A year after the world was stunned by images of a 17-year-old girl being stoned to death in Iraqi Kurdistan, an international panel will debate the rise of honour killings, violence against women, gender apartheid and political Islam in Kurdistan/Iraq and the Middle East. High-profile speakers will include women’s rights activists, academics and experts from Kurdistan, Iraq, Iran, Sweden, New Zealand and Britain.

Recent reports on the Islamic regime of Iran’s crackdown on women who are ‘badly’ veiled (bad-hejab) and their resistance to the regime’s campaign of arrest and harassment has been reported quite extensively in comparison to other similar events over the years.

A coalition of leading human rights groups from around the world have called on UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour to rebuke Iran for its campaign of Holocaust denial, on the day the UN marks the genocide of Europe's Jews with ceremonies in New York and Geneva.

Available as a PDF file.

IHEU and two other NGOs have issued a press release at the UN in Geneva, demanding that the Iranian President be prosecuted under the Genocide Convention, following his call for Israel to be "wiped off the map". Aussi disponible en franà§ais . Anche disponibile in italiano . New: also available in Arabic .

GENEVA, 27 January 2006 -- The call by the Iranian President for the destruction of the State of Israel in defiance of article 2:4 of the United Nations Charter demands a firm reaction from the international community. On this, the first International Day of Commemoration of Holocaust Victims, we call upon states to invoke the Genocide Convention and bring the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran to trial before the International Criminal Court.

The Rise of a Massive Secularist Movement

Azam Kamguian

Azam Kamguian
We Need to Fight the Battle for Enlightenment

I am delighted to be here today to speak at such a wonderful conference. Here, I talk as an apostate, an atheist who left Islam and religion altogether at the age of 15, a veteran activist of women's rights who survived the atrocities committed by political Islam in Iran.

Political Islam and the Secularist Liberationist Women’s Movement in Iran

That this Congress views with grave concern the frivolous and vindictive use of blasphemy laws, having negative impact on the freedom of conscience of dissenters and minorities. We call for a strict separation of state from religion, and call on all countries, particularly Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom to bring their domestic legislation in line with universal standards, freedom of religion and belief, as expressed in the UN Declaration on Freedom of Religion and Belief.

Whereas, the International Humanist and Ethical Union affirms the worth and dignity of every human being and has, through past resolutions expressed its opposition to all cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, and

Whereas, the continuation of the death penalty on the statute books is in dissonance with the right to life recognised by Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and