May 19, 2023

AFF attends the 15th annual Geneva Summit

The Amer Foundation had the privilege of joining other activists, freedom fighters, diplomats, and scholars at the annual Geneva Summit. Many of the tragic stories shared by the courageous speakers shared similar themes; illegal detention, tyranny, injustice.

One of the main topics on the agenda at the 2023 Geneva Summit was Iran’s ongoing human rights abuses and its history of hostage taking. Today alone, Iran executed three men for protesting in the streets of Iran. These men were brutally tortured into confessions and then executed, a tactic used often in Iran. A circle discussion led by Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch and host at the Geneva Summit, on how to handle Iran’s human rights record and its role in hostage taking was held at the summit and joined by Swedish MP, Alireza Akhondi, member of Canadian Parliament, Ali Ehsassi, Mayor of Frankfurt, Dr. Nargess Eskandari-Grünberg, and French MP, Hadrien Ghomi.

Ali Ehsassi stressed the importance of not making deals with Iran because Iran has not once lived up to its international commitments. We have been seeing a rise in hostage taking, especially in Iran and other countries who ally with Iran, such as Russia and China. Iran has a long history of using innocent individuals as bargaining chips in political negotiations. The international community must take a more coordinated and systematic approach to address this issue. 

Alireza Akhondi, Swedish MP, emphasized the small window of opportunity that we have right now in holding Iran accountable before it becomes a nuclear power. Iran is not only providing Russia with ammunition and weaponry to continue its war against Ukraine, but has been providing weapons to jihadist groups around the middle east. “The Iranian Regime is active in Syria, Iraq, in Lebanon...they are mining for bitcoins everyday through digital currencies. They are going around the sanctions that we are providing...empty words are not enough” (Akhondi). 

AFF members met with Akhondi and shared with him who Amer Fakhoury was and how he was kidnapped in Lebanon by Hezbollah, a militant group in Lebanon that is funded by the IRGC. He was tortured and forced to sign documents that were then used to illegally detain him for 7 months.

AFF members also met with Hillel Neuer and spoke on the work the foundation has been doing regarding advocating for accountability. When tyrannical regimes kidnap and torture innocent individuals and are able to profit off of it by doing one off deals with various countries, we will only continue to see a rise in illegal detention.