Today I am travelling to Geneva to attend the 7th Session of the United Nations Universal Periodic Review Working Group, Iran have submitted its Human Rights Report (read here), which will be reviewed during this session. I will, together with two other members of the PDKI’s leadership, Dr. Miro Aliyar and Abdullah Hicab, represent the Kurdish people in Iranian Kurdistan. Representatives of other nationalities in Iran (Azerbaijan, Balouchistan and Ahwaz) will also be present. Something noteworthy is that out of the 66 individuals currently on death row in Iran, 53 are from Ahwaz, Kurdistan (21 of the 53 are from Kurdistan) and Balochistan.

We will hold meetings with representatives of several Permanent Delegations, Netherlands, Chile, Nigeria, US, Canada, Azerbaijan, Mexico, Bangladesh, France, Greece, Turkey and Bahrain, to attempt to persuade them to putt more pressure on Iran during the review of their Human Rights Report. Our first meeting is with John W. Limbert, who is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Iran in State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, which I look forward to.

We will also take part in several side events, with the help of the UNPO.

On Friday the 12th of February I will, Dr Alireza Nazmi, Mr. Nasser Boladai and Mr. Adnan Torfi speak about religious Discrimination, representation in political bodies, economic discrimination and expropriation of land, arbitrary arrest, torture, judicial procedure, and execution, Linguistic and cultural discrimination and the media, and Violations of the right to Freedom of Assembly. Representatives of several states have said they will attend and it is likely that an Iranian delegation will be present.

We will also take part in a large demonstration organized to shed more light on the Human Rights situation in Iran, taking place in the Place des Nations, on Monday the 15th of February. Please attend and and show your support if you are nearby .

The Congress of Nationalities for a Federal Iran held its annual meeting in Stockholm on the 4th and 5th of December in Stockholm. Currently, 16 political organizations from Iran’s major nationalities (Ahwazi Arabs, Balouch, Kurds, Azeri Turks, Turkoman and Bahkhtyari/Lor) are members of the Congress.

The congress seeks to attain national rights for Iran’s different nationalities within a federal and democratic Iran. During the annual meeting some amendments were made to the internal statutes, and the power structure of the Congress was changed.

During the meeting a Central Council of 9 parties/persons were elected to lead the Congress. Shaho Husseini, head of PDKI’s international office, was elected to the Central Council.

The annual meeting also discussed a joint strategy to make the struggle against the Islamic Republic more effective. The meeting also issued a statement in support for the demonstrations on the National Students day (16 of Azar).

Furthermore, a series of new policies were adopted and the Central Council was also tasked to approach Iran’s religious minorities on behalf of the Congress to garner more support for the Congress. The meeting also condemned the mass arrests and executions in Kurdistan, Balochistan, Ahwaz and Azerbaijan.

And in another statement Motazeri also urges Iran’s different ethnic groups, in particular the Azeri and Kurdish nations, to demand their rights within the framework of the Islamic Republics constitution.

In the statement he says that, “according to paragraph 15 and 19 of Iran’s constitution, alongside the Persians all other ethnic groups [Kurds, Arabs, Azeris, Baloch and so on] have been granted their full rights” in regard to language and culture.

Motazari, who was the deputy of Ayatollah Khomeini, until a dispute between them led to Motazari being sidelined and eventually forced out of Iran’s power elite, have recently resurfaced as a spiritual symbol of the reformist movement.
His latest statement and the Fatwa he released are perceived as an attempt by the reformist faction of the Islamic Republic to try to rally the support of Iran’s different nations.

The reformist faction, and the Green Movement, is feeling more desperate due to the fact that their protests and demonstrations against the conservative faction, led by Ayatollah Khamenei and Ahmedinejad, have not gone outside of Tehran and other cities that are dominated by the Persians.

These attempts will fail as long as these people emphasize on preserving the Islamic Republic and its constitution. As I have written so many times before, the Kurdish people will not become pawns of any faction of the Islamic Republic. There is a need for real change and the front figures of the reformist faction will not be the ones that will bring about the necessary changes.

The Kurdish students started to publish the magazine four years ago and have been able to publish 15 issues of the magazine. The reason for shutting down the magazine seems to be that a couple of articles argued for national rights of the Kurdish people and a closer relationship between the Kurdish and Azeri people.