unleashed the slaughter of 30,000 political prisoners – the overwhelming majority of them members of the PMOI.

As Maryam Rajavi stated: “The lives laid down for the freedom of Iran and the suffering endured by the Iranian people over the past four decades have blossomed into the Iranian Resistance’s vision for a free Iran. This vision outlines a future Iran where all citizens enjoy the full spectrum of freedoms guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international conventions such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention Against Torture, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) is committed to implementing these principles, including abolishing the death penalty, banning all forms of torture, ensuring full freedom of expression, belief, religion, press, cyberspace, political parties, and trade unions, transforming state media into platforms for free and uncensored information, eliminating all clerical laws, disarming and dissolving repressive institutions like the Revolutionary Guards, Basij, Ministry of Intelligence, and Revolutionary Courts, guaranteeing judicial security for all citizens, and establishing an independent judiciary based on the presumption of innocence, the right to defense, public trials, and judicial independence.”

The President-elect of the NCRI urges a shift in international policy: The issue of Iran is not limited to its nuclear program or its missiles. No longer can the human rights of the Iranian people – their right to live in freedom – be ignored. After four decades, the policy adopted by the West has reached a dead end. Its failure stems from ignoring the most crucial factor: the people of Iran and their organized resistance. She concluded: We have always insisted that the solution lies neither in foreign war nor in appeasement, but in the overthrow of the regime by the Iranian people and their resistance. The time has come for Western countries to fundamentally rethink and change their policy.

The conference speakers all supported the NCRI Ten-Point-Plan, but it is also important to see the realities. Just a few days ago, the Iranian regime tried to gain some standing by resuming the nuclear talks with the Europeans, but no progress was made. The Iranian delegation did not want to discuss the Iranian nuclear program, but just wanted to show up on the international stage, as if it was a “normal” partner of the western world. But what needs to be noted is that the Iranian regime does not discuss its nuclear program, but continues the uranium enrichment to build nuclear bombs – and sooner or later, they will have them. If the world does not wish to face a nuclear Iran, being a threat to the entire region, action must be taken now. The expression of worldwide solidarity with the NCRI is one positive thing – letting the mullahs’ regime continue its bloody deeds, can not the the strategy.