To:
Joe Biden, President of the United States
Charles Michel, President of the European Council
Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
Copy:
Leaders of the 27 Member States of the European Union
10 July 2023
Excellencies,
Since September 2022, the world has witnessed a sweeping popular uprising in Iran, demanding freedom and democracy. Reports suggest that some 750 protesters have been killed and 30,000 arrested. While any change should come from the people of Iran, the international community has a responsibility to support their human rights.
Decades of apparent silence and inaction by the international community have helped fuel a culture of impunity in Iran. Since the 1980s, the authorities in Iran have executed tens of thousands of protesters and political prisoners. Tragically, in the summer of 1988 alone, over 30,000 political prisoners – the vast majority of whom were members of the opposition MEK – were brutally massacred.
We believe it is time to hold the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran to account for its crimes.
We encourage you to stand in solidarity with the people of Iran in their desire for a secular and democratic republic where no individual, regardless of religion or birthright, has any privilege over others. Through their slogans, the Iranian people have made it clear that they reject all forms of dictatorship, be it that of the deposed Shah or the current theocratic regime, and thus reject any association with either.
We believe it is for the Iranian people to decide their future. However, we recognise that for four decades, the democratic coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has constantly and tirelessly pursued democratic change. In this respect, we believe the Ten-Point Plan articulated by the NCRI President, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, deserves support. Its commitment to free elections, freedom of assembly and expression, abolition of the death penalty, gender equality, separation of religion and state, autonomy for Iran’s ethnicities, and a non-nuclear Iran is in line with our own democratic values.
We condemn the Iranian regime’s meddling in the Middle East and Europe, including its provision of drones to assist Russia’s war against Ukraine and its terrorist attempts and cyber-attacks in Albania.
We urge your nations to stand with the Iranian people in their quest for change and to take decisive steps against the current regime. This includes blacklisting the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and holding regime officials accountable for their crimes against humanity.
Sincerely
SIGNED:
Ban Ki-moon – Former United Nations Secretary General
Mike Pence – Former Vice President, United States
Jean Claude Juncker – Former Prime Minister, Luxembourg; former President of the European Commission
Romano Prodi – Former Prime Minister, Italy; former President of the European Commission
Lech Wałęsa – Former President, Poland; Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Juan Manuel Santos – Former President, Colombia; Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Oscar Arias Sánchez – Former President, Costa Rica; Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Liz Truss – Former Prime Minister, United Kingdom
Horst Köhler – Former President, Germany
Bernard Cazeneuve – Former Prime Minister, France
Yulia Tymoshenko – Former Prime Minister, Ukraine
Stephen Harper – Former Prime Minister, Canada
Gordon Brown – Former Prime Minister, United Kingdom
Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Echeverría – Former President, Costa Rica; former Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS)
César Gaviria – Former President, Colombia: former Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS)
Matteo Renzi – Former Prime Minister, Italy
Mariano Rajoy – Former Prime Minister, Spain
Janez Janša – Former Prime Minister, Slovenia
Aníbal Cavaco Silva – Former President and former Prime Minister, Portugal
Guy Verhofstadt – Former Prime Minister, Belgium
Mary McAleese – Former President, Ireland
Joseph Deiss – Former President, Switzerland; former President of the UN General Assembly
Tarja Halonen – Former President, Finland
Heinz Fischer – Former President, Austria
Göran Persson – Former Prime Minister, Sweden
Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca – Former President, Malta
Ricardo Lagos Escobar – Former President, Chile
Mauricio Macri – Former President, Argentina
Danilo Türk – Former President, Slovenia
Sebastián Piñera E. – Former President, Chile
Vicente Fox – Former President, Mexico
Haidar Abu Bakr al-Attas – Former Prime Minister, Yemen
Carlos Alvarado Quesada – Former President, Costa Rica
Giuliano Amato – Former Prime Minister, Italy
Pedro Angulo Arana – Former Prime Minister, Peru
Andrus Ansip – Former Prime Minister, Estonia
Mercedes Aráoz – Former Prime Minister, Peru
Rosalía Arteaga Serrano – Former President, Ecuador
Alexandru Athanasiu – Former Prime Minister, Romania
José María Aznar – Former Prime Minister, Spain
Gordon Bajnai – Former Prime Minister, Hungary
Jan Peter Balkenende – Former Prime Minister, Netherlands
Nicolás Ardito Barletta – Former President, Panama
Jaume Bartumeu-Cassany – Former Prime Minister, Andorra
Gian Nicola Berti – Former Captain Regent, San Marino
Georgi Bliznashki – Former Prime Minister, Bulgaria
Emil Boc – Former Prime Minister, Romania
Luca Boschi – Former Captain Regent, San Marino
Felipe Calderón – Former President, Mexico
Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier – Former President, Costa Rica
Micheline Calmy-Rey – Former President, Switzerland
Kim Campbell – Former Prime Minister, Canada
Miro Cerar – Former Prime Minister, Slovenia
Youssef Chahed – Former Prime Minister, Tunisia
Laura Chinchilla Miranda – Former President, Costa Rica
Matteo Ciacci – Former Captain Regent, San Marino
Emil Constantinescu – Former President, Romania
Carlo Cottarelli – Former Prime Minister, Italy
Édith Cresson – Former Prime Minister, France
Elio Di Rupo – Former Prime Minister, Belgium
Iván Duque – Former President, Colombia
José María Figueres – Former President, Costa Rica
Ántero Flores-Aráoz E. – Former Prime Minister, Peru
Federico Franco – Former President, Paraguay
Mario Frick – Former Prime Minister, Liechtenstein
Carlos D. Mesa Gisbert – Former President, Bolivia
Lawrence Gonzi – Former Prime Minister, Malta
Dalia Grybauskaitė – Former President, Lithuania
Alfred Gusenbauer – Former Chancellor, Austria
Geir H. Haarde – Former Prime Minister , Iceland
Avdullah Hoti – Former Prime Minister, Kosovo
Osvaldo Hurtado – Former President, Ecuador
Toomas Hendrik Ilves – Former President, Estonia
Enda Kenny – Former Prime Minister, Ireland
Anatoliy Kinakh – Former Prime Minister, Ukraine
Andrej Kiska – Former President, Slovakia
Bronisław Komorowski – Former President, Poland
Andrius Kubilius – Former Prime Minister, Lithuania
Milan Kučan – Former President, Slovenia
Aleksander Kwaśniewski – Former President, Poland
Zlatko Lagumdžija – Former Prime Minister, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Vytautas Landsbergis – Former Head of State, Lithuania
Yves Leterme – Former Prime Minister, Belgium
Moritz Leuenberger – Former President, Switzerland
Igor Lukšić – Former Prime Minister, Montenegro
Jamil Mahuad – Former President, Ecuador
Pandeli Majko – Former Prime Minister, Albania
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz – Former Prime Minister, Poland
Moncef Marzouki – Former President, Tunisia
Mario Monti – Former Prime Minister, Italy
Giuseppe Maria Morganti – Former Captain Regent, San Marino
Mireya Moscoso – Former President, Panama
Michele Muratori – Former Captain Regent, San Marino
Joseph Muscat – Former Prime Minister, Malta
Peter O’Neill – Former Prime Minister, Papua New Guinea
George Papandreou – Former Prime Minister, Greece
Jiří Paroubek – Former Prime Minister, Czech Republic
Pedro Passos Coelho – Former Prime Minister, Portugal
Andrés Pastrana – Former President, Colombia
Ernesto Pérez Balladares – Former President, Panama
Jorge Fernando Quiroga Ramírez – Former President, Bolivia
Iveta Radicova – Former Prime Minister, Slovakia
Eugene Rhuggenaath – Former Prime Minister, Curaçao
Eduardo Rodríguez Veltzé – Former President, Bolivia
Taavi Rõivas – Former Prime Minister, Estonia
Petre Roman – Former Prime Minister, Romania
Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle – Former President, Chile
Francisco Sagasti – Former President, Peru
Antonis Samaras – Former Prime Minister, Greece
Semisi Sika – Former Prime Minister, Tonga
Luis Guillermo Solís Rivera – Former President, Costa Rica
Vladimír Špidla – Former Prime Minister, Czech Republic
Hanna Suchocka – Former Prime Minister, Poland
Johnson Toribiong – Former President, Palau
Aníbal Torres Vásquez – Former Prime Minister, Peru
Aminata Touré – Former Prime Minister, Senegal
Elbegdorj Tsakhia – Former President and former Prime Minister, Mongolia
Guntis Ulmanis – Former President, Latvia
Raimonds Vējonis – Former President, Latvia
Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga – Former President, Latvia
Juan Carlos Wasmosy – Former President, Paraguay
Andrea Zafferani – Former Captain Regent, San Marino
Rosa Zafferani – Former Captain Regent, San Marino
Guerrino Zanotti – Former Captain Regent, San Marino
Valdis Zatlers – Former President, Latvia
Click here to see the profiles of the open letter’s signatories