Due to recent questions and comments about IHRAAM reaching our Directorate over the past few months from persons who have only recently become aware of IHRAAM, the Chair of IHRAAM issued the following clarification of IHRAAM's goals and objectives:

IHRAAM has been in operation over the past ten years, and during all of these ten years, it has remained faithful to its stated objectives and modus operandi. (See the Objectives and Recent Activities menus on the IHRAAM website at http://www.ihraam.org.) Note that IHRAAM has never initiated any activity within any minority community anywhere in the world. However, IHRAAM has offered consultation to and facilitated members of minority communities to bring their activities and needs to the attention of the UN, upon their obtaining Associate Status with IHRAAM, and at their specific request for IHRAAM assistance, and only at their request.

The only type of activities that IHRAAM itself, as an organization, initiates are informational activities, such as the Briefing held at the United Nations in New York, where UN speaker Elsa Stamatopolou-Robbins informed the assembled audience about minority rights in international law.

The reason for this is that IHRAAM is essentially a professional consulting organization, and not a political movement. Our activities are, for all practical purposes, exclusively limited to observation, consultation and facilitation. Our standards and rules for obtaining IHRAAM consulting services were confirmed and elaborated in our 1996 bylaw.

The Chair, in consultation with the Directorate, has taken note of the need to reaffirm these objectives to our new Associate Members and friends, and to advise them that in any future contact with IHRAAM, they will be requested to follow very stringently the rules of consultation which can be found on IHRAAM's website. They may also, if there are questions, feel free to contact IHRAAM's Communications Director or one of her assistants. We prefer that this be done through email to ihraam@geocities.com, Attn: Communications Director.

All IHRAAM officials, representatives and personnel are reminded of the absolute necessity of remaining within the boundaries of IHRAAM's objectives, orientation and bylaws, as summarized above.