The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) is a coalition of democratic and secular organisations, groups and individuals founded in 1981 in Tehran by Massoud Rajavi, to lead the Iranian resistance as a viable alternative to the fundamentalist tyranny of the Mullahs.

The Parliament in Exile

The NCRI has 555 members, with representatives of ethnic and religious minorities including the Kurds, Balouchies, Armenians, Jews and Zoroastrians.

It is a parliament in exile which aims to establish a secular and democratic coalition government in Iran. Fifty-two per cent of the members are women. Five parties are also members of the council, including the PMOI, the largest resistance group inside Iran, the Fedayin Peoples Organisation, the Towhidi Merchants Guild, University and higher education lecturers, and the Association for the Defence of Independence and Democracy in Iran.

Democratic and Transparent Decision-making

Every member of the Council has one vote. All decisions are taken by simple majority. The Council has 25 commissions (Shadow Ministries) that will form the basis of a provisional government after the overthrow of the mullahs. A provisional government would only last six months. Its main task would be to organise, under international supervision, free and fair elections of a national constitutional legislative assembly so that power could be transferred to elected representatives of the people of Iran.

An elected President of the Republic

In August 1993 the NCRI unanimously elected Mrs Maryam Rajavi president of the republic for the period of the transition. She will have the task of overseeing the peaceful transfer of power to the Iranian people after the overthrow of the regime.

Maryam Rajavi, 53, has resisted dictatorship in Iran since the early 1970s. The Shah executed one of her sisters and the mullahs executed another sister who was pregnant. In an address to 15,000 people in Germany on June 16, 1995, she announced a Charter of Fundamental Freedoms for a future Iran. In June 1996, Mrs Rajavi addressed a rally of 25,000 Iranians in London.

The National Solidarity Front

In a two day meeting in November 2002, the NCRI adopted a plan to form a national solidarity front for the reversal of the religious dictatorship in Iran. The front aims to gather together all Iranians and republicans to campaign for a democratic secular and independent government. The overthrow of the regime will require the widest possible national solidarity of Iranians, this is why the NCRI has supported the formation of the front.

The Program

Human rights

The NCRI accepts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights Conventions. The provisional government guarantees the "freedom of association, freedom of thought and expression, freedom of the press, political parties, trade unions, councils and religion and belief, and prevention of all violations of the rights and individual and social liberties".

Women

The NCRI's plans for the rights and liberties of women recognise the right of women to vote and to be elected in all elections, the right to work and free choice of profession and the right to take up any profession or public office. This includes the right to the presidency of the republic and the right to be members of the judiciary (currently forbidden by the regime) and the right to choose how to dress, the right to equal work and equal pay, absolute freedom to choose whether to marry and choice of partner. Marriages would not take place without the consent of both partners, and there will be equality in all divorce procedures, elimination of all legal inequalities relating to the rights of witnesses, guardianship, care of children and a ban on polygamy.

The economy

The NCRI accepts national capitalism, the market and the right to private and personal investments. It is necessary to use the latest scientific discoveries and techniques and the NCRI considers that relations with industrialised countries are needed for the reconstruction of the Iranian economy.

Secularism and religious tolerance

The NCRI believes in the principle of secular government and calls for the clear separation of religion and the state. Discrimination against different religions and beliefs and restriction on the rights of their adherents to exercise their individual and social rights will be forbidden. All citizens will have the right to stand for election, to employment, to education, to become judges and to all other individual and social rights and will not be deprived of those rights for reasons of belief or non belief in a particular religion.

National minorities

The NCRI recognises the rights of all ethnic and national minorities. It has adopted a proposal for the autonomy of Iranian Kurdistan.

International relations

The NCRI's foreign policy is based on independence, respect for the United Nations Charter, international conventions, friendly relationships with neighbouring countries, regional and international cooperation, and non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.

The NCRI supports the Middle East peace process and will be active in protecting peace and tranquility in the region. It condemns all aggression and expansionism, and is opposed to nuclear proliferation, the production of weapons of mass destruction and of ballistic missiles.

International support

Over the last 20 years, the NCRI has received broad political support across the world. Several thousand parliamentarians and political leaders of European and US parties have supported the NCRI as a democratic alternative to the Iranian fundamentalist dictatorship.

The NCRI and its president have received expressions of support from a majority of members of the US Congress and majorities of members of the parliaments of Great Britain, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden and Norway and the European Parliament. Large numbers of French, German, Danish, Dutch and Swiss Parliamentarians have also expressed support.

Source: NCRI backgrounder, 2004

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