This technical sitting was held in joint cooperation of the ODVV and Public Diplomacy and the Medias of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for Iran and other Countries Friendship associations and a number of active NGOs active at the international level.
According to ODVV public relations, this sitting was held on 2 September 2014 at the Iranian Organization of International Conferences, with the aim of raising awareness of the target community towards UN human rights mechanisms and playing a more effective role in the UPR on Iran.
The sitting was opened by Mr. Rahimi the director of the Third Office of Public Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. While welcoming the audience, he sa the holding of this sitting within the framework of cooperation with NGOs and friendship associations and said: according to the arrangements of the Centre for Public Diplomacy and the Medias of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs a number of programmes are on the agenda to strengthen views and facilitation of the capacities of NGOs.
Continuing, Dr. Mahmoudreza Golshanpazhooh member of the ODVV board of directors, while giving a history of the formation of the modern human rights order, explained the structure and function of the Human Rights Council as one of the most important human rights bodies in the international order. He stressed on the importance of the newly founded UPR mechanism and stressed that the role playing in this mechanism towards the national interest of countries is very necessary.
Dr. Golshanpazhooh presented a history of the situation of Iran in the human rights order, before and after the Islamic revolution, and said: "Before the Islamic revolution Iran was in the west's camp and therefore was not seriously accused of human rights violations but Prevention of all forms of Discrimination and Promotion of Minorities Rights, claims against the human rights case file of Iran and adoption of a resolution against Iran within international organizations. And since then, apart from a short period of time between the years 2002 and 2011, the case files against Iran have always remained open. A look at the situation which began immediately after the Islamic revolution clearly shows selective and political approaches towards the human rights case file of Iran."
Dr. Golshanpazhooh also, presented a clear picture of the UPR and how countries human rights situation is reviewed in this mechanism, how civil society participates and the level and importance of the playing roles and effectiveness of NGOs in this mechanism.
The director of the ODVV, Mr. Siavash Rahpeik while categorising the general atmosphere dominant in the subject of human rights in Iran, he referred to the two parts of implicative and privative: "the indicators and parameters and various actors who in these environments are playing roles in the domestic and international arenas, who must correctly be identified."
He also said: "One of the most serious damages in the human rights area of Iran, which makes the human rights situation more difficult is the lack of correct distinction between various implicative and privative subjects which requires the careful attention of the authorities.
At the end of the sitting there was a Q&A session by the participants of the sitting, and there were repeated calls for the holding of similar sittings.