EventsGeneva, Jun. 16 – An international rights group led by the former First Lady of France held a press conference in Geneva on Tuesday to denounce what it called “a conspiracy by the Iranian regime” to prevent victims of its human rights abuses from presenting their cases to the United Nations. France Libertés held the conference, attended by the former Mayor of Geneva, the head of World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), and a volley of renowned human rights lawyers at the Swiss Press Club, condemning a recent decision by the UN to “bow down to the regime’s demands” and blacklist members of the main Iranian opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran, who routinely met with officials of the world body over the past 26 years about Iran’s human rights abuses.
Danielle Mitterrand, president of the rights group, said at the conference that given the recent reform program the UN is trying to adopt, it was disconcerting that human rights activists, including a member of her organization, were being prevented from entering the UN building at the request of one of the world’s worst violators of human rights. “The UN is not living up to its image”, she added.
Christian Ferrazino, the former Mayor of Geneva and member of the City Council, recalled the work of Prof. Kazem Rajavi, brother of Iranian Resistance leader Massoud Rajavi who was gunned down by terrorists working for the Iranian embassy in 1990. Ferrazino said that Rajavi was a “champion of human rights” in particular for his work in exposing the Iranian regime at the UN in what led to successive condemnations of the clerical state by the world body.
“We are here to tell you that the city of Geneva is on your side”, he said to a delegation from the NCRI present at the conference, adding that he was extremely concerned that the UN had given in to pressures by Tehran to stop NCRI activists from exposing the regime.
Ferrazino said that the City Council had presented a joint letter to the Swiss Foreign Minister protesting the decision.
Eric Sottas, head of OMCT, also censured the world body for taking steps against the Iranian opposition, adding that pretty soon, no one would be able to present their case at the UN.