TEHRAN – A conference was held in Tehran on Tuesday to pay tribute to the children victims of terrorism.

The conference, called Navay-e Parvaneha (literally meaning voice of butterflies), was held in an elementary school on the occasion of World Children Day which is observed on November 20 annually.

November 20 is an important date as it is the date in 1959 when the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. It is also the date in 1989 when the UN General assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The conference was attended by representatives from the Association for Defending Victims of Terrorism (ADVT), the Iraqi embassy to Iran, elementary school students and the families of victims of terrorism.

Masoumeh Karami, head of ADVT the wife of nuclear scientist Masoud Ali Mohammadi who was assassinated in a terrorist bomb attack in Tehran in January 2010, for her part said that Iran is one of the victims of terrorism and home to over 17,000 victims of terrorism.

Thousands of victims of terrorism were martyred by the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization in the country, and they did not care whether they were scientists, teachers, workers, businessmen, mothers or children, she lamented.

She went on to say that Iranian people are always looking for peace, safety and security, and because they have suffered so much of terrorism, they wish people not to be harmed by terrorist anywhere in the world.

“Islam is based on compassion and against violence, and Muslims must learn compassion while teaching others,” she said, adding, all the children should be contributors to the country's development and stand against those who want Iran to be vulnerable and not to grow.

Founded in 2007, Association for Defending Victims of Terrorism is a non-governmental cultural institution whose members are the families and children of victims of terrorism. ADVT aims to apply cultural, informative and expressive ways on behalf of the families of terror victims to encounter with terrorist organization.

FB/MG