Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
You indicated that I would have five minutes at the end of the meeting. It's actually with respect to a matter regarding Iran, so it dovetails with our discussion. But because I have to be in the House for an SO31, I'm going to incorporate it as part of my remarks now.
Dr. Ottolenghi, I appreciate your remarks, particularly with regard to the persistent and pervasive state-sanctioned assault on human rights in Iran and the intensification of repression targeting, as you put it, religious minorities, such as the Baha'i and the Kurds. There are 15 Kurds on death row right now. All the leaders of all the movements have effectively been silenced or imprisoned. We've had a dramatic increase in both the number of political prisoners and the related number of executions.
As a result of that, we formed, several months ago, an interparliamentary group for human rights in Iran involving parliamentarians all over the world, which I co-chair with Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois. We announced this morning the establishment of an Iranian political prisoner advocacy group. We are going to be inviting parliamentarians to adopt prisoners of conscience.
This committee can play a particular role, because there's a particular Canadian connection to these political prisoners. As we meet, Saeed Malekpour, one of them, is a Canadian Iranian political prisoner in imminent threat of execution. We have also, among the Baha'i leadership, Canadian Baha'i who, after graduating from Carleton University, returned to Iran and were arrested, etc. I trust that the members here may each seek to adopt one of the political prisoners, particularly one with a Canadian connection. I'll make the list available to the members here.
This brings me to my two specific questions, which I'll be brief about. First is the matter of the IRGC, which has emerged at the epicentre of the fourfold Iranian threat—nuclear, incitement, terrorist, and massive domestic repression. The United States has listed them as a terrorist entity. The question is whether Canada should list them as a terrorist entity. That's the first question.
I'll do the second one very quickly. As this committee and others have found, Iran has already committed the crime of incitement to genocide that was created under the genocide convention. Should Canada, as a state party to the convention, along with other like-minded states, initiate any of the legal remedies under the genocide convention to hold the leaders of this incitement to account, such as an interstate complaint before the International Court of Justice? Iran is also a state party to the genocide convention and can be held accountable there.
Those are the two questions.