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Symposium
Announcement
Human Rights
Symposium 2006
A Glance at Systematic Violation of
Human Rights in Iran
Toronto,
January 27, 2007
New Date:
January 27, 2007
Time: 11:00 am –
6:30 pm
Place: University of Toronto –
Hart
House - Debate Room
The first Human Rights Symposium
organized by Iranian Queer Organization (formerly PGLO) will
take place in Toronto, Canada.
This symposium serves to highlight
the systematic marginalizing, stigmatizing and violating basic
human rights of sexual, ethnic, religious and political
minorities in Iran as well as women and children. It will also
explore the ongoing struggle for civil and civic rights in Iran
and investigate the myriad forms of discrimination, persecution
and torture and their consequences for people living at the
margin of Iranian society.
Iranian law defines homosexuality as
crime punishable by death, denies women’s equal rights with men,
persecutes political dissidents and civil and human rights
activists, discriminates against Muslim minorities such as
Sunnis, brands Baha’is as heretics, harasses Jews as potential
collaborators with the state of Israel, deprives ethnic and
linguistic minorities of speaking in their mother tongues,
refuses to ban death penalty for minors and gives free hand to
child abusers.
Iran’s violation of human rights has
been repeatedly documented and reported by Human Rights
Organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty
International. Human Rights Watch in its 2002 reports that:
“The Council of
Guardians repeatedly blocked bills passed by the Parliament in
such areas as women’s rights, family law, the prevention of
torture, and electoral reform. The judiciary, deployed as one of
the conservative’s strongest weapons, further undermined the
rule of law with arbitrary closures of newspapers and
imprisonment of political activists.”
http://pglo.net/english/hrw-report.pdf
In this symposium, the expert
panelists will discuss the current status of Iranian people who
live at the border of Iranian social, political, religious,
ethnic, linguistic, sexual, and gender lines. It further
explores the different ways in which these categories are
legally, culturally and socially constructed so as to perpetuate
and maintain further marginalization and otherizing millions of
people.
This symposium is an initiative of
Iranian Queer Organization (IRQO) based in Toronto. Its aim is
to create a collaborative space with other Human Rights
defenders and organizations to advocate human rights in Iran. As
such it invites all the interested individuals and organizations
to join hands with IRQO in its effort. Please supports us in our
struggle; do not leave us alone.
All further information will be posted on the symposium web
site:
http://www.irqo.net/hrs/hrs2006.htm
IRQO (PGLO) web site:
http://www.irqo.net/
Individuals and organizations
interested to support this symposium can donate through the
security PayPal in our web site by clicking on our donate icon:
http://www.irqo.net/ |
