Mission Statement

Solidarity With Iranian People’s Protests (SWIPP) is an independent campaign organization with the purpose of encouraging British and International governments not to recognize the coup government in Iran, and pressurize the Iranian government not to violate the human rights of people who oppose the result of the election.

Statement of Purpose

Following the widespread electoral fraud in the Iranian Presidential Election waves of protests have risen across Iran. However, these peaceful demonstrations have been brutally attacked by the Revolutionary Guards. Moreover, hours before the announcement of the final results of the election, high profile political figures from the reformist parties have been either arrested or have been put under house-arrest. Not only major reformist media have been closed down, the coup government has also cracked down all independent journalists; as a result, a great number of news and networking websites have been banned, newspaper offices have been attacked and journalists have been warned and threatened about what they report. Tehran streets are still witnessing violent clashes between the Revolutionary Guards and the unarmed demonstrators – tear gases have been fired on people, police batons are used in an excessively brutal manner, in addition reformist student unions, political parties and ordinary people have been widely denied their constitutional right to peaceful demonstration and gatherings. We appeal to the International public and organisations to show their solidarity with the Iranian people by asking their governments not to recognise the Iranian presidential election results, to question the legitimacy of Ahmadinejad’s government and to pressure Iran to investigate these allegations of election fraud and to respect their international obligations on human rights.

History and Core Values

The founding meeting of SWIPP took place on June 16^th 2009, as a reaction to the extreme violation of human rights in Iran after the government was accused of rigging the votes. We strive to bring together the broadest possible spectrum of forces, organized on the basis of certain core values that our founding committee has agreed upon. The campaign must remain independent of any particular political party/group at any time. We respect the will of Iranian people thoroughly and completely. We are deeply concerned regarding the violation of human rights in Iran as results of people’s peaceful protests against the electoral fraud in Iran. Thus the very existence of our campaign shall remain subject to continuation of the crisis in Iran.

Organization

SWIPP is governed by a board of political activists, students and those from professional back ground who are deeply concerned about the recent events in Iran.

Campaign Strategy

Our strategy focuses upon:

• raising a strong voice in the media (Internet, radio & TV and the press), and challenging questionable new allegations and threats as they arise
• lobbying members of parliament and opinion-makers
• extending the campaign to an international level
• addressing petitions to various officials, media as new situations arise.
• organizing public events to raise awareness and to encourage various organizations from a vast set of political positions to agree upon our humanitarian and democratic values to be able to, through cooperation, change the situation for the Iranian people for the better. This, we believe, will allow people of Iran to decide more freely for themselves.