Heshmatollah Tabarzadi, secretary-general of the Democratic Front of Iran, said governments must put their commitment to human rights into practice: “Any government that seeks to be democratic and humane must uphold this declaration in practice, rather than merely talk about it.”
According to Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), Tabarzadi made the remarks in an audio message to the conference “Iran’s Human Rights Crisis: From Shared Principles to Joint Action”. Held in Oslo on 25–26 September 2026, the event brought together representatives of political parties and organisations. It was the sixth conference in IHRNGO’s “Iran and the Transition from Authoritarianism” series, organised and hosted by the organisation.
Tabarzadi traced his activism, and that of his fellow campaigners, to the 1990s, when they began organising protests through the publication Payam-e Daneshjou and student gatherings. Initially directed against corruption, discrimination and oppression, their campaign gradually broadened to embrace secular democracy, pluralism and full freedom for every citizen.
He attributed their turn to peaceful political opposition to their experience of corruption and discrimination under ideological rule. During the 1980s, he said, they had themselves been caught up in ideological beliefs and illusions. Confronting social realities gradually led them to abandon that outlook.
Political activism and imprisonment also shaped his thinking. Around ten to twelve years ago, he recalled, he and fellow prisoners, including the lawyer Mohammad Seifzadeh, studied the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its supplementary instruments.
Despite his aversion to ideology, Tabarzadi said, the declaration’s comprehensive account of human rights had led him to see it as expressing a “human ideology”, combining a commitment to individual freedom with concern for society.
He identified life, health, liberty and freedom of choice among the fundamental rights affirmed by the declaration. He said it rejected discrimination and inequality based on gender, race, class or religion. Rights must not depend on religious belief: Christians, Bahá’ís and people with no religious faith must all enjoy them equally.
Tabarzadi argued that non-violent campaigns for freedom, democracy, secularism and pluralism advanced the principles of the declaration. In the pursuit of equality, he rejected a rigid distinction between human rights work and political or social activism. Efforts to end discrimination based on gender, religion, race or class were all part of the defence of human rights.
Reflecting on more than three decades of activism guided by these principles, he described the death penalty as “the most inhumane practice” and condemned imprisonment on political grounds as a violation of human rights. The Islamic Republic did not uphold these rights, he said. Its ideologues and advocates spoke eloquently about human dignity and human rights, yet acted against those principles.
Defending human rights, he stressed, went beyond opposing executions and political imprisonment. “Every person, by virtue of being human, must enjoy the rights set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
Tabarzadi said people in Iran had been denied their human rights for more than 47 years. Women and Iran’s ethnic, identity and national groups faced an additional burden of oppression. He concluded: “We want a society in which we can eliminate all these injustices, discrimination and inequalities. We want a free, humane and democratic society.”
Translated from Farsi via machine translation and lightly edited for clarity.