Website of Kourosh Ziabari, award-winning journalist and reporter

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: With 1.8 billion people between the ages of 10 and 24, youth around the world face their fair share of challenges. Whether these challenges are in education or employment, they are highly important and need to be addressed. A proper response to youth challenges needs the involvement of young people themselves in decision-making and political leadership. During the tenure of Ban Ki-moon as the UN secretary-general, the Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth was created at the United Nations. It was mandated with bringing the voices of young people to the United Nations system and working with stakeholders and influencers in government, civil society, academia and media to empower youth and...

Kourosh Ziabari - ODVV: Reports by the international organizations indicate that Saudi Arabia continues to remain a major human rights violator. In 2018, Saudi authorities carried on with their campaign of arbitrary detention, trial and conviction of peaceful protesters. 146 executions were carried out this year and the kingdom's involvement in the military campaign in Yemen claimed numerous innocent lives. A distinguished human rights lawyer tells the Organization for Defending Victims of Violence that despite introducing social reforms, Saudi Arabia remains a serial human rights violator and doesn't welcome criticism of its actions and policies. "The Saudi government is an authoritarian regime and doesn’t tolerate dissent of...

Kourosh Ziabari - International Policy Digest: The United States is run by a businessman turned politician who is unwavering in his ignorance about many essentials including respect for multilateralism and concern for the value of human life outside the US borders. It’s difficult to convince Donald Trump to be mindful of the suffering of ordinary Iranian citizens while imposing new sanctions on the Middle East nation or instruct him to read 109 pages of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (Iran nuclear deal) to figure out that long before announcing the unilateral withdrawal of the United States from the agreement, he started violating its letter and spirit through his unhelpful public statements about the JCPOA being a badly...

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: The Congress of Young Europeans, organized and hosted by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, among others, was a unique gathering of 70 young activists and future politicians from across Europe. Held in Prague, Czech Republic, between August 30 and September 2, the event provided participants with a chance to discuss their concerns for the future of democratic institutions in Europe, as well as education, immigration and climate change. The four-day summit was an opportunity for young activists, mostly working with green parties in their respective countries, to engage in networking, debates, workshops, film screenings, Q&A sessions and talks with artists, politicians, authors, influencers and...

Kourosh Ziabari - Centre for Journalism: "Czechoslovak Political Prisoners: Life Stories of 5 Male and 5 Female Victims of Stalinism" is a 2016 book by Czech writers Tomáš Bouška and Klára Pinerová, detailing the life and ordeal of ten distinguished political prisoners from the former Central European state Czechoslovakia, published by the Brno-based publisher Knihovnicka. The book introduces ten victims of Stalinism in Europe who became political prisoners in their own country. The life stories of these ten forced labourers in communist prisons and uranium camps behind the Iron Curtain in 1950s when captivity for political reasons was a daily routine and almost normalized, challenge the reader to get out of his or her comfort...

Kourosh Ziabari - Centre for Journalism: The former Maltese foreign minister Tonio Borg says the relations between Malta and the United Kingdom will remain close and strong for "historical, commercial and strategic reasons" after the complete withdrawal of Britain from the European Union. Tonio Borg says the English language is still an official language and the majority of tourists to Malta come from the UK, even though Brexit means Malta loses an ally and friend within the EU. Tonio Borg is a prominent Maltese politician who was the European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy from 2012 to 2013 and the European Commissioner for Health from 2013 to 2014. He has served in various positions in the government of Malta and...

Kourosh Ziabari - International Policy Digest: As the Iranian people brace for the next round of economic sanctions by the United States to be introduced in early November, debate about the unilateral withdrawal of the U.S. from the landmark July 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers continues in the international media. These days, a great deal of the mainstream media coverage of the Middle East goes to Iran and every new development pertaining to Iran is somehow linked by experts and pundits to the U.S. sanctions and the departure of the United States from the nuclear deal, be it the imminent suspension of British Airways and Air France flights to Tehran or the introduction of an assistance package by the European...

Kourosh Ziabari - Foreign Policy Blogs: When President Donald Trump announced on 8th May that the United States would not be a party to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran deal, anymore, it was easily predictable that new tensions between Tehran and Washington will emerge soon. It didn’t take long for the European Union to voice its regret over President Trump’s decision and say in an unequivocal manner that Trump’s unilateralism won’t mark the premature death of the Iran deal, signed and sealed only three years ago.   Britain, France and Germany issued a statement in which they reiterated their continued commitment to the JCPOA as long as Iran abides by its nuclear commitments. They said...

Kourosh Ziabari - International Policy Digest: The world is facing an unprecedented refugee crisis. About 68.5 million people worldwide have been forced from their homes including nearly 25.4 million refugees, half of whom are under the age of 18. Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Somalia are the major source countries of refugees and figures by the World Economic Forum show that 84% of refugees live in the developing countries. Turkey, Pakistan, Lebanon, Iran and Uganda are the world’s top refugee-hosting countries and Germany is the only European country which is on the list of the top 10 host nations. A lot has been said about the wars and conflicts that produce the refugees, the ability of the international community to deal...

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal was one of his most controversial foreign policy decisions. As one of his campaign promises it was not unexpected, but the unilateral decertification of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) has multiplied the workload of international diplomats who are working hard to salvage the accord. President Trump’s decision may originate from his hostility toward Barack Obama and his achievements, as well as Trump’s apocalyptic views toward Iran and the Muslim world. Whatever the reason, a robust international agreement has been dismantled by the US government and the long-term outcomes will be disappointing. Peter Kuznick, professor of...

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: Iran and the US have been at odds since the 1979 revolution. They have had no diplomatic relations since April 7, 1980. One event that marked the revolution was the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran. On November 4, 1979, a group of Iranian students attacked the compound and took 99 people hostage, including 66 Americans. The episode came to be known as the Iran hostage crisis and lasted 444 days. As tensions soared between the two governments, US President Jimmy Carter said he would “not yield to blackmail” and resorted to different options to rescue the hostages. Although diplomacy failed to solve the crisis in a timely fashion, the victims were released in 1981 as Ronald Reagan was being...

Kourosh Ziabari - ODVV: A noted British university professor says Islamophobia is a serious issue on university campuses in the UK "partly due to the ways in which government policy has placed a duty on universities to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism." Peter Hopkins, Professor of Social Geography and University Dean of Social Justice at Newcastle University says Islamophobia should be condemned and eradicated from the British society even while racist incidents against the Muslims continue to take place and are condoned frequently. Prof. Hopkins who studies racism, Islamophobia and Muslim identities tells the Organisation for Defending Victims of Violence that less time should be spent on determining the terminology...