View this profile on Instagram

Impact Iran (@impactiran) • Instagram photos and videos

11/10/2022 Advocacy, English, Joint Initiatives

Joint Letter to POTUS Biden: Fulfill Your Promise to Confront Authoritarianism

Joseph R. Biden, President of the United States

White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20500

Cc: Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State

Jake Sullivan, National Security Council Advisor

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US Representative to the United Nations

Dear President Biden:

The death of 22-year-old Mahsa (Jina) Amini in state custody in Iran on September 13 has set in motion massive nationwide protests and strikes in at least 103 cities and towns across all 31 of Iran’s provinces, with scores of protesters killed and many more injured.

Thousands of people have been arrested, including journalists, activists and artists. A number of recent detainees are facing grave custodial abuse and torture. On September 30, Islamic Republic security forces cracked down violently on protesters in Zahedan in Sistan and Baluchestan Province in southeastern Iran, killing dozens of Baluch-Iranians. On October 2, students at the prestigious Sharif University were under siege for hours, with security forces shooting at them and detaining them en masse. On October 4, it was reported that 16-year-old protester Nika Shakarami was killed by Iranian state security forces and forcibly disappeared. Many more deaths, injuries and arrests may be obscured by the government’s internet black out.

The U.S. government’s actions to date—expanding sanctions exemptions to allow Iranians to use cloud computing and circumvention technologies, sanctions on Iran’s “morality” police, support for a joint statement at UNHRC 51, and expressions of solidarity with the women and people of Iran—are significant and positive. But more urgently needs to be done by the world’s leading democratic power to support the people of Iran, discourage further state violence, and address the long history of atrocities and impunity in that country.

The Iranian people need the support of the United States and the entire international community to attain their rights and freedoms. We call on you as president of the United States and your administration to:

  • Continue to forcefully and publicly condemn, at the highest levels, the Iranian government for violence against women, protesters, and civil society activists; and call on the authorities to end the internet black out, call off the violent crackdown, allow for peaceful protests, and release all wrongfully detained individuals;
  • Lead in concert with democratic allies at the United Nations in Geneva diplomatic efforts to establish an urgent special session immediately after the conclusion of UNHRC’s 51st regular session to bring governments into a debate about addressing the current violent crackdown and Iran’s ongoing human rights crisis;
  • Lead in concert with democratic allies the establishment of an independent, impartial investigative mechanism at the UNHRC that investigates crimes committed against the Iranian people by their government and documented by UN human rights mechanisms over decades;
  • Call on the Iranian government to respect the basic rights of its people and end state sanctioned discrimination against women;
  • Continue to work with private technology companies to ensure unfettered and cost-free access to the internet and communications technologies by the Iranian people, which continues to be hindered despite U.S. sanctions exemptions.

The Iranian people have a long history of protest against the systematic human rights abuses of their government. Protests have increased in intensity since the 2009 Green Movement, when Iranians demanding their political rights were violently suppressed. Between 2017-2021, nationwide protests were repeatedly responded to by lethal force while Iranians were disconnected from the global internet. There has been no accountability for atrocities by the Islamic Republic as far back as the 1980s, when thousands of political prisoners were executed.

President Biden, after you took office in January 2021, you traveled to Europe and told your democratic allies that “America was back” on the global stage and you vowed to wield American leadership to confront this “new moment of advancing authoritarianism.” The Iranian people need you to fulfill that promise now before a new generation is subjected to the oppression and suffering of previous generations.

Sincerely,

Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran

ARTICLE 19

Association for the Human Rights of the Azerbaijani People in Iran (AHARZ)

Baloch Activists Campaign 

Center for Human Rights in Iran

Committee to Protect Journalists

Human Rights Activists (in Iran)

Human Rights First

Human Rights Foundation

Impact Iran

Iran Human Rights Documentation Center

Justice for Iran

Kurdistan Human Rights Association-Geneva (KMMK-G)

Kurdpa Human Rights Organization

PEN America

Project on Middle East Democracy

Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights

Rasank

Siamak Pourzand Foundation

United for Iran

Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO)

UPCOMING EVENTS

(all times in EST)

28 09 23
  • International Day for Universal Access to Information

    28 09 23

  • World Maritime Day

    28 09 23

  • World Rabies Day

    28 09 23

30 09 23
  • International Translation Day

    30 09 23

01 10 23
  • International Day of Older Persons

    01 10 23

02 10 23
  • International Day of Non-Violence

    02 10 23

  • World Habitat Day

    02 10 23

05 10 23
  • World Teachers’ Day

    05 10 23

09 10 23
  • World Post Day

    09 10 23

10 10 23
  • World Mental Health Day

    10 10 23

11 10 23
  • International Day of the Girl Child

    11 10 23

13 10 23
  • International Day for Disaster Reduction

    13 10 23

15 10 23
  • International Day of Rural Women

    15 10 23

16 10 23
  • World Food Day

    16 10 23

17 10 23
  • International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

    17 10 23

24 10 23
  • United Nations Day

    24 10 23

  • World Development Information Day

    24 10 23

27 10 23
  • World Day for Audiovisual Heritage

    27 10 23

31 10 23
  • World Cities Day

    31 10 23

02 11 23
  • International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists

    02 11 23

05 11 23
  • World Tsunami Awareness Day

    05 11 23

06 11 23
  • International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict

    06 11 23

10 11 23
  • World Science Day for Peace and Development

    10 11 23

14 11 23
  • World Diabetes Day

    14 11 23

16 11 23
  • International Day for Tolerance

    16 11 23

  • World Philosophy Day

    16 11 23

19 11 23
  • World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims

    19 11 23

  • World Toilet Day

    19 11 23

20 11 23
  • Africa Industrialization Day

    20 11 23

  • Universal Children’s Day

    20 11 23

21 11 23
  • World Television Day

    21 11 23

25 11 23
  • International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

    25 11 23

29 11 23
  • International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People

    29 11 23

01 12 23
  • World AIDS Day

    01 12 23

02 12 23
  • International Day for the Abolition of Slavery

    02 12 23

03 12 23
  • International Day of Persons with Disabilities

    03 12 23

05 12 23
  • International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development

    05 12 23

  • World Soil Day

    05 12 23

07 12 23
  • International Civil Aviation Day

    07 12 23

09 12 23
  • International Anti-Corruption Day

    09 12 23

  • International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime

    09 12 23

10 12 23
  • Human Rights Day

    10 12 23

11 12 23
  • International Mountain Day

    11 12 23

12 12 23
  • International Day of Neutrality

    12 12 23

18 12 23
  • Arabic Language Day

    18 12 23

  • International Migrants Day

    18 12 23

20 12 23
  • International Human Solidarity Day

    20 12 23

27 01 24
  • International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust

    27 01 24