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Society for Human Rights in Iran - Southern California

Press Release

Who:   Omid Advocates for Human Rights will present the findings of their recent humanitarian delegation to Turkey where they met with 70 Iranian refugees.  The organization has published a 40 page report of its findings dedicated to all those seized the chance to change their lives and to those continuing to work to enforce  and defend human rights.  Omid Advocates continues working directly with many of the refugees they met and others on their pending applications for refugee recognition and other needs.

What:  The 14 member international delegation was composed of lawyers from the US, Germany and Pakistan, medical professionals, including a torture and trauma     specialist, from the U.S. and Austria, a member of the EU Parliament, a candidate for the Swedish Parliament, a renown  German human scholars, a German author  and two interpreters.  The delegation met with UNHCR, seven embassies and NGOs in Turkey to advocate for the expeditious resettlement of the refugees. The group visited Turkey from March 29, 2010 to April 3, 2010.

The FIDH et RSF have launched an international campaign calling upon the Iranian authorities

The FIDH et RSF have launched an international campaign calling upon the Iranian authorities to liberate immediately and unconditionally all prisoners of opinion detained in Iran. Several hundred prisoners of opinion are in Iranian jails. Some of them have been in prison for several years, many others were arrested more recently, after the popular demonstrations following the 12 June 2009 elections, which involved massive fraud. They are all in prison because of their opinions – they denounce human rights violations perpetrated in their country; they mobilize against gender-based discrimination; they defend the rights of ethnic and religious minorities; they do not share the regime’s interpretation of Islam; they claim their right to vote...

June 10, 2010

“It’s essential that we stand up for the unjustly imprisoned and be their voice.  The prisoner’s worst nightmare is the thought of being forgotten. But knowing that your plight is in the hearts and minds of people across the world, brings you a great sense of hope.”, Maziar Bahari, the Iranian-Canadian journalist for Newsweek, released after four months detention in Iran following the election.

One year on from Iran’s disputed June 2009 presidential election, Amnesty International has documented a widening crackdown on dissent that has left journalists, students, political and rights activists as well as clerics languishing in prisons.

Lawyers, academics, former political prisoners and members of Iran’s ethnic and religious minorities have also been caught up in an expanding wave of repression that has led to widespread incidents of torture and other ill-treatment along with politically motivated execution of prisoners.