bankimoon

What the Iranian People Expect of Ban Ki Moon

Despite calls in some quarters for him to skip out, the UN Secretary General plans to travel to Iran next week, a country that has become a dungeon for its own people. He will attend the 16th Summit of the 120-member Non-Aligned Movement, which will be chaired by Iran through 2014. Most of the criticisms of him going have come from states leading efforts to isolate Iran due to the nuclear impasse. But at a time when severe human rights abuses continue unabated against Iran’s citizens, it is a critical opportunity to refocus international attention on the dire situation in the country and pressure Iran’s leaders to improve conditions for its people.

NAM

NAM Leaders Should Pressure Iran to End Abuses Against Its Citizens

Washington D.C. (17 August 2012) United for Iran calls on democratic leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to pressure Iran to end abuses against its citizens ahead of an upcoming conference that will be held in Tehran later this month. The organization further urges UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to secure Iran’s sustained cooperation on human rights before agreeing to visit the country.

AHWAZI

Iranian Human Rights Groups Condemn Execution of Four Ahwazi Arabs

Concurrent with the execution of four Iranians in Saudi Arabia, and despite warnings by human rights activists and institutions, four Ahwazi Arab prisoners—Taha Heidarian, Abdolrahman Heidarian, Abbas Heidarian, and Ali Sharifi—were secretly executed by the Iranian authorities. The prisoners—three of them brothers—were arrested following civil unrest and protests in April 2011 in Ahwaz (capital of the southwestern Iranian province of Khuzestan).

UnitedNations1

United for Iran Highlights Violations of Right to Education in Iran at 20th Session of Human Rights Council

I am speaking on behalf of the Democracy Coalition Project in coordination with United for Iran. My name is Puyan Mahmudian. I was jailed in Iran in May 2007 for serving as an editor for a pro-democracy student publication. The government forged false documents to arrest me and other student activists. I spent three months in solitary confinement and endured torture by my interrogators. I was barred from graduate education despite being ranked 6th out of more than one thousand candidates in the national entrance…