29 November 2019

To His Excellency, Hamid Baeidinejad, the Iranian Ambassador,

Your Excellency,

We are writing as representatives of the National Education Union to express our deep concern about the violence perpetrated by the Iranian authorities during recent days against peaceful demonstrators demanding a reversal of the massive hike in petrol prices announced without warning.

Peaceful protests have been met with extreme and systematic violence from the police and security services across the country. According to the latest reports, hundreds are dead, and thousands have been wounded in a continuing brutal crackdown. Many people are missing and there has been no official confirmation of the names of those killed, amidst a complete news blackout and Internet shutdown.

We are deeply concerned by reported violations of international norms and standards on human rights, democracy and trade union rights. We urge the Iranian authorities to

• Immediately release all protesters detained since the riots began- and, at the very least, allow access to the detained by medical personnel and legal representatives
• release accurate figures for the numbers of protestors killed, injured and detained over the last few days

• support and respect the Iranian people by tackling the root causes of mounting popular anger. Raising minimum wages and strengthening freedom or association and collective bargaining are fundamental to redistributing wealth more evenly and establishing social peace.

Mary Bousted                                       Kevin Courtney

Joint General Secretary                          Joint General Secretary