March 15, 2023: Twenty six Nobel Laureates sent a joint letter to the President of the Council of Europe and expressed their support for nationwide uprising of the Iranian people and the 10-point plan of Mrs. Maryam Rajavi the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
The full text of the joint letter and the names of the signatories are as follows:
Joint Letter of the Nobel Laureates
To President of the European Council
March 15, 2023
Excellency Charles Michel,
President of the European Council
Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat 175
B-1048 Bruxelles/Brussel
Belgique/België
Mr. President,
For six months now, the Iranian people have been leading a nationwide uprising for a democratically elected republic. Despite facing a brutal crackdown by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and heavy human casualties – with 750 killed, including at least 70 children and more than 30,000 arrests – the brave young men and women of Iran have persevered in their quest for democracy, inspiring awe and admiration from people around the world.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is the main tool of war, repression, terrorism, and warmongering, that is why the people of Iran want it to be blacklisted by the civilized world, especially the European Union. On January 19, 2023, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling for the designation of IRGC as a terrorist organization.
The Iranian people’s unwavering determination to achieve their long-denied freedoms, despite the heavy costs, make it imperative for human rights advocates to take concrete steps to support Iranian people and their just resistance.
Forty-four years ago, millions of Iranian people rejected the despotic rule of the Shah and its brutal secret police (SAVAK) due to its crimes and torturing people by participating in mass demonstrations. Today, During the ongoing nationwide protests, they chant “No to Monarchy, No to Theocracy! Yes to Democracy, Equality”.
Maryam Rajavi‘s 10-point platform for a secular and non-nuclear democratic republic, already supported by the signatories of this statement, was endorsed by 250 representatives of the UK House of Commons and the House of Lords in February 2023.
The absolute majority of members of the US House of Representatives (225 members) also sponsored a resolution (H. Res. 100) in March 2023, which recognizes the right of the Iranian people to establish a secular and non-nuclear democratic republic and the 10-point platform which calls for universal suffrage, free elections, a market economy, independent judiciary, gender, religious, and ethnic equality, a foreign policy based on peaceful coexistence, and a non-nuclear Iran.
The blacklisting of IRGC by the European Union and the support of the United Nations fact-finding mission in Iran are essential. Let us stand with the brave people of Iran in their pursuit of freedom and democracy and a real change in their life.
Sincerely,
Signatories:
• President José Ramos-Horta, President of TImor-Leste, Nobel Peace Prize, 1996, Timor-Leste
• Professor Sir Richard J. Roberts, Nobel Prize, Medicine 1993, UK-USA
• Professor John C. Mather, Nobel Prize, Physics 2006, USA
• Professor Harvey J Alter, Nobel Prize, Medicine 2020, USA
• Professor Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Nobel Prize, Chemistry 2016, France
• Professor Michel Mayor, Nobel Prize, Physics 2019, Switzerland
• Professor Oliver Hart, Nobel Prize, Economics 2016, USA
• Professor Georg Bednorz, Nobel Prize, Physics 1987, Germany
• Professor Wole Soyinka, Nobel Prize, Literature 1986, Nigeria
• Professor Sir Peter Ratcliffe, Nobel Prize, Medicine 2019, UK
• Professor Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel Prize, Literature 2010, Peru
• Professor Richard Schrock, Nobel Prize, Chemistry 2005, USA
• Professor Robert Aumann, Nobel Prize, Economics 2018, USA, Israel
• Professor May-Britt Moser, Nobel Prize, Medicine 2014, Norway
• Professor Edvard Moser, Nobel Prize, Medicine 2014, Norway
• Professor John Polanyi, Nobel Prize, Chemistry 1986, Canada
• Professor Michael Rosbash, Nobel Prize, Medicine 2017, USA
• Professor Sheldon Glashow, Nobel Prize, Physics 1979, USA
• Professor Finn Kydland, Nobel Prize, Economics 2004, Norway
• Professor David Wineland, Nobel Prize, Physics 2012, USA
• Professor Gregory Winter, Nobel Prize, Chemistry 2018, UK
• Mr. Oscar Arias Sanchez, Nobel Prize, Peace 1986, Costa Rica
• Professor Barry Barish, Nobel Prize, Physics 2017, USA
• Professor Roger D. Kornberg, Nobel Prize, Chemistry 2006, USA
• Professor John Maxwell Coetzee, Nobel Prize, Literature 2003, South Africa
• Professor Jerome Friedman, Nobel Prize, Physics 1990, USA