According to ODVV public relations in this meeting, while welcoming the guests, ODVV director Dr. Siavash Rahpeik introduced the ODVV. He reminded the practice of creating a balance between the domestic decision makers with international bodies in the human rights debate and added: “Our advice to domestic and international officials is to create a balance in their procedures and decisions.”
The ODVV director also introduced the various departments and activities of the Organization such as the education and research, communications, and rehabilitation department and some of the international projects that these departments had conducted and also the Geneva Representative Office of the ODVV. At the end Dr. Rahpeik expressed hope in future cooperation and partnership between the ODVV and the Berghof Foundation.
Professor Dr. Hans Joachim Giessmann, the executive director of the Foundation, while expressing pleasure in being in Iran, introduced the Berghof foundation. He said: “The Berghof Foundation of Germany, is a nongovernmental and non-profit organization which pursues the prevention of violence in social relations and expansion of a culture of peace, with a stress on the creation of an environment for dialogue and development. This Foundation was launched in 1971 in Tübingen in Germany, but some years later, with the merger of other NGOs within it, it set up its headquarters in Berlin, and the teaching peace and universal learning section is in Tübingen.”
He also pointed out the experiences of the ODVV and expressed interest in this visit which may lead to extension of education and research cooperation between the two organizations.