European Parliament To Host Meeting Of Leading Iranian Dissidents

Leading Iranian opposition figures will be meeting in Brussels, Belgium for a two-day conference on 1-2 April 2009 to discuss the prospects for democratization and federalism in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Entitled ‘Human Rights and the Question of Democratization and Federalism in Iran', the conference panels will discuss federalism's potential to accommodate Iran's patchwork of ethnicities. Discussion will dwell on the issues of autonomy, democratization, good governance, and press freedom before a final debate on the question of what the future may hold for Iran.

The conference will be opened at 9.00am in Room P4B001 of the European Parliament's Paul-Henri Spaak building by Angelika Beer MEP, member of the Greens/European Free Alliance Group and chairwoman of the European Parliament delegation for relations with Iran. Opening speeches will also be made by the co-sponsor of the conference, Marco Cappato MEP, vice-chairman of the delegation for relations with the Mashreq countries. Their remarks will be accompanied by contributions from Graham Watson MEP (tbc), leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) in the European Parliament, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne MEP, member of the ALDE Group and chairwoman of the European Parliament's delegation for relations with Iraq, Paulo Casaca MEP, member of the Socialist Group and member of the delegation for relations with Iran, and Senator Marco Perduca of the Italian Senate.

Commenting on the situation in Iran will be Nasser Boladai of the Congress of Nationalities for a Federal Iran (CNFI) and Marino Busdachin, General Secretary of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO). Representatives of Iran's Ahwaz, Azerbaijani, Baloch, and Kurdish organizations will also feature as key panelists.

The conference is being organized by the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (http://www.unpo.org/) in partnership with the Congress of Nationalities for a Federal Iran (http://www.cnfi.org/) and Members of the European Parliament from the Nonviolent Radical Party.