International Community Issues Set of
Demands for Iranian Government
- ·Global Day of Arts in Support
of Iran's Civil Rights Movement on Dec. 12th
- ·Calls On Iran to Respect
Freedom of Assembly, Expression, and Press; Free all Prisoners of Conscience
Students inside of Iran are set to hold major
protests throughout the country on December 7th. In a global
expression of solidarity and support for the civil rights movement in Iran, on
December 12, 2009, events organized under the banner of
ArtsUnited4Iran will focus the world's
attention on the grave situation of human rights in that country.
Poster about the planned December 7 protests by university students in Iran
Iran experts and activists speaking out in
support of the civil rights movement in Iran include Hamid Dabashi,
Columbia University Professor and CNN
commentator; Hadi Ghaemi, Director of the
International Campaign for Human
Rights in Iran; Firuzeh Mahmoudi,
United4Iran's International
Coordinator; Omid Memarian, Iran expert for
Human Rights Watch; and Reza Moini,
Iran expert for Reporters without Borders (RSF).
Following the UN General Assembly's resolution on
the situation of human rights in Iran on November 20, 2009, members of the
international community are calling on the Iranian government to:
- Respect Freedom of Assembly, Expression, and
Press,
- Free all Prisoners of Conscience,
- End Rape and Torture in Prisons,
- Hold Those Responsible for Committing Human
Rights Crimes Accountable.
The civil rights movement inside Iran continues
to grow and diffuse throughout the society, despite severe repression,
widespread arrests, and imprisonment of hundreds of civil society activists.
Iranians are planning for major protests on December 7th, National
Students Day. Universities throughout the country are scenes of daily protests.
"The civil rights movement in Iran is standing up
to militarization and dictatorship. With the ongoing nuclear crisis, it is
urgent for the international community to recognize and hear the voices of this
movement representing the aspirations of the Iranian people. Our goal is to let
the Iranian people know that we hear them and stand with them," the organizers
of ArtsUnited4Iran said.
On the occasion of the six-month anniversary of
the disputed elections and the sixty-first anniversary of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, artists and activists will join together to
highlight the ongoing protests in Iran and to honor the Iranian people's
peaceful struggle for their human and civil rights.
United4Iran, a global network of
activists supporting human rights in Iran, is organizing the arts and culture
events.
The arts and culture events will reinforce the
international community's calls on the Iranian government to respect the freedom
of assembly, expression, and press, to free all prisoners of conscience, to end
rape and torture in prisons, and to hold those responsible for committing human
rights crimes accountable.
The ArtsUnited4Iran sponsors include
Reporters without Borders,
Human Rights Watch, the
Nobel Women's Initiative,
the International Campaign for Human
Rights in Iran, ARTICLE 19, and
Front Line. Currently,
lectures, concerts, gallery showings, readings, round tables, film screenings,
and more are being planned in over 20 locations worldwide, including in
Amsterdam, Orlando, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Germany, New York, the United
Kingdom, and Washington D.C.
Many acclaimed artists, writers and journalists
have broadcast their support for ArtsUnited4Iran via video messages encouraging
others to come out on December 12th. United4Iran has received
messages of support from filmmaker Narges Kalhor, the daughter of Mehdi Kalhor,
cultural advisor to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; Roxana Saberi, an Iranian-American
journalist arrested in Iran in January 2009 and imprisoned in Evin prison until
May 2009; Bahman Ghobadi, an Iranian film director of Kurdish descent; the
preeminent Iranian poet Ismail Khoei; Iranian singers Mohsen Namjoo and Arash
Sobhani; cartoonist and journalist Nikahang Kowsar; and Tehran-born singer,
composer, and dancer, Sussan Deyhim. U2 used Deyhim's vocal piece based on the
Rumi poem, Beshno Az Ney, in the opening of their performance of
"Sunday Bloody Sunday" in Barcelona, which U2 then dedicated to the people of
Iran.
United4Iran is a non-political global network of
individuals and human rights activists building a mass movement in solidarity
with the people of Iran. United4Iran is opposed to blanket economic sanctions
and military action against Iran which will have detrimental effects on the
situation of human rights and harm the Iranian people.
For more details on December 12 events visit:
www.united4iran.org
For more information and interviews contact:
Hamid Dabashi (In New York, English and
Persian)
Columbia University
Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature
hd14@columbia.edu
Hadi Ghaemi (In New York, English and
Persian)
International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran
Director
hadighaemi@iranhumanrights.org
Firuzeh Mahmoudi (In San Francisco,
English and Persian)
United4Iran
International Coordinator
firuzeh@united4iran.org
Omid Memarian (In San Francisco, English
and Persian)
Human Rights Watch
memario@hrw.org
Reza Moini (In Paris, French and Persian)
Reporters without Borders (RSF)
persan@rsf.org
... Payvand News - 12/05/09 ... --
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