Activists inside Iran appeal to the UN: Support the referendum
In an open letter to the Security Council, 102 Iranian political and civil activists called for support for a “non-violent referendum” in Iran. They called the Islamic Republic a “thief” government. Do such open letters reach their audience?
In the beginning of their letter to the United Nations Security Council, political and civil activists inside Iran introduced themselves as the “National Solidarity Movement for Achieving a Secular Democratic Constitution in Iran” and said that, “along with millions of Iranian citizens, in support of political, civil, dissident, women’s and ethnic rights activists,” they expect the members of the Security Council to “support the will and desire of the Iranian people for a non-violent transition of power from the theocratic and thuggish government of the Islamic Republic and its constitution to a secular democratic constitution.”
To achieve this goal, they have proposed a national referendum.
The 102 signatories continued the letter by stating that the Iranian nation has become “victims of the brutal and inhumane behavior of the theocratic and tyrant rulers,” and introduced Ali Khamenei as “directly responsible for the decree suppressing the peaceful protesting people.”
They wrote that the Islamic Republic's security forces killed more than 1,500 people and arrested more than ten thousand during the nationwide protests of November 2019.
The letter continues: "We believe that the United Nations Security Council has the necessary and sufficient moral capacity and commitment to advance such a peaceful transition in line with the ongoing human rights violations of the Iranian people, in the shadow of safety, security, and peaceful coexistence with other nations of the Middle East and the world."
The authors of the open letter point to the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa in the 1990s and the 1978 referendum in Chile, both of which saw the UN play a prominent role.
Real or symbolic desire?
In February 2017, 15 political, civil, and artistic activists, eight of whom lived in Iran, issued a statement emphasizing the irreparability of the Islamic Republic and calling for a referendum under the supervision of the United Nations. They also emphasized “a peaceful transition to a secular parliamentary democracy.”
One of the signatories of the statement was Kazem Kordavani. In response to the letter from 102 domestic activists, the sociologist stated that “every principled collective action to realize the demands of the Iranian people should be supported,” adding: “The fact that some people in Iran have managed to publish a collective letter, given the severe repression that exists, is a very valuable work.”
In an interview with Deutsche Welle, Kordvani emphasized that in the current situation in Iran, it is not possible to hold a referendum, but this should not prevent democratic activists and defenders of the people's rights from expressing their demands.
According to this Berlin-based researcher, the Iranian nation has the ability to hold a referendum and "will certainly achieve this one day. The request to the UN to monitor will only serve to legitimize this referendum."
In response to the question of whether such open letters actually reach their recipients, Kazem Kordvani stated: "This depends on the activities of Iranians abroad, especially human rights defenders. If they make efforts in this direction, the content of the letter will definitely reach the recipients."
Source: DW
