Campaign to Proscribe the  
IRGC - Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps   

As global terrorism surges with every passing year, calls for the UK to proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation have become more vocal and determined, but to little effect. Government ministers have consistently deflected inquiries on proscription by referring to the heavy sanctions regime the UK already imposes on the IRGC. Sanctions, though, carry neither the same impact nor the same force of law as does the proscription, which broadly criminalises terror groups and imposes criminal penalties on anyone who associates with them.

 

The Iranian government has been behind 15 credible threats to kill or kidnap British citizens or UK-based individuals in the past year alone, yet the IRGC practically operates with impunity in the UK. The UK government’s recent call for increased sanctions and its continued evasiveness in committing to proscription in the face of the IRGC’s growing threat profile can arguably be deemed a dereliction of the government’s “Duty to Protect” the British public, founded in the English Common Law tradition and extended to the present day. To fully exercise its “Duty to Protect”, the Government must now proscribe the IRGC and bring the full force of British law to bear upon them.