Iranian lawyer, Karim Lahidji, elected President of FIDH Extrait du FIDH - Worldwide Human Rights Movement http://www.fidh.

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Iranian lawyer, Karim Lahidji, elected President of FIDH

- [english] - Europe - Turkey -

Date de mise en ligne : Monday 27 May 2013

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Karim Lahidji was elected President of FIDH. He succeeds to Souhayr Belhassen who headed the Federation for six years.

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Iranian lawyer, Karim Lahidji, elected President of FIDH

Today Karim Lahidji was elected President of FIDH. He succeeds to Souhayr Belhassen who headed the Federation for six years. The vote was held during the 38th FIDH Congress in Istanbul where the FIDH member organisations were meeting to elect the new International Board and define the main FIDH orientations for the next three years.

There were two candidates for the position: Karim Lahidji, FIDH Vice President and President of the League for the Defence of Human Rights in Iran, and Luis Guillermo Perez Casas, FIDH Secretary General and member of the CCAJAR. He is the first FIDH President from Iran.

"It is an immense honour to have been elected President of FIDH. My first message is to all the human rights defenders who are arbitrarily detained, wherever they are in the world. We will continue endlessly to call for their immediate, unconditional release. My thoughts turn especially to my colleagues and friends Ales Bialiatski, in prison in Belarus and Nabeel Rajab, detained in Bahrein", said Karim Lahidji.

"We would like to reiterate our appeal to the Turkish authorities to free all the journalists, lawyers and unionists who have been arbitrarily detained, in particular Muhammet Erbey, President of the Diyarbakir section of IHD who has been in prison since December 2009 for having denounced human rights violations against the Kurdish minority", Karim Lahidji added.

"At present, women's rights are being threatened in many countries; the universality of rights will be at the heart of our fight, more than ever," said Karim Lahidji.

During the 38th FIDH Congress, its movement was reinforced with the number of member leagues increasing from 164 to 178. The Congress adopted 26 resolutions on, e.g. Mali, Syria, Malaysia, Cuba, Russia and Turkey.

Composition of the new FIDH International Board

President: Karim Lahidji Souhayr Belhassen was appointed Honorary President of FIDH.

Vice Presidents: Ales Bialiatski, FIDH Vice President, imprisoned in Belarus since 4 August 2011 was reelected. Yusuf Alatas, Turkey Ezzedine Al Asbahi, Yemen Dimitris Christopoulos, Greece Noeline Blackwell, Ireland Katie Gallagher, US Tolekan Ismailova, Kyrgyzstan Shawan Jabarin, Palestine Dismas Kitenge Senga, DRC Elsie Monge, Ecuador Sheila Muwanga, Uganda Rosemarie R. Trajano, Philippines Drissa Traor, Ivory Coast Paulina Vega Gonzalez, Mexico Zohra Yusuf, Pakistan

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Iranian lawyer, Karim Lahidji, elected President of FIDH

Secretary Generals: Amina Bouyach, Morocco Pierre Esperance, Haiti Paul Nsapu, DRC Debbie Stothard, Burma Dan Van Raemdonck, Belgium

Treasurer: Jean-Franois Plantin, France

New FIDH member leagues

South Africa, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) Angola, Associao Justia, Paz e Democracia (AJPD) Senegal, Ligue Sngalaise des Droits Humains (LSDH) Honduras, Comit de Familiares de Detenidos-Desaparecidos en Honduras (COFADEH) China, China Labour Bulletin (CLB) Indonesia, KontraS Kazakhstan, Kazakstan international Bureau for Human Rights and rule of law (KIBHR) Moldova, Promo-LEX Uzbekistan, Association internationale de dfense des droits de l'Homme Club des coeurs ardents Tajikistan, Tajik "Bureau on Human Rights and Rule of Law" (BHR) Egypt, Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) Gulf, Gulf Center for Human rights (GCHR) Kuwait, Human Line Organisation Lebanon, Centre Libanais des Droits Humains (CLDH) Libya, Human Rights Association for Recording and Documenting War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity Palestine, Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights Syria, Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) Tunisia, Doustourna Tunisia, Forum tunisien pour les droits conomiques et sociaux (FTDES)

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