UNPO joins global call for urgent action on arbitrarily detained minority rights defenders in Iran
36 civil society and human rights organizations, including the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO), have jointly made an urgent appeal to the international community to secure the release of Kudish acitvists and others arbitrarily detained in Iran. The UNPO has long been campaiging for recognition of the grave danger than Iranian minority rights defenders face, both in Iran and overseas. In August 2020, UNPO members from around the world representing some 300 million unrepresented people, jointly issued a resolution calling for urgent action to be taken to protect Iran's minorities. It is deeply disturbed by significant crackdown targetting the Kurdish community, as well as other minorities such as the Ahwaz and Baloch, that has seen widespread arbitrary arrests and continued executions of minority rights defenders in Iran. It urges the international community to listen to the voices of the 36 civil society and human rights organizations who have signed this latest appeal, constituting as it does both the global voice for human rights in general, and the voice of human rights defenders in Iran. The text of the appeal is printed below.