On June 30, 2024, at the Free Iran 2024 World Summit – Day 2 hosted at the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) headquarters in Paris, Ambassador Ken Blackwell, former US Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, delivered an impassioned speech.
1. Ken Blackwell: A Call to Action for Freedom Fighters and a Free Iran #MaryamRajavi4FreeIran #FreeIran2024 https://t.co/WQD5zVAGg0
— Iran Freedom (@4FreedominIran) June 30, 2024
The full text of Ambassador Blackwell’s speech follows:
Madam Rajavi, distinguished guests, particularly those in Ashraf 3.
For over 50 years, I’ve worked on human rights, both domestically and globally. The things that I’ve witnessed in terms of human tragedy at the hands of dictatorships, authoritarian governments, and theocracies are beyond most people’s imagination.
Team Trump used economic and diplomatic leverage to
weaken Iran, Team Biden's policy of appeasement has empowered its genocidal dictatorial regime! #FreeIran10PointPlan @A1Policy @newtgingrich @FRCdc pic.twitter.com/dZAOVMxr4D— Ken Blackwell (@kenblackwell) June 30, 2024
I helped build the case against Milosevic in the former Yugoslavia. I’ve watched the brutality of apartheid in South Africa. This must stop. I have formal remarks that I will give to you because what I want to say comes from my heart, and it’s to those individuals who are on the front line of this fight for free Iran.
Ladies and gentlemen, freedom fighters, all, there are a lot of reports from the United Nations that will go on the ash ton of history if we give up. We happen to be here in this country where the Olympics will be celebrated. There are long-distance runners, and there are sprinters that burn out quickly. You, freedom fighters or long-distance runners, you’re on the front line. You will make a difference. Iran will be free.
Frontlines, mass executions like we witnessed in 1988, holding members of the diaspora guilty in absentia, these are the things of a brutal dictatorship. We are looking forward to a day when we come together and amplify one another.
It’s often been said that those who do evil love the darkness. Each and every one of us is invested with a light. We can’t hide that light under a bushel. We must use our individual light and our collective light to punch holes in the darkness of our time.
History is not a snapshot. History is a process. Together we will change the arc of history in the direction of freedom and a free Iran.
It’s often been said that power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has, and it never will. Together we will confront the evil power center of Iran. We will in fact change the regime. We will change the nature of politics in Iran, and the Iranians will be free. They will continue to create. They will make a difference. And I just say to you, whatever light is still burning on my candle, I will in fact unite it with yours to punch holes in the darkness of an evil regime.
We will win. We must win. We will win.
#FreeIran10PointPlan pic.twitter.com/ZLnd7LRK8U
— Ken Blackwell (@kenblackwell) June 28, 2024
