Our Stance on the IRGC Listing

UCAN fully supports Canada’s designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization. The IRGC is a repressive, violent institution responsible for widespread human rights abuses inside Iran and beyond.

However, forcibly conscripted individuals are NOT members of the IRGC. They did not join voluntarily, did not exercise agency, and should not be treated as affiliates of a terrorist organization solely because they were compelled to serve under Iran’s mandatory draft laws. These conscripts have no role in policy, command, or decision-making and are typically assigned menial, low-level, non-strategic tasks under coercion, under threat of punishment.

Holding victims of coercion to the same standard as commanders and voluntary participants undermines the purpose of the listing and contradicts fundamental principles of fairness and justice.