"Green Cyber Demonstration": World Solidarity with the Iranian Protestors

INTERNATIONAL CYBER-DEMONSTRATION IN SUPPORT OF THE IRANIAN PRO-DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT



One aim: unite the world’s citizens of all origins, nationalities and horizons who believe in democracy and Human Rights, and who wish to express their support for the pro-democracy movement in Iran.



This initiative is completely independent, non-political and non-religious.



How to participate

- Join our group on facebook, flickr, add us on twitter & myspace

- make our logo your profile image on these social websites

- write a message of support as your headline & on our page(s)

- inform & send links to your friends & contacts

- write about this event in your blogs & websites, feature our image & add a link to us

- contribute to our webpage with comments, slogans, photos/videos/songs etc.


Facebook group: WWIran Facebook group
On twitter: WWIran Twitter
Myspace page: WWIran Myspace
Downloadable images on flickr: WWIran Flickr profile
Flickr group: WWIran Flickr group
YouTube Channel: WWIran YouTube

How you can make a difference

The pro-democracy protestors in Iran are isolated and vulnerable. A strong turn-out here is a means for us to support them in their battle & remind governments & official international bodies around the world to act in the best interest of these freedom-fighters.Iran has ratified both the Declaration of Human Rights (signed 1948) and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (signed 1968). Let us show the world that human dignity and Human Rights are values that transcend frontiers, and that our leaders should use as much energy in defending Human Rights as they do the nuclear issue.



“A dictatorship is more dangerous than a nuclear weapon.”



Context

As a result of the fraudulent Iranian presidential elections of the 12th of June 2009, millions of people took to the streets of Iran to protest against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; demanding a new and democratic election. These brave protestors, comprising all generations, demonstrated pacifically but faced harsh repression from government forces resulting in beatings, deaths, arrests, torture, forced confessions and mock show-trials. Despite this repression, the protest movement has continued to grow and is known as the ‘Green Movement’ (read below: ‘Why Green?’). In spite of this repression, the pro-democracy protestors in Iran have continued their mobilisation; taking to the streets, infiltrating official marches and finding new means to express themselves such as via the internet - despite the huge risks, including for their lives (two young men arrested before the elections, Reza Ali Zamani and Arash Rahmanipour, were executed on the 28th January 2010, with more feared).



Why Green?

Green is the symbolic colour under which the pro-democracy protestors march in Iran - it is traditionally the colour of hope. Although the colour of the presidential candidate Mussavi in June’s fraudulent elections, the protestors have since made this colour their own and are commonly called the ‘Green Movement’, which has grown to become a spontaneous independent citizen’s movement demanding democracy for Iran. Green is now the colour of all those who march for democracy in Iran.

Tuesday 23 February 2010

United Nations calls on Iran to release political prisoners



Iran rejects U.N. call to free political prisoners



GENEVA (Reuters) - Iran rejected calls to release all political prisoners and accept an international inquiry into violence after last June's contested presidential elections, an official U.N. report said.

WORLD (Editing by Louise Ireland and Jonathan LynnFeb 17, 2010
The Islamic Republic also refused to end the death penalty and said it would not make torture as an offence under its laws, according to the report on a discussion of its rights record in the world body's Human Rights Council.

In the discussion, held on Monday as part of the Universal Permanent Review (UPR) process which all U.N. members undergo every four years, it said many recommendations, including one from Chile urging guarantees of political and civil rights for all, including dissidents, were already in effect.

In Wednesday's report, approved by the 47-member Council, Iran had already declared it was an open democracy under the rule of law, pledged it would comply fully with international rights pacts and ensure that torture was eliminated.

The Council also registered Iranian promises to ensure religious freedom, freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate peacefully.

Critics of the UPR system, including many activist NGOs, say it gives too much room for countries to fend off detailed criticism on specific issues and allows them to make vague promises of future action.

"The proof of this pudding produced today will be in the eating," said one European diplomat asking for anonymity in referring to the Iran report. "We have seen promises like this before, but not much action to follow them up."

Despite agreeing to a Netherlands recommendation to "take measures to ensure that no torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment takes place," Iran rejected another from Spain to sign the U.N. anti-torture pact.

And it rejected a U.S. proposal that it allow the U.N. special investigator on torture, Austrian lawyer Manfred Nowak, to visit the country and have access to detention facilities -- although it has accepted a visit next year by Human Rights High Commissioner Navi Pillay.

Asserting earlier that the Iranian media was free and that the state did not block access to the Internet, it dismissed recommendations to "end severe restrictions on the right to free expression" and to stop harassment of journalists.

The Council has no mechanism to enforce implementation of pledges made in the UPR process, although countries are expected to report back on what they are doing.



Over 65 reporters face spying charges in Iran: rights group
UNITED NATIONS — More than 65 journalists, bloggers and writers have been detained in Iran since last June's disputed presidential polls and could be tried on charges of "spying" for the foreign media, a New York-based media rights group said Tuesday.
"The picture (in Iran) is pretty gloomy," Robert Mahoney, deputy director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) told a press conference here as he presented a worldwide 2009 survey titled "Attacks on the Press in 2009" and highlighted the detentions in Iran.
Maziar Bahari, an Iranian-Canadian correspondent for Newsweek who was jailed in Iran in June and released four months later, also told reporters that more than 100 journalists, bloggers and writers had been arrested at different periods since the elections, including the more than 65 who were still behind bars.
"They can all be accused of spying for the foreign media," he said, noting that spying carries the death penalty in Iran.
"The government has no respect for the privacy of individuals," Bahari said. "The strategy of the Iranian government is to make everyone's life, especially journalists' lives, insecure."
And in an alarming development, Mahoney said Iranian authorities were now using online social networks such as Facebook to target journalists and dissidents.
"The Iranian government is now using (Facebook) to go after and find dissidents and journalists, mining their data, seeing who their friends are,' he added. "They are turning the technology that should liberate the press against the press. This is a worrying trend."
Mahoney said the CPJ was "monitoring more and more closely the government's attempt to censor and filter content online, to surveille journalists, to get into their contact books and generally try to disrupt their ability to use the internet as a tool for freedom of expression."
Last week, the United States also accused Iran of trying "a near total information blockade" to deal with anti-government protesters, calling the move unprecedented.
Based on US monitoring of networks and other information, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said it appeared that "Iran has attempted a near total information blockade."
He added that his statement was based on US monitoring that showed the phone network was taken down, text messages blocked, satellite television jammed and the Internet "throttled."

No comments:

Post a Comment