Groups Want Iran Human Rights Abuse Added to Nuclear Talks Agenda

In a statement issued 3 Feb 2012, Reporters Without Borders, and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), which includes the Iranian League for the Defence of Human Rights, urge the international community to take a much firmer stance on respect for human rights in Iran by raising this essential issue in the talks currently under way with the country’s authorities.

The involvement of RSF usually has the effect of focusing on journalists or bloggers who have been sentenced to death, and the statement does urge the EU and the international community to publicly condemn the unacceptable treatment that imprisoned journalists and netizens receive, but also expresses support for the appeal that 39 political prisoners, journalists and intellectuals issued on 25 January, calling for the release of all prisoners of conscience including the leaders of the protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election.

The One Million Voices for Iran Campaign welcomes any and all calls for action to release those unjustly imprisoned in Iran, regardless of their sentence or their occupation. To date, discussions about human rights abuses and violations against prisoners of conscience in Iran have taken place on the sidelines of meetings to discuss economic or nuclear development issues.