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Shirin Ebadi Echoes Campaign Demand

Shirin Ebadi Echoes Demand of One Million Voices Campaign

UN Women, the new United Nations agency specifically created to promote the cause of women globally could choose a representative of the Iranian regime as one of the 41 members of its board of directors. This is an outrage to the women who are imprisoned, tortured and executed in Iran, as well as to women throughout the world who are forced to endure gender inequality. Worse, the UN is doing nothing to stop Iran’s crimes against women and against all its citizens. What’s necessary is diplomatic (not economic) sanctions against individuals within the Iranian government who are directly responsible for these human rights crimes. These sanctions include travel bans and the freezing of assets, as demanded by the Million Voices for Iran campaign: http://www.speak4iran.org

In fact, Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi echoed that same demand at the UN on Tuesday 9 November 2010: “Ebadi, who is Iranian herself, called for steps such as travel bans and freezing assets of those leaders and officials who were involved in human rights abuses. She noted that eight Iranian officials had recently been barred from entering the United States.

Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi wants the international community to impose travel restrictions and other “political sanctions” against Iranian officials who have taken part in human rights abuses.
“We ask other countries to adopt the same kind of political sanctions against Iran. … Let’s make the world smaller for violators of human rights,” she told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York.”

We call upon the United Nations, world leaders and human rights defenders everywhere to join the One Million Voices for Iran campaign to demand Iran’s full compliance with the Geneva Conventions and international laws and the release of all prisoners of conscience, and that countries impose diplomatic restrictions against individual members of the Iranian leadership until these conditions are met.

The One Million Voices for Iran is combining “digital activism” through social media platforms like FaceBook, Twitter and blogs with “pavement activism” at rallies, protests and events, to create a network of supportive individuals and organizations in the pursuit of its goals.

November 1, 2010

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Campaign Launch

With the support of a growing number of committed human rights activists, including:

Bianca Jagger, Council of Europe Goodwill Ambassador and founder of Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation;
Professor of International Law at McGill University, Payam Akhavan, co-founder of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre, and former legal adviser to the prosecutor’s office of the international criminal tribunals at The Hague;
official Ambassador for Youth for Human Rights as well as their Poet Laureate, Larry Jaffe;
professional sculptor Paula B. Slater, creator of the Neda bust presented at last year’s massive solidarity rally in San Francisco;
Chris Crowstaff, the founder of Safe World For Women, a global women’s rights and advocacy organization which campaigns for the rights of women and girls.

we are pleased to announce the formal launch of the One Million Voices for Iran Campaign.

Words from some of the One Million voices:

“I urge the Iranian authorities to release all prisoners of conscience, and the fair treatment of all political prisoners, who have been arbitrarily detained by the Iranian Regime in violation of their basic human rights.” – Bianca Jagger, London, UK
“…Those responsible for the death, torture and imprisonment of innocent Iranians will be made to pay for their crimes against humanity.” – Paula B. Slater, San Francisco, USA
“There cannot be boundaries between freedom and justice.” – Kika Bisogno, Venezuela
“It is time for the good folks of the world to unite and stop the insanity.” – Larry Jaffe, New York, USA
“Why are governments so silent about atrocities committed by a member state which does not appear to adhere to a single UN Resolution?” – Chris Crowstaff, UK
“Silence is NOT golden in the case of the atrocities and violations of human rights committed by the Iranian government.” – Judy Ajifu, USA

The purpose of this campaign is to demand united global action against the human rights abuses perpetrated by the government of the Islamic Republic against its own people.

One Million Voices for Iran Campaign Organizer Anita (aka @lissnup ) says: “I am gratified to be part of a cause that has coherent, achievable goals, and is concerned with demanding justice for all victims of the regime in Iran.”

This petition calls for world governments to enact humanitarian sanctions against freedom of movement and overseas assets of individuals in the Iranian government, targeting them specifically in protest of their documented human rights abuses and demanding the release of all political prisoners, as originally issued by the United States of America.

Additionally, it will demand from all potential sources of help the creation of a special court of human rights to prosecute the Islamic Republic’s leaders for their abuse of human rights as described by the Green Lawyers Movement, which stresses that this effort “relies on the efforts of every freedom-loving and justice-seeking individual.”

We echo the demands of those in Iran working tirelessly for civil and social rights, under the daily threat of meeting the same fate as their many colleagues already arrested, tortured and imprisoned by a brutal regime which treats advocacy of human rights, and the legal representation of those who support them, as a criminal offense.

We will pursue these goals by collecting one million signatures on a petition both in person and through the One Million Voices for Iran campaign website, that will be presented using every channel at our disposal..

One Million Voices for Iran is combining “digital activism” through social media platforms like FaceBook, Twitter, and blogs, with “pavement activism” at rallies, protests and events, to create a network of supportive individuals and organizations in the pursuit of its goals.

October 18, 2010