Right to life and Death penalty in Iran – 1

Written by ACI in 5 December 09

Right to Life and the Death Penalty

A Faltering Regime and

the Deployment of Violence and Executions

Cologne – Germany

5-6 December 2009

In view of the widespread deployment of violence, intimidation, rape, imprisonment and the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment ‘the death penalty’ of the last few months in Iran, ‘Association des Chercheurs Iraniens’ has organised an emergency conference in Cologne-Germany with the hope of reaching a coordinated and concerted effort in opposing and working towards abolishing the death penalty in Iran in all cases regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender, or the method used by the regime to kill the prisoner. In the conference examined the following key issues:

• The Sociological Aspect of the Use of the Death Penalty
• Human Rights: The Violation of Fundamental Rights In Iran
• The Use of Violence and the Death Penalty Against Iran’s Ethnic Groups
• The Use of Violence and the Death Penalty Against Iran’s Religious Groups
• A Realistic Assessment of the Regime’s Instability and the Deployment of Violence And Executions

Saturday – December 5, 2009

Panel One – Violation of Human Rights

Roya Kashefi – ACI Human Rights Committee

Mina Zarin – Human Rights Defender

Rahim Rashidi – International Federation of Journalists

Assad Seif – Writer

Jahanbakhsh Rostami – Kurd Cultural Centre – Germany

Panel Two – Punishment and State-Sponsored Violence in Iran

Sirus Malakooty – ACI

Tonia Valioghli – ‘The Mourning Mothers’

Nastaran Amjadi – Human Rights Defender

Mitra Khalatbari – Jouranlist

Fereydoon Ahmadi – Political activist

Niloofar Bayzaei

Sunday – December 6, 2009

Panel Three – The Death Penalty and Violence Against Iran’s Ethnicities

Hossein Ladjevardi – ACI

Nosrat Teimourzadeh – Komala and Communist Party of Iran Central Committee

Mohamad Mosri – Komala Iran Kurdistan

Abdolsattar Doshoki –  Baluchestan Studies Centre

Voria Mohamadi – Komala of the Toilers of  KurdistanIran

Khaled Hassanpour – Kurdistan Democratic Party

Panel Four– The Death Penalty and Violence against religious groups in Iran

Navid Fazel – ACI

Asghar Abdi – Researcher

Isabel Schayani – Journalist

Panel Five – The Faltering State and the Rise of Violence and Executions in Iran

Hossein Ladjevardi – ACI

Foad Taban – Editor in Chief Akhbar Rooz

Jamshid Farooghi – Head of Deutsche Welle – Persian

Behzad Karimi – The Organization of Iranian People’s Fadaian (Majority)

Hamila Nisgilli – Rahe Kargar Central Committee

Abdullah Mohtadi – Secretary General of Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan

ACI maintains an impartial and an unprejudiced approach to all its activities and respects all schools of thought. We work actively with colleagues from all over the world, and hope to contribute towards a better future for Iran. We welcome and invite the participation of all those interested in the future of Iran.