Huffingtonpost – 01.15.14 – TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — With a presence in nearly every city and town across Iran, the paramilitary Basij volunteer corps has an ever-increasing influence on life in the Islamic Republic. Authorities created the Basij, which means mobilization in Persian, just after the country’s 1979 Islamic Republic. It is part of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard.
UN resolution on the human rights situation in Iran
FIDH – On Wednesday, 18 December 2013, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly adopted a resolution on the human rights situation in Iran. The resolution denounces “serious ongoing and recurring human rights violations” in the country, and calls upon the government to “respect fully its human rights obligations, in law and in practice.”
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They have an Important Message for Us Don’t Let Them Fade Into Oblivion
What unites them?
They lived in lands far apart, spoke different languages, did not know each other.
Keep the Focus on Iran’s Human Rights
THE HUFFINGTON POST – By Hadi Ghaemib (December 19, 2013) The recent interim nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 powers is a welcome development for most Iranians. It is a major step in the right direction, addressing many of their pressing concerns:
Remembering A Forgotten Crime
2013 is the 65th anniversary of the vote of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the United Nations. It coincides with the 25th anniversary of a gruesome state crime, committed secretly in 1988 within the prisons of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Tribute to Nelson Mandela: The Passing of a Man of Peace
6 December 2013 – FIDH and its 178 member organisations throughout the world, including Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) in South Africa, pay tribute to Nelson Mandela and express their sincere condolences to his wife and children and to the entire nation of South Africa.
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Kurdish Sunni Prisoners in Critical Health After 30 Days on Hunger Strike
Four of the six prisoners who have been on hunger strike for the past 30 days.
Six Kurdish Sunni prisoners on death row at Ghezel Hessar Prison in Karaj have been on a hunger strike since Monday, November 4, a human rights activist told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.
Mansour Farhang: Zarif and the Pursuit of Rights and Respect (Commentary)
Dr. Mansour Farhang
(November 22, 2013) – “An ambassador is an honest gentleman sent to lie abroad for the good of his country.” The endurance of this remark by Sir Henry Wotton, a 17th century English diplomat, is due to the fact that it contains an element of truth. Politically astute diplomats, however, know the limits of such practice.
Witness: Iran, Where Your Shoes Can Get You Deported
November 20, 2013 – In the end, the family was deported to Afghanistan over pink sneakers and platform sandals. Zohrah, 17, and her sister Hasina, 15, sounded furious, in a teenager kind of way, when they talked about their arrest and how it led them, their father, and Zohrah’s boyfriend to a dusty reception center on the Afghan side of the Iran-Afghanistan border.
UN Shows Strong Support for Human Rights in Iran with 83-to-36 Vote
(November 19, 2013) – The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran welcomes the United Nations General Assembly’s Third Committee vote today overwhelmingly supporting human rights in Iran, and urges the Iranian government to comply with UN human rights mechanisms and take concrete steps to address the ongoing violations in the country.
