Arcdh Arc – Association for Human Rights of Azerbaijanis of Iran "ArcDH"
Towards a safer space for minorities: positive initiatives to address online hate speech: the role of national human rights institutions, human rights organizations, civil society and other stakeholders
Dear Chairperson,
We believe that in order to speak positively, we must prepare the means to defend minorities through legislations to defend their minority nations.
I refer to Resolution 47/135 of 18 December 1992 also for inspiration I refer to Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights concerning the rights of persons belonging to national or linguistic minorities.
The States must protect the existence of national or various identities of minorities in their respective territories and encourage the establishment of conditions for promoting their identity.
The legislations of the States for the protections of minority nations must be scrutinized. We hope to state once and for all that some States do not comply with the United Nations statements organizations have an important role to play on this subject, but some are suspicious of the issue of minority nations. We argue that it is the role of all and in the first place that of the United Nations to take decision and say no to the violence against national minorities in Iran, in particular against the Azerbaijani Turkish nation in Iran.
We ask the United Nations to take seriously the subject of ethnic nationalities in the world and also in Iran because 70% of Iran are ethnic nationalities and minorities, of which more than 30 million are Azerbaijani Turks. We are not happy to see that the UN reports just pay lip services to minority nations in Iran at the end of their reports.
There are definitely no checks-and-balances in Iran to ensure that the victims of hate speeches are protected. Our NGO, ArcDH, demands that effective steps are taken now.
Arc Association for the defence of Human Rights of Azerbaijanis in Iran ArcDH
For and on behalf of ArcDH