Human rights organizations and defenders in Iran have found themselves under attack, while abuses of basic human rights have continued. The unrest since the flawed 2009 presidential election has resulted in random and targeted arrests along with a shifting legal landscape that endangers academics and civil-society activists in particular. Despite this, we are currently witnessing a transformation of civil society into a growing and creative civil rights movement. In order to ensure that the movement can survive and thrive, it is crucial to offer support and training to individuals and organizations.
Arseh Sevom (Third Sphere, which refers to the role of civil society) is a non-partisan, independent, non-governmental organization established/registered in 2010 in Amsterdam, aiming to promote peace, democracy and human rights. The organization’s objective is to help build the capacity of organizations and encourage the development of a vigorous third sphere of civil activities.
Arseh Sevom believes that cooperation among civil society organizations is the key to building a strong and coherent civil rights movement that can thrive and succeed. It aims to become a hub for organizations and individuals working together towards the common goal of free, open, and peaceful communities.
Arseh Sevom promotes the advancement of rights for people of all beliefs, genders, ethnicities, non-violent political affiliations, and more. To make the transition to a more open society, it is important to address the cultural and political roadblocks to the implementation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Arseh Sevom aims to further the efforts of Iran’s civil rights movement by working with its leaders to build capacity and address future needs and developments. The group also plans to develop advocacy tools to address the attitude to human rights, peace, and democracy among intellectuals, activists and the general public.

The project began shortly after the 2009 mass demonstrations in Iran opposing the flawed presidential elections. At the time we felt that something needed to be done to strengthen Iran’s civil society, particularly at a time when the government of Iran was shutting it down with arrests, harassment and threats. The project began with big expectations. We learned that we needed to build our audience and our capacity slowly, step by step. This was in part due to limitations of funding.
We began by reporting on the state of civil society in Iran, which was used as background for Iran’s UN periodical human rights review. The project grew from there with content and offline training. Especially popular on the site has been reporting on Iran’s Bahai minority, the man-in-the-middle attack on GMail and other sites in Iran, the presidential elections of 2013 and our Persian translation of *Reflections on the Ambiguous Universality of Human Rights: Cyrus the Great’s Proclamation as a Challenge to the Athenian Democracy’s Perceived Monopoly on Human Rights*.
In 2013, we also took on the effects of sanctions on Iran’s public. We worked with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran and United for Iran on Just Access, a campaign to open a payment channel for medication and other humanitarian and unsanctioned items.


Links: http://www.arsehsevom.net/fa

Arseh Sevom was founded by Kamran Ashtary and Sohrab Razzaghi. Our core team of part-timers and volunteers includes Mohammad Reza Sardari, Tori Egherman, Saffoura Elyassi and Elena Cavagni. We have an active board and an advisory board.