‘Baluchistan’: Dignity, Freedom, and Justice for All

Written by ACI in 5 December 23

Along with the issues concerning discrimination, poverty and human rights, the question we aim to discuss further is the continuous disproportionate use of the death penalty and the systematic use of lethal force against unarmed civilian population leading to many deaths in the Baluchistan region with regard to the ICC Statute and crimes against humanity

The situation of civil, political, economic, social, cultural rights of the Iranian Baloch people

December 9, 2023 – Marshall Building, LSE – London

ACI is holding its fifty second international conference dedicated to the plight of the Iranian Baloch People to coincide with the seventy fifth anniversary of UN Human Rights Day with its theme of ‘Dignity, Freedom and Justice for All’.

This one day seminar proposes to discuss the wider dimensions of poverty, multidimensional deprivation and discrimination based on religious, ethnic and linguistic rights to give context to the grievances and challenges facing the Iranian Baloch People in over four decades. Along with the issues concerning discrimination, poverty and human rights, the question we aim to discuss further is the continuous disproportionate use of the death penalty and the systematic use of lethal force against unarmed civilian population leading to many deaths in the Baluchistan region with regard to the ICC Statute and crimes against humanity. December 9, 2023, also marks the 75th anniversary of the landmark Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention). This was the first human rights treaty adopted by the General Assembly.

Sima Sabet, Javaid Rehman

Panel 1 – 10:00 – 13:00 (ENGLISH)

Along with the issues concerning discrimination, poverty and human rights, the question we aim to discuss further is the continuous disproportionate use of the death penalty and the systematic use of lethal force against unarmed civilian population leading to many deaths in the Baluchistan region with regard to the ICC Statute and crimes against humanity:

Film: Panel 1 – Morning session (English)

  • Opening Remarks and Welcome – Dr Hossein Ladjevardi (Persian)
  • Dr Fereydoon Rahmani – Associate Professor, Programme leader – Human Rights & Equity Studies ‘Comparative look: international standards, State responsibilities and the situation in Balochistan’
  • Ms Sabah Bandouie -‘Balochistan Human Rights Group’ UN representative ‘44 years of intentional systematic injustice’
  • Fariba Baloch – Human Rights Defeder: ‘Testimony of a mother, a woman and a Baloch human rights defender’
  • Dr Sima Sabet – Iran Expert: ‘A Strategic look to Balochistan’

Film: Panel 2 – Morning Session (English)

  • Hon. Bijan R. Kian – Former senior official of the United States Government: ‘Intentional economic development deprivation of specific regions in Iran linked with international narcotics trafficking’
  • Nasser Boladai  – Chairperson ‘Baluchistan People’s Party’ : ‘Crimes against humanity or inconsequential killings?’
  • Professor Payam Akhavan – Professor of International Law, Special Adviser on Genocide, ICC (TBC): ‘What are crimes against humanity?’
  • Professor Javaid Rehman – United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran: ‘Balochistan and human rights’

Panel 2 –  14:00-18:00 (Persian)

Prospects for the future: Wider dimensions of poverty, multidimensional deprivation and discrimination based on religious, ethnic, and linguistic rights as told by activists and human rights defenders with special emphasis on the rights to education:

  • Dr Fereydoon Rahmani – Associate Professor, Programme leader: Human Rights & Equity Studies, ‘Comparative look: international standards, State responsibilities and the situation in Balochistan’
  • Mohsen Borhanzehi – Baloch Human Rights Defender: Testimonies from Iran: Maki Mosque 30 September 2022
  • Ms Fariba Baloch – Baloch Human Rights defender: Testimony of a human rights defender
  • Dr Roya Boroumand – Boroumand Foundation: Extra Judicial Killings and Executions
  • Ms Fariba Borhanzehi – Baloch child rights defender: Story of two little children – Hangol and Morid
  • Ms Shahin Nosrati – Writer, Women’s right defender: Women: Inequitable access to education and employment opportunities
  • Laebe Aram – Writer: ‘Intersectionality of culture, tradition and economic deprivation impacting the fate of Baloch women‘
  • Dr Abdolsatar Doshoki – political analyst: ‘Inequitable access to higher education’
  • Rahim Bandouie – ‘Baluchistan People’s Party’: ‘Economic discrimination and intentional poverty’
  • Masoud Raeisi – Journalist – ‘Poverty, multi-dimensional deprivation and prospects for the future‘
  • Messages from:

Press Release : ‘Tehran funds Hamas while starving children at home’.

Organised by Association des Chercheurs Iraniens (ACI) in collaboration with Azadi Network and Balochistan Human Rights Group