Thank you, Alejo, for your kind words. Good evening, everyone, it is especially an honour to share the table with Ms Rajavi, it is an honour and an experience I will never forget. The first thing I wanted to say is thank you for being here, for these days where you have visited us and where we have been able to meet some of you. Thank you for bringing us the voice of the persecuted in Iran, who in some cases are relatives and friends of yours; for us it is very important to have you here today, and feeling that closeness to the difficulties and the persecution suffered in Iran by the defenders of Human Rights.

ALEJO VIDAL-QUADRAS: Thank you, dear Jordi, for these inspiring words. You are absolutely right in saying that the Iranian people have had clouds on the horizon for too long. And it is time for the Sun to come out. What you said was very beautiful and inspiring. And now I am going to give the floor to a very good friend of Spain and the Iranian resistance, who we are very grateful to for the effort he has made to be here this evening.

The man I’m talking about is the former Congressman, Patrick Kennedy.

[Applause]

KENNEDY (in Spanish): But also I wish to say that we are together in our fight for Human Rights. We, together, can win this fight for Human Rights when we fight together. And I need the support, particularly from Spain for the refugees at Camp Liberty and Camp Ashraf. I hope that if your country can bring the refugees from Liberty to this country… Beautiful.Because they need democracy. And Spain has democracy. Finally, Iran is going to (how do you say it??) have democracy and therefore it is a fight for all of us. Thank you.

[Applause]

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Patrick Kennedy, Member of the US Congress (1995-2011)

Thank you very much Mr Vidal Cuadras, member of parliament and for many years neighbour at Valmes street in Barcelona. Mrs Maryam Rajavi, colleagues, members of the Parliament, professor Garses, ladies and gentlemen, during my years as member of the Parliament I have always had clear that the noblest cause, the first cause, any other political motivation can be developed from is the defence and maintenance of the exercise of democracy and the respect for the human rights. That is why for me was clearly a priority to take part in the organization and modestly collaborate with this first visit, the honour that Spain receives the visit of the the Iranian opposition leader in exile, Maryam Rajavi. I have been many years following the evolution and fight of the Iranian opposition in the exile and I have also been following the fight of Mrs Rajavi for a long time and I can not do anything else than express my  admiration, my consideration of the fight of the opposition and specially of Mrs Rajavi's leadership. Yesterday we had the opportunity to have a little talk in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Senate about her life: the life of a person who has not been able to be in her country, Irán, for 30 years, a person who has experienced the horrors of the repression, death and the totalitarianism in her family.

Human rights in Iran, the legitimate opposition and a new western policy

December 11, 2012 - A day after the “UN Human Rights Day” cross party parliamentarians gathered in the House of Commons to condemn human rights abuses inside Iran. Amongst the speakers were a former Home Secretary and a former senior UN human rights official. They demanded support for Iran’s legitimate opposition movement and the recognition of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) as the future interim government of that country. While much has been made of the Iranian regime’s nuclear ambitions, the speakers were determined to highlight the continued suffering of the Iranian people. The conference was addressed by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President?elect of the NCRI. She told the gathered members of parliament via video link that, “...the West must make the continuation of their political relations with the regime conditional on the ending of hanging and torture of prisoners.” Mrs. Rajavi ended her speech by demanding an entire change in Western policy, to one which has at the heart of it regime change and the overthrow of the current regime by the Iranian people and their opposition movement.

At ISDCI, we wish all of our readers a joyous and prosperous New Year.

London, December 11, 2012 - Dear Colleagues, we are here today to discuss the state of human rights in Iran, unfortunately we’ve done this so many times before, an issue that has been ignored for so long as the international community has been focusing more on the imminent threat of a nuclear armed Iran and efforts focused on stopping this threat.

London, December 11, 2012 - it is honor i never expected. i am going to be very kind to all of you here today because I am going to be very brief. I have been long supporter of NCRI and the cause which they support I have for long seen how people in Iran dreams for the day when Iran become free of mullahs, I have come here today to reaffirm my support for those people.

London, December 11, 2012 - Well, this morning, Ladies and Gentlemen, we are very fortunate to have so much support from our Irish colleagues.  We have two members of the House of Lords from Ireland here.  We did have an Irish member of the House of Commons but he just slipped out.  I was just going to ask him to say something but anyway he was here present.  I now call on the Baroness Turner to address us.

London, December 11, 2012 - Thank you Mr. Chairman there is something that is in all people unabatedly. And one of those things is what is right and what is decent and what is not right. And that is why we are here today. We are here to draw attention to the continuing oppression of the Iranian people at the hand of what we can only be called a barbarous regime.

London, December 11, 2012 - I have greatly valued my links with the PMOI and the Iranian opposition movement over several years.  I became connected with the cause when the PMOI had been listed under the Terrorism Act 2000 as a prohibited terrorist organisation and when I looked at the evidence and the history and met the people involved, I realised immediately that this was a gross error.  It should never have happened.  The way that the legislation was framed made it extremely difficult to challenge the presence of one organisation among all those listed, and it was necessary – in order to get them delisted – to go through a very lengthy process which eventually took about eight years when we finally ended up in the Court of Appeal, and I have to say opposed tooth and nail by our government all the way along the line. They would not recognise that the PMOI is not a terrorist organisation, is a legitimate organisation pursuing political aims and should never have been prohibited.  The consequences of prohibition, of course, were extremely serious.  It meant that criminal offences were committed by anybody who was involved in any way with that organisation.

London, December 11, 2012 - Thank you Mr. chairman, if you forgive me, i am going to do exactly i did last week, begin by asking a question, first question i want to ask is, as a representative of our foreign and commonwealth office, is there an observer from our foreign and commonwealth office is here today. don’t worry putting up your hand you would get huge round of applause if you come from foreign and commonwealth office.

London, December 11, 2012 - I think the most things which need saying have been said. Because I think the situation in Iran is so critical because especially I was really astonished when we hear from somebody from the United Nations representative here that so much pressure is put on them to play around producing reports which indicate there's nothing wrong, now you can't get worse than that. And I think organisation like ours here. ? I won't repeat all those statistics because a lot of people were killed, executions all over the place, even I understand one thousand people are still in prison on the death row and those are only numbers which is given by Iranian people themselves but the numbers ??? are much higher than that the people that were killed were much, much higher. So I think it is time that, as Brian said earlier on, that we should put people on the spot. You look on this government here they can recognise the Syrian situation very, very quickly. That people got together and it create a committee and this government is very quick to recognise that. What is wrong was recognising NCRI because that is a wellknown organisation and why are they taking that much time to recognise them. And I think it is time we write to William Hague, in writing not just calling on him, simply writing to him that this committee want to invite Madame Rajavi to this parliament and let us see what he has to say. And we should also write to the United Nations that why they are so keen to let loose people like Kobler ?…..? same people of Camp Ashraf. Can't they find somebody more humane who can take that road and let us see what they have to say? And I think, if people just talk more, these things and there is nothing in writing I think it will still stay in the air. So from this committee I urge you to put these things in writing to the United Nations, to our own government to do just two things recognise NCRI and ?……..? government for Iran otherwise these things will carry on. And I also say to the United Nations that if you send some officers there don't torture them that they go against their conscience to produce a report which are not right.