Tuesday June 30th 2009, 6pm

Venue: Thatcher Room, Portcullis House, Houses of Parliament

Speakers included:

Ivan Lewis MP, Minister of State with responsibility for the Middle East, Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Nazanin Afshin-Jam, President, Stop Child Executions

Geraldine Van Bueren, Professor of International Human Rights Law, Queen Mary, University of London

Drewery Dyke, Researcher, Amnesty International

Chair: Alistair Carmichael MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for the Abolition of the Death Penalty

The Foreign Policy Centre, in partnership with Stop Child Executions, hosted the launch of a major new pamphlet entitled 'From Cradle to Coffin: A report on Child Executions in Iran'. Written by Nazanin Afshin-Jam, President of Stop Child Execution, her team and Tahirih Danesh, FPC Senior Research Associate, the report aims to provide a comprehensive documentation and analysis of Iran's executions of minors since the 1979 Revolution. It highlights inconsistencies in the Iranian legal system and contradictions between Iran's record of executing minors and its international human rights commitments. The report puts forward clear recommendations for action by the international community and human rights campaigners.

To download the report, please see: http://fpc.org.uk/fsblob/1063.pdf

Date: Tuesday 25 November, 6.15-7.45pm

Venue: Wilson Room, Portcullis House, Houses of Parliament, Victoria Embankment, London SW1A 2LW

Speakers:

• Mike Gapes MP, Chair, Foreign Affairs Select Committee
• Baroness Afshar OBE, Professor of Politics and Womens' Studies, University of York
• Kaveh Moussavi, Head of Public Interest Law, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford
• Nazanin Afshin-Jam, President of the Stop Child Executions Campaign and Iranian Recording Artist

Chair: Stephen Twigg, Director, Foreign Policy Centre

The Foreign Policy Centre launched a new pamphlet, 'A revolution without rights? Women, Kurds and Baha'is searching for equality in Iran', written by Geoffrey Cameron and Tahirih Danesh on 25 November. In the pamphlet, the authors examine the religious, legal and social obstacles to equality faced by women, Baha'is and Kurds in Iran, comparing the experiences of the groups. They also evaluate the Iranian government's compliance with its own constitution and look at how Iran's treatment of women and minorities measures up to the international agreements it has signed. The pamphlet lays out practical steps that British and European policy-makers can take to support the equal treatment of women and minorities with their fellow citizens in Iran.

To purchase a copy of the pamphlet, please see: http://fpc.org.uk/publications

Download A Revolution Without Rights? in full (3.14 megabyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

Date: 18 March 2008, 6pm to 7.30pm

Venue: Committee Room 15, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA

Speakers:

Baroness Shirley Williams

Nazenin Ansari, Diplomatic Editor, Kayhan

Professor Malcolm Chalmers, Professorial Fellow, RUSI

Mark Fitzpatrick, Senior Fellow for Non-proliferation, International Institute for Strategic Studies

Chair: Stephen Twigg, Director, Foreign Policy Centre, and Chair, Progress

The discussion at this event considered how progressives can respond to the challenge of Iran. The seminar sought to consider the possibilities of engagement with the government of Iran over the nuclear issue, regional security and trade co-operation. It also examined government human rights abuses and ways in which progressives in Britain could build a 'dialogue of civilisations' with reformers in Iran.

Held in association with Progress www.progressonline.org.uk

By Adam Hug.

The Foreign Policy Centre made a submission to the UN UPR of Iran on the basis of its two most recent Iran publications 'From Cradle to Coffin: A Report on Child Executions in Iran' and 'A Revolution without Rights: Women, Kurds and Baha'is Searching For Equality in Iran'.

The FPC's information featured significantly in the UN Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights summary of stakeholder submissions. To see the UN OHCHR report visit:

http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session7/IR/A_HRC_WG6_7_IRN_3_E.pdf

Download FPC UPR Submission on Iran (210 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

By Chris Phillips. Source: www.majalla.com

After four years of isolation, Syria is back from the cold. Visitors from the US Congress and Western-aligned Arab states have all recently arrived in Damascus echoing President Obama's sentiment of engagement with the Ba'ath regime. Despite uncertainty surrounding the peace intentions of the new Israeli government, many in Washington hope Tel Aviv will soon resume peace talks with a seemingly compliant Damascus. By dangling the occupied Golan Heights as reward, it has been argued that President Bashar al-Asad can somehow be 'flipped' from his long-standing alliance with Iran, leading to a Sadat-esq realignment with the West. Yet such an assessment misunderstands the nature of the Iran-Syria relationship. With or without a peace with Israel, Damascus has no interest in forsaking Tehran.

Full text 

By Mariam Ghorbannejad.

To comment on this article, please visit the FPC Blog: http://foreignpolicycentre.blogspot.com

November 4th 2008 was by all accounts an historic day for the United States of America. Not only had the nation elected their first African-American president but they had done so by a landslide in the popular vote unseen since Democratic nominee Lyndon Johnson's win in 1964.

Full text 

Nazanin Afshin-Jam, Tahirih Danesh

Download Persian (Farsi) translation of 'From Cradle to Coffin' (420 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

The full text of 'From Cradle to Coffin: A Report on Child Executions in Iran' translated into Persian (Farsi)is now available to download here.

Nazanin Afshin-Jam, Tahirih Danesh

£4.95, plus £1 p+p. Buy it on CentralBooks.co.uk

Download From Cradle to Coffin: A Report on Child Executions in Iran (2.91 megabyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

'From Cradle to Coffin: A Report on Child Executions in Iran' lays out the shocking history of child executions since the creation of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It highlights the fact that in a country where 47% of the population is under 18, over the last five years there have been 33 known child executions while over 160 juveniles wait on death row for 'crimes' including homosexuality, sex outside of marriage and apostasy. It was written by Nazanin Afshin-Jam, who addition to being President of SCE is a singer/songwriter and former Miss World 1st Runner up and Tahirih Danesh, FPC Senior Research Associate.

The report examines the Iranian legal system, its religious groundings and Iran's commitments under international law. It provides detailed case studies of young people who have been executed or are on death row. Iran has indicated its willingness to end juvenile executions but rhetoric must now be replaced with action. If Iran continues to execute juvenile offenders, which violates its obligations under international human rights law, such abuses should not go with impunity. The report makes a number of key recommendations for action to the Iranian Authorities, the international community and to activists.

Tahirih Danesh, Geoffrey Cameron

£4.95, plus £1 p+p.

Download A Revolution Without Rights? (3.14 megabyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

In this Foreign Policy Centre pamphlet, written by Geoffrey Cameron and Tahirih Danesh, the authors examine the religious, legal and social obstacles to equality faced by women, Baha'is and Kurds in Iran, comparing the experiences of the groups.

Cameron and Danesh evaluate the Iranian government's compliance with its own constitution and look at how Iran's treatment of women and minorities measures up to the international agreements it has signed. The pamphlet lays out practical steps that British and European policy-makers can take to support the equal treatment of women and minorities with their fellow citizens in Iran.

Tuesday June 30th 2009, 6pm

Venue: Thatcher Room, Portcullis House, Houses of Parliament

Speakers included:

Ivan Lewis MP, Minister of State with responsibility for the Middle East, Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Nazanin Afshin-Jam, President, Stop Child Executions

Geraldine Van Bueren, Professor of International Human Rights Law, Queen Mary, University of London

Drewery Dyke, Researcher, Amnesty International

Chair: Alistair Carmichael MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for the Abolition of the Death Penalty

The Foreign Policy Centre, in partnership with Stop Child Executions, hosted the launch of a major new pamphlet entitled 'From Cradle to Coffin: A report on Child Executions in Iran'. Written by Nazanin Afshin-Jam, President of Stop Child Execution, her team and Tahirih Danesh, FPC Senior Research Associate, the report aims to provide a comprehensive documentation and analysis of Iran's executions of minors since the 1979 Revolution. It highlights inconsistencies in the Iranian legal system and contradictions between Iran's record of executing minors and its international human rights commitments. The report puts forward clear recommendations for action by the international community and human rights campaigners.

To download the report, please see: http://fpc.org.uk/fsblob/1063.pdf

Date: Tuesday 25 November, 6.15-7.45pm

Venue: Wilson Room, Portcullis House, Houses of Parliament, Victoria Embankment, London SW1A 2LW

Speakers:

• Mike Gapes MP, Chair, Foreign Affairs Select Committee
• Baroness Afshar OBE, Professor of Politics and Womens' Studies, University of York
• Kaveh Moussavi, Head of Public Interest Law, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford
• Nazanin Afshin-Jam, President of the Stop Child Executions Campaign and Iranian Recording Artist

Chair: Stephen Twigg, Director, Foreign Policy Centre

The Foreign Policy Centre launched a new pamphlet, 'A revolution without rights? Women, Kurds and Baha'is searching for equality in Iran', written by Geoffrey Cameron and Tahirih Danesh on 25 November. In the pamphlet, the authors examine the religious, legal and social obstacles to equality faced by women, Baha'is and Kurds in Iran, comparing the experiences of the groups. They also evaluate the Iranian government's compliance with its own constitution and look at how Iran's treatment of women and minorities measures up to the international agreements it has signed. The pamphlet lays out practical steps that British and European policy-makers can take to support the equal treatment of women and minorities with their fellow citizens in Iran.

To purchase a copy of the pamphlet, please see: http://fpc.org.uk/publications

Download A Revolution Without Rights? in full (3.14 megabyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

Date: 18 March 2008, 6pm to 7.30pm

Venue: Committee Room 15, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA

Speakers:

Baroness Shirley Williams

Nazenin Ansari, Diplomatic Editor, Kayhan

Professor Malcolm Chalmers, Professorial Fellow, RUSI

Mark Fitzpatrick, Senior Fellow for Non-proliferation, International Institute for Strategic Studies

Chair: Stephen Twigg, Director, Foreign Policy Centre, and Chair, Progress

The discussion at this event considered how progressives can respond to the challenge of Iran. The seminar sought to consider the possibilities of engagement with the government of Iran over the nuclear issue, regional security and trade co-operation. It also examined government human rights abuses and ways in which progressives in Britain could build a 'dialogue of civilisations' with reformers in Iran.

Held in association with Progress www.progressonline.org.uk