Free Them Now letter to all trade unions around the world regarding the Amnesty International report on Iran
September 15, 2020
Greetings,
I am writing to you as the spokeswoman for Free Them Now (the campaign to free jailed workers in Iran) to draw your attention to a recent report by Amnesty International and to request your support once again. You have probably received Amnesty International report released on Wednesday, September 2, 2020, entitled ” TRAMPLING HUMANITY – MASS ARRESTS, DISAPPEARANCES AND TORTURE SINCE IRAN’S 2019 NOVEMBER PROTESTS” and you are aware of it’s shocking content. (The text of this report is attached. According to the report “In response to nationwide protests in November 2019 by tens of thousands of people across the country following the government’s sudden announcement about the significant overnight rise in the price of petrol, the Iranian authorities waged a campaign of mass repression that led to hundreds of deaths, resulting from the deliberate use of lethal force, and to the arrest of more than 7,000 men, women and children as young as 10 years old within a matter of days”
This report provides very catastrophic and shocking testimonies from dozens of protesters, witnesses and political prisoners who were violently arrested during the protests in November last year and held in solitary confinement. All kinds of horrific acts of torture that are humanly conceivable have been inflicted on them, and by taking forced confessions under torture, harsh sentences of imprisonment, flogging, and even execution have been issued against them.
According to the report many eyewitnesses testify that the detainees were severely abused, given electric shocks, tortured by flogging, subjected to water boarding and hanging, were sexually assaulted, and subjected to coercive injections and other forms of horrific torture.
We have written to you many times about the violation of the most basic human rights by the Islamic government, and I appreciate very much your sincere supports and solidarity. Today amnesty International’s report provides further strong and undeniable evidence to these claims and, in fact reveals a very small aspect of the real extent to which the Islamic Republic’s shocking crimes against the Iranian people have gone. With this report, it is not easy for those involved and the officials of the Islamic regime to deny the level of violation of the most basic human rights in Iran. There is a whole lot of evidence. Tens of thousands of families have suffered and are remaining resolute and determined to seek justice and will not remain silent. Many workers are in prisons, fired or imprisoned. The whole society is a living witness of the crimes of the Islamic Republic of Iran against humanity.
We have attached Amnesty International’s report here and we urge you to continue to support the workers in Iran and along with us strongly defend the call for expulsion of the Islamic regime of Iran from international institutions, especially from ILO the International Labour Organization. The expulsion of this murderous evil from ILO undoubtedly sends a strong message to the leaders of the government and effectively strengthens the position of the workers and the people of Iran to defend their basic human rights.
The Islamic Republic is a disgrace to humanity. The world of the 21st century should not be a place for such regimes with such a record full of the destruction of humanity. The Islamic regime, like the Apartheid regime in South Africa, must be isolated globally and be under constant pressure to the end. The workers and people of Iran do not deserve such a government and are protesting, striking, and fighting against this regime every day.
Support the struggles of the workers in Iran. Call for the release of workers and all political prisoners. Put pressure on the International Labour Organization and your governments to try to expel this criminal government from the international community.
Shahla Daneshfar spokesman of Free Them Now
The link of Amnesty’s Report: http://tiny.cc/j8wssz