Free all jailed teachers and Trade union activists in Iran

To:
Ayatollah Syed Ali Khamenei
The Judiciary of the Islamiska Republic of Iran
High Council of Human Rights
Permanent Misson of Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations

We are writing this letter to strongly condemn the Iranian government’s repressive policies and practices toward teachers and trade unionists in Iran. Peaceful protests, the right to self-organize, and the demand for better working conditions and a just and free public education system are the basic rights of all members of our society including students, parents, and teachers. The right to organize and form associations and trade unions including national coordinating bodies, such as the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations, is absolutely lawful by both the domestic laws and international standards, including ILO’s Conventions 87 and 98 and ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Various forms of silencing the collective voice of the Iranian teachers, including the reported crackdown on their peaceful protests, the sacking, and arrest of the teacher trade unionists, imposing solitary confinement and long-term imprisonment for the active members of teachers’ trade unions, are simply illegal and against these basic rights. We have been informed that since the International Workers' Day, May Day 2022, more than 200 teachers have been arrested, summoned, investigated and/or interrogated by the government security apparatus without any legal basis. Some of these teacher unionists were released later on bail. A number of well-known teachers’ representatives and labour activists were particularly targeted by the intelligence ministry during the recent waves of arrests since May Day, including members of the CCITTA, Rasoul Bodaghi, Eskandar Lotfi, Shaban Mohammadi, Masoud Nikkhah, Jafar Ebrahimi, Mohammad Habibi, and members of Tehran bus workers syndicate. Reza Shahabi, and Hassan Saeidi, and workers’ rights activists Reyhaneh Ansarinejad, Anisha Asadollahi, Keyvan Mohtadi and Valeh Zamani. All had to go through weeks of interrogation. We have been informed that Eskandar Lotfi, Shaban Mohammadi, Madoud Nikkhah, Reyhaneh Ansarinejad and Anisha Asadollahi have recently been released on outrageous heavy bails while others are still incarcerated in Evin prison. Rasoul Bodaghi, is still being held in solitary confinement and deprived of visitation by their family members. Jafar Ebrahimi and Mohammad Habibi are still incarcerated in the Evin prison. Many other well-known teachers, including Hiwa Ghoraishi, Omid Shah_Mohammadi, Parviz Ahsani, Kaveh Mohammadzadeh, Mehdi Fathi, are still detained without justifiable reasons, while Zeinab Hamrang, Nahid Fath'alian, Nosrat Beheshti, Masoumeh Askari, Mohammad_Hossein Sepehri, Esmail Abdi, and Hashem Khastar continue to serve their unjust prison sentences. We stand in solidarity with the teacher’ struggles in Iran against privatization, and for full access to free and publicly funded education for all students, and for better working conditions and a decent life for everyone. We also echo the Iranian teachers’ demands for their rights to organize, assemble, and protest, without the ever-increasing fear of the government’s oppressive interferences, and for the freedom of all imprisoned teachers and trade union activists in Iran.

Swedish Trade Union Platform for Iran

Saied Tagavi

Projectmanager

PS! The Swedish Trade Union Platform is a collaboration platform consisting of:

LO (The Swedish Trade Union Confederation

IF Metall,

Kommunal Swedish Municipal Workers´

Swedish Transport Workers ´Union

The Swedish Teachers Association