IHRAG: On the 5th Anniversary of July 9th 1999 Call to Students around the Word for Solidarity with Iranian Students

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.

List and the report on the violation of the students' rights in the past 10 months