page_title: Iranian Committee for the Defense of Freedom and Human Rights
section_title: Activities
hierarchical_section_title: Iranian Committee for the Defense of Freedom and Human Rights / Activities
caption_attribution_description: فارسی: جلسه کمیته اجرایی دفاع از آزادی و حقوق بشر. به ریاست مهدی بازرگان (نفر دوم از چپ) علی اصغر سید جوادی در سمت چپ، احمد سید جوادی در سمت راست مهدی بازرگان و عبدالکریم لاهیجی در راست نگاره نشسته‌اند.English: Executive committee of defence of freedom and human rights session, Bottom left: Unknown, Top left: Ahmad Sayyed Javadi, Top middle, Mehdi Bazargan, Top right: AliAsghar Sayyed Javadi, Middle right: Unknown, Middle right: Unknown, Bottom right: Abdolkarim Lahiji
context_page_description: The Iranian Committee for the Defense of Freedom and Human Rights was an Iranian organization that was founded in 1977.
context_section_description: Their first act was to send an open letter to Kurt Waldheim, Secretary-General of the United Nations, complaining about systematic violations of human rights in Iran. The letter was drafted by Hasan Nazih and delivered to the UN by Fereydun Sahabi.
  On 7 December 1977, the group made its existence public and held its first public press conference on 12 January 1978. Two days later, Waldheim came to Tehran for an official visit and confirmed that he had received an appeal from the group. Americans such as William J. Butler, Ramsey Clark, Richard Cottam and Richard A. Falk were in touch with the organization.
  After Iranian Revolution, ICDFHR collected money from the Red Lion and Sun Society and the National Iranian Oil Company, respectively headed by Kazem Sami and Hasan Nazih who were both founding members of the group. Summed with the money collected from the civil society (e.g. philanthropists and bazaari merchants), the organization provided financial assistance to some 800 political prisoners of the former regime who were recently released from the prison.
caption: ICDFHR executive committee session. Seated from left to right with visible faces, are: Sayyed Javadi, Bazargan, Sayyed Javadi, Minachi, Moghaddam and Lahiji
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