“If one country sincerely wants to support democracy in another country that is under dictatorial rule, the only thing to do is to support the freedom fighters who stand for the democratic institutions of that country. Done this way, the sapling of democracy will bear the flower of freedom.”

– Shirin Ebadi, Iranian human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Keynote Speaker

Shirin Ebadi

In 2003, Shirin Ebadi (1947) an Iranian lawyer, human rights activist, and the founder of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, became the first ever Iranian awarded a Nobel Prize. She was awarded the honor for her pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, with a particular focus on the rights of women, children, and refugees.

In 1975, Ebadi became the first woman in Iran to sit as a judge. That all changed after the revolution when she was forbidden to continue as a judge and forced to become a clerk. For 23 years she was not even allowed to practice law in Iran. In 1993, she finally gained a permit to practice. Ten years later, she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.

“Through Global Day of Action for Iran, we will raise the international public’s awareness toward the Iranian people’s fight for democracy and ask Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to travel to Iran at once in order to stop the escalation of violence and to investigate the human rights violations committed by the government of Iran.” Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Laureate, 2003

Introducing the keynote speaker will be Halleh Ghorashi. Since September 2005, Halleh Ghorashi has held the prestigious position of PaVEM-chair in Management of Diversity and Integration in the Department of Culture, Organization, and Management at the VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She was born in Iran and came to the Netherlands in 1988. In 1994, she completed her MA degree in Anthropology at the VU University Amsterdam.

She received her Ph.D. in 2001 from the University of Nijmegen. She is the author of Ways to Survive, Battles to Win: Iranian Women Exiles in the Netherlands and the US (2003, Nova Science Publishers, New York) and several articles on questions of identity, Diaspora, and Iranian women’s movement. She is conducting research, questioning: Why is it important to be culturally sensitive in this culturalist world and how can this cultural sensitivity be created while at the same time avoiding culturalism?’

Kader Abdolah

Kader Abdolah (Arak, 1954) an Iranian writer, mastered Dutch by reading the childre’s books of Annie M.G. Schmidt children books along with Dutch poetry. In 1993, he debuted with a short story collection, The Eagles ( De Adelaars), which was awarded the important debut prize, The Gouden Ezelsoor.

The novel, The House of the Mosque (Het Huis van de Moskee) has sold over 200,000 copies in the Netherlands. The novel was chosen as the second best Dutch novel of all time by the Dutch public.

Kader Abdolah writes a weekly column in the Volkskrant under the pseudonym Mirza. Mirza in Persian means ‘chronicler’ and is also the name of his deceased father.

Source: http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kader_Abdolah

Dr. Payam Akhavan

Professor Akhavan teaches and researches in the areas of public international law, international criminal law and transitional justice, with a particular interest in human rights and multiculturalism, war crimes prosecutions, UN reform and the prevention of genocide.

He was previously the Boulton Senior Fellow at McGill, Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, and Visiting Lecturer and Senior Fellow at Yale Law School and the Yale University Centre for International and Area Studies. He has published extensively including “Beyond Impunity: Can International Criminal Justice Prevent Future Atrocities?” (2001) 95 American Journal of International Law 7 (www.asil.org/ajil/recon2.pdf) selected by the International Library of Law and Legal Theory as one of “the most significant published journal essays in contemporary legal studies.” He is also the author of the Report on the Work of the Office of the Special Advisor of the United Nations Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide (2005).

Professor Akhavan was the first Legal Advisor to the Prosecutor’s Office of the International Criminal Tribunals for Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and played a key role in the development of its foundational jurisprudence. He has considerable experience in post-conflict peace-building and international dispute settlement. In recognition of his contributions to promoting accountability for human rights violations, he was selected by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader (www.younggloballeaders.org) in 2005.

He’s now a member of a Defence team for Gotovina at the ICTY ( International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia).

Source: http://people.mcgill.ca/payam.akhavan/

Ton van den Brandt

Ton van den Brandt (1971) is Senior Political Affairs Officer bij Amnesty International Nederland. Na zijn afstuderen in Nederlands recht in 1996 werkte hij als journalist en publiceerde hij twee boeken voordat hij in 2005 cum laude afstudeerde in internationaal recht. Sindsdien werkte hij onder meer als juridisch adviseur bij het ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken en voor de afdeling Humanitair Oorlogsrecht van het Nederlandse Rode Kruis. Bij Amnesty International is Van den Brandt verantwoordelijk voor de politieke contacten en lobby met betrekking tot een aantal thema’s en regio’s, waaronder het Midden-Oosten en de Golfstaten.

Marije Cornelissen

Behalve Europarlementarier voor Groen Links, is Cornelissen directeur van het Art. 1 Bureau Discriminatiezaken Noord-Holland Noord. Voorheen heeft zij gewerkt als beleidsmedewerker vrouwenrechten voor de Groene Fractie in het Europees Parlement en als medewerker op het landelijk bureau van GroenLinks. Naast haar werkzame leven is Cornelissen al jaren actief in verschillende functies binnen GroenLinks. Zij is momenteel ook raadsvoorzitter van de stadsdeelraad Amsterdam Zuideramstel. In het verleden heeft ze deel uitgemaakt van het partijbestuur en was ze voorzitter van het Feministisch Netwerk. Ook is Cornelissen afgevaardigde van GroenLinks bij de Europese Groene Partij (EGP) geweest.

Amal van Hees

Ms. Van Hees jurist, Arab & Islamic world specialist, works for Amnesty International Netherlands where she the coordinator Middle East & North Africa. She is a former UNESCO staff member and a former IOM program officer for the Balkans and has been teaching NGO studies and capacity building at the American Webster University in Leiden.

 

 

Gerard Oosterwijk

Op 2 mei 2009 werd Gerard Oosterwijk (24) verkozen als nieuwe bestuursvoorzitter van de Landelijke Studenten Vakbond (LSVb). Het komende studiejaar gaat hij zich fulltime bezighouden met de belangen van alle HBO- en WO-studenten in Nederland. “Ik wil veel leren hier, het is een unieke kans.”

Gerard Oosterwijk groeide op in Deventer en heeft een jongere broer. Tijdens zijn studie rechtsgeleerdheid was hij actief als jongerenvertegenwoordiger Europese Zaken voor de Nationale Jeugdraad, was hij lid van het onderwijsbestuur van zijn faculteit en werd hij lijsttrekker en voorzitter van studentenpartij Bewust en Progressief (BeP). Zijn hobby’s zijn reizen, golfsurfen en hardlopen.

From: http://www.lsvb.nl/nieuws/090602-interview-voorzitter.html

Marietje Schaake

Marietje Schaake is a member of European Parliament for D66, part of the pro-European ALDE Group. She sits on the committees for Culture, Media and Education, as well as the committee on Foreign Affairs. Previously Marietje worked as an independent advisor in the field of Transatlantic relations, diversity, human and civil rights. Later this year, her book on the relationship between transatlantic affairs and the debate and policy on Muslims in the West will be published. ´Public outcry reminds us that Europeans know democracy is worth
fighting for, and that’s exactly what the Iranians are doing now. We must always stand strongly for those who are denied the right to free
elections and free expression.´

Krista van Velzen

Krista van Velzen (1974) is geboren in het Friese Sint Nicolaasga en opgegroeid in Veenwouden, een dorpje tussen Dokkum en Leeuwarden. Na de VWO studeerde Krista Bos- en Natuurbeheer in Arnhem. Al snel besloot ze het studeren te laten voor wat het was en ‘aan het echte leven’ te beginnen.

Politiek en activisme hebben we min of meer met de paplepel ingegoten gekregen. In 1981 en 1983, ik was nog niet eens tien, liep ik al mee met de grote anti-kruisrakettendemonstraties in Amsterdam en Den Haag.

Van Velzen trok door Europa en voerde met verschillende mensen en organisaties actie voor een beter milieu. Zo werkte ze onder andere in Praag voor de energiecampagne van de Tsjechische afdeling van Milieudefensie, waar ze meehielp om Oost-Europese jongeren te trainen in milieucampagnewerk. Krista zette er een team op van jongeren die op het platteland van Tsjechië de handen uit de mouwen staken om huishoudens energie-efficiënter te maken: de clean energy brigades. Ook organiseerde Krista een actievoettocht van Brussel naar Moskou tegen kernenergie en kernwapens, zette een ecologisch centrum op in Gent en werkte daar in het biologisch eetcafé.

Er zijn al genoeg politici die in de Kamer spreken met de wijsheid uit nota’s en onderzoeken van dure bureau’s, maar de signalen van de gewonen man, waar gewone mensen in depraktijk tegen op botsen, dat hoor je niet genoeg in Den Haag.

In 1998 werd Van Velzen fractiemedewerker in de Tweede Kamer voor de SP. In 2002 werd ze verkozen tot Tweede Kamerlid, in 2003 en in 2006 werd ze opnieuw gekozen. Krista van Velzen voerde diverse acties tegen het vervoer van gevaarlijke stoffen over het spoor. Ze werd in 2006 verkozen tot Dierenbeschermer van het Jaar. Ze maakte deel uit van de parlementaire onderzoekscommissie naar het TBS-beleid in 2005-2006. Op dit moment is ze onder andere woordvoerder gevangeniswezen en dierenwelzijn.

For more information click here.

PERFORMERS

Babak Amiri and Selma

More about Babak Amiri can be found here:
http://www.myspace.com/babakodoestan

And more about Selma here:

http://www.myspace.com/selmapeelen

Ron Buitenhuis

Ron Buitenhuis (1960) is a singer-songwriter and a science writer for the newspaper De Limburger. Buitenhuis grew up with the (protest) songs of Leonard Cohen, James Taylor, Bob Dylan, and Nick Drake. He is currently working on his third cd, which is entitled Paradise of the Mind.

The horrific images of a dying Neda Soltan on Youtube were the inspiration for this seventies style protest song, We Believe. It was written in response to the recent events in Iran, but in fact it applies to people all over the world who are fighting for democracy and individual freedom.

The endless march of democracy
on the drums of solidarity – will rise

DJ Ishtar

DJ Ishtar (1978) settled in The Netherlands when she was 12 years old. In 2003 she became the resident DJ of club Nomads in Amsterdam (Supper Club). In the following years she developed her approach, merging the two worlds of traditional ethnic music and electronica: the sound she now calls ‘Worldtronica’. Since January 2007 DJ Ishtar has been hosting her own weekly radio show on the national Dutch radio 6 (NPS).

Persian Rapper: Shahin Najafi

Shahin Najafi (b. 1980) is a Persian rapper based in Cologne, Germany. He was expelled from Tehran University for expressing ideas that did not conform to expectations. In 2005, Shahin immigrated to Germany where he continues his artistic activities. He has worked with various Persian underground bands such as “Tapesh 2012“. He has performed many songs to protest the situation in Iran. “Maa Mard Nistim” [We Are Not Men], which is included on this page, is dedicated to Iran’s women right movement. (For more information, visit Shahin Najafi’s website in Persian: www.shahinnajafi.com)

Diana Ozon

Diana Ozon was born in 1959 in Amsterdam, started her own management publication company in 1977, and grew to become an enthusiastic stage phenomenon within the literary world. In the spring of 2009, her collection, Heart Span (Hartspanne), a compilation of love poems, was published.

Throughout her career, Ozon has combined disciplines and embraced change. In 1995, she was the first Dutch author to give a lecture via the World Wide Web and last year she released the album ‘Voorbindbuik’with the band De Drie Boeddha’s . Together with the composer & guitarist Will Schmal she will perform (read) two poems.

For more information on Diana Ozon, please visit: www.diana-ozon.nl

For more information on Wil Schmal, please visit: www.wilschmal.com

The Host for the Program

Bahram Sadeghi (1967, Iran) has worked since 1998 as a director and as a host for public TV programming in the Netherlands. In addition, Sadeghi is a freelance writer published in various national newspapers and weeklies.

Mr Sadeghi has no hobbies.

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