The Green Party is calling for Aotearoa New Zealand to follow the EU, UK, and Canada by imposing sanctions and restrictions on the organisations and people responsible for ongoing human rights abuses in Iran.

“We in Aotearoa can support and help protect the brave Iranain activists who are fighting to bring meaningful change in their country, by imposing sanctions on the individuals and organisations responsible for violence against women and protestors,” said Green Party human rights and foreign affairs spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman.

“When violence and oppression is systematically carried out by state governments, we as a global community have a responsibility to act in the interests of peace, democracy, and human rights.

“EU foreign ministers have frozen assets and banned travel by leading Iranian political and security officials; the UK has imposed sanctions on top ‘morality police’ figures and the whole organisation; and Canada has designated the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terror entity, enabling fund to be frozen and travel to be prohibited.

“The women-led revolution in Iran is an historic struggle for women’s rights and democracratic freedom, following the tragic murder of 22-year-old Masha Amini by the ‘morality police’.

“We must continue to use our freedom to raise the voices of Iranians fighting for women’s rights and democracy in the face of brutal violence by the Iranian regime.

“We call on the Government of Aotearoa New Zealand to take action with our friends and allies in the international community,” Golriz Ghahraman said.

Sanctions could be applied through legislation, akin to the recent Ukraine sanction law, or a similar outcome could be achieved through designations of terrorist entities as Canada has done with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

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