Five years ago,
beginning July 9th 1999 through days after, the Iranian university
students protested peacefully against the repressive acts of the dictatorship
regime of Iran, and in particular, called for the freedom of speech and press
in Iran.
In response to
legitimate demands of the students, the regime of Islamic Republic of Iran responded by using
violence through mobilizing massive forces to attack, beat, arrest and shed
blood of demonstrators. Those oppressive acts against students were clearly
grave violation of about two thirds of the United Nations Universal Declaration
of Human Rights clauses (1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 18, 19,
20, 21, 23-4, 28, 29)*.
Five years later, a
large number of Iranian students still have to be confronted with wide, planned
and systematic violation of their rights at a large scale (Please see the
attached list and the report on the violation of the students' rights in the
past 10 months). They have constantly been persecuted, harassed, arrested,
interrogated, tortured, forced to confession and prosecuted in secret courts as
well as threatened with expulsion from their school and forced into exile. Last
year, with the approach of the 4th year anniversary, according to
the Iran's General Prosecutor, Mr. Abdonnabi Namazi, about 4000 students were
arrested in the city of Tehran alone of whom the public has known little
information of their situation.
The events of July
1999 in Iran mark a turning point in the contemporary history of Iran. In fact,
the basic demands of student’s movement for freedom and democracy are shared
and supported by the vast majority of the Iranian people.
We, Iranian
Human Rights Activist Groups in EU and North America, call upon
students across the world to:
1.
Condemn gross violation of fundamental rights
of the Iranian students;
2.
Ask for the immediate and unconditional release
of all imprisoned students;
3.
Call for the solidarity with the Iranian
student movement for the establishment of democracy in Iran; and
4.
Ask the United Nations body to:
a)
Condemn the violation of human rights in Iran;
b)
Establish a permanent observation mission by
appointing a special observer to closely monitor human rights situation in
Iran; and
c)
Demand that all talks and negotiations with the
Islamic Republic of Iran be conditional to the release of all political
prisoners and the dissolution of official and non-official repressive bodies.
Human rights defense association of Iran, Montréal, Canada (www.addhi.com) - Human Rights defense
comity of Iran, Sweden (www.defakomite.com ) – The action committee for the release of Prisoners of conscience
in Iran, Paris, France
(irancalppo.free.fr ) – Centre for Thought, Dialogue and Human Rights in Iran,
Toronto, Canada (ctdhumanright@yahoo.com) - Vereinigung zur Verteidigung
der Menschenrechte im Iran,Bremen, Deutschland (www.bashariyat.de) - Stichting
voor de Verdediging van Democratie in
Iran, Nederland ) kdaddih@hotmail.com) – Iranian – Canadian community Association of western Canada,
Vancouver (yebarak@yahoo.ca) -
Committee to Defend Human Rights in Iran, California, U.S.A. - ( defendhriran_ca@yahoo.com) - noran (supporting committee for human rights in iran ), Norway – (noranali2003@yahoo.no ) – Activist of Human Rights- Irantestimony (www.irantestimony.com) - Committee for defense of Liberty and Democracy in Iran – Austria (demokrasi9@yahoo.com) , Aliance for Human Rights defense in Iran – Washangton, U.S.A (adhri1@yahoo.com) – Association of
defender of Human Rights and democracy in Iran , France (www.rahaei.com) - Iranain Human Rights Activitists group,
Switzerland (mnrecht@hotmail.com), - Center of activists for
the defense of
Human Rigts in Iran, Belgium ( kanon253@hotmail.com )
* Indicated in a report prepared by Mr. Maurice Copithorne, the
Special Representative of the UN Commission on Human Rights on the situation of
human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, A/56/278 et E/CN.4/2002/42