Canada – The Globe and Mail, Mar. 06, 2026
Irwin Cotler is a former minister of justice and attorney-general of Canada and founder of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights.
Brandon Silver is an international human rights lawyer and director of policy and projects at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights.
Iran is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. Canada can help hold them to account.
As we write, Iranian missiles are directly and deliberately striking civilian targets across the Middle East. Hotels and airports in Dubai are in flames, Israeli residential communities and religious sites are in ruins, and the risk of an environmental crisis rises as Iran bombs oilfields and refineries. Even neutral mediator Oman hasn’t been spared from Iran’s attacks.
Law enforcement in Canada and elsewhere are actively working to mitigate terror and transnational repression attempts by Iran and its proxies. Last July, Canada and 13 allies had condemned “attempts of Iranian intelligence services to kill, kidnap, and harass people in Europe and North America in clear violation of our sovereignty.” The Canadian Security Intelligence Service foiled lethal threats by Iran, including an assassination plot targeting this article’s co-author.
But the biggest victims of the regime’s brutality have been the brave Iranian people.
Three separate UN bodies have independently determined that Iran is committing crimes against humanity against its own citizens. The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran reviewed 38,000 pieces of evidence and interviewed nearly 300 witnesses, determining that Iran continues to violently abuse the rights of women and girls and others advocating for human rights. Children as young as seven years old were confirmed to be victims.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Iran reached the same conclusion, describing the regime’s crimes as some of the worst in its repressive history.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, in the case of a Canadian-Iranian hostage – we served as legal counsel – found that Iran’s state policy and practice of taking foreign and dual nationals hostage may constitute crimes against humanity.
These are international crimes that call for international legal accountability.
Canada can mobilize middle powers to use law and diplomacy to hold the regime to account, support the people of Iran, and protect our sovereignty. This would also advance our interests of upholding and strengthening international law by putting its principles into practice.
The co-ordinated economic and legal levers that have been used to support Ukraine, constrain Russia and hold it accountable for atrocities against Ukrainians could equally apply to Iran.
Joint law enforcement and investigation teams between countries should be established to hold perpetrators to account. Sanctions should be expanded and more effectively enforced, with the formation of a country-specific co-ordination mechanism amongst like-minded countries. Canada should encourage allies such as Britain to join us in designating Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist entity.
Political prisoners and foreign hostages held in Iran’s prisons are facing heightened risk. Their cases and causes should be championed publicly, prominently and persistently. Such solidarity would offer those arbitrarily detained the protective cover of a public spotlight, highlight their brave struggle and the shared values that underpin it, and add pressure to the regime.
