The Human Rights Association for the Protection of the Rights of Refugees (A.P.A.D.A.R) in Romania (Asociația Pentru Apărarea Drepturilor Apatrizilor și Refugiaților) in a letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, expressed support for the strikes and protests by Iranian teachers.

The full text of the letter is as follows:

António Guterres

Secretary-General

United Nations

14 FEB 2022

Dear Secretary General,

Support teachers’ strikes and protests in different cities of Iran

The Iranian government has not yet responded to the demands of four series of nationwide protests and strikes by teachers and retirees over the past four months in more than two hundred cities, and instead continues to arrest, repress, imprison, against teachers.

Iranian teachers and educators are living in a very catastrophic condition. They have stated that they have no hope for the baseless promises of Raisi‘s government and the entire regime. We support the teachers’ protests and demand the following items of teachers’ statement:

1. Stop the repression, arrest, and dismissal of active teachers and union activists.

2. Release of teacher who are in prisons.

3. Implementation of the teacher ranking and equalisation bill to achieve their goals. 4. Hiring the contract teachers in educational services 5. Recognition of teachers’ right to hold free protests without repression, arrest, or intimidation. We call for immediate action by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Human Rights Council and relevant rapporteurs and international human rights organisations to address the situation of teachers in Iran. Signatures:

President, ENE VIOREL