Solidarity with and support for the people of Iran

EGP Resolution adopted at the 6th EGP Congress, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2 - 4 December 2022

Solidarity with and support for the people of Iran

The first feminist revolution is taking place in Iran - after 43 years of systematic patriarchal oppression and violence against women, LGBTQI+ and minority groups.

The European Greens stand undeterred in their solidarity with the people of Iran. Human rights and women's rights specifically must be respected in Iran.

Every year, millions of Iranian women are held, harassed, and sanctioned in a state-organized manner for "not wearing their headscarf correctly".

Members of ethnic and religious minorities such as Kurds, Baha'is, Christians, Baluci, Sufis and Sunnis often face numerous discriminations and persecution in Iran. Due to discriminatory laws and policies, homosexuals and other sexual minorities (LGBTQI) in Iran are regularly at risk of harassment, violence, and even being killed.

Peaceful protests are suppressed and put down; countless cases of disappearances have been documented. Journalists, government critics, human rights defenders and civil society activists are arbitrarily arrested and sentenced without fair trial. Political prisoners often suffer torture and ill-treatment in custody and are denied necessary medical treatment. We stand in solidarity with the inspiring courage of Iranian women in particular, who are taking to the streets for their freedom and rights in Iran despite the repression.

Since the 2019 protests, Iranian judicial authorities have dramatically increased the price of peaceful dissent, sentencing dozens of human rights defenders and activists to decades of imprisonment. Serious abuses by security and intelligence agencies during the November 2019 nationwide protests continue to be covered up to this day, as are an estimated 1500 deaths during the protests as well as thousands of unlawful arrests and convictions. According to a comprehensive report by Amnesty International, a total of about 7000 men, women and children were detained, tortured and abused within a few days.

After the death of Jina Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman, thousands of Iranians have been protesting against the oppressive fundamentalist, regime of Iran with the goal to live in freedom and democracy. Iranian security forces have been brutally cracking down protests ever since. They have arrested an estimated 15000 people, including minors. Protesters, like the 17-year-old Nika Shakarami, have been tortured, sexually abused, and beaten to death. 227 members of the Iranian parliament have even doubled-down and condemned demonstrators for "war against God", demanding the death penalty for all detained protestors in a letter.

The Greens have their roots in and support international civil rights, women and LGBTQI+ movements. Human Rights do not belong to "the West" or "the East", they are universal and enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Iranian regime has signed the declaration and is bound to it like all other states. We strongly condemn the repression and brutal violence by the Iranian Regime. We explicitly support the efforts for political and religious freedom, self-determination, human rights, and democracy in Iran.

The EU’s Greens/EFA stand for a feminist foreign policy in which human dignity, diversity, equality, and democratic participation are the foundation for all people.

The EGP welcomes the EU-imposed sanctions and restrictive measures against the Iranian regime, specifically those against the IRGC and support their implementation.

The EGP welcomes the adoption by the UN Human Rights Council of Resolution “A/HRC/S-35/L.1”. This will enable an independent investigation of the violation of human rights in Iran by UN experts. The fact-finding mission must begin as soon as possible.

The EGP calls on the European Commission and the EU member states:

• To increase political and diplomatic pressure on the regime in Tehran;
• To support human rights organizations, with financial resources, in monitoring and documenting evidence for those responsible of state violence and arbitrariness against the Iranian population;
• To consistently freeze assets of sanctioned Iranian officials located in Europe as well as third party assets originating from sanctioned individuals;
• Extend targeted and individual visa and asset freezes of leading government officials and individuals responsible for grave human rights abuses against civilians;
• To sanction Iranian judges, who impose unjust brutal punishments against protestors
• To sanction the 227 members of the Iranian national parliament, who have called for the death penalty for protesters;
• To further examine whether the Revolutionary Guards can be designated as a terrorist group or at the very least sanction all of its members except those who are required to perform military service with them;
• To help the Iranian people produce, access and exchange information freely and safely on the Internet and other communication outlets, such as by assisting in the establishment of secure and trusted Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), as well as providing access to social media alternatives;
• To consistently punish and stop violations of rules on the transfer of surveillance technologies to the Iranian regime and to ban the export of dual-use goods throughout the EU;
• To campaign vigorously for the Iranian regime's sanctions against European media to be lifted;
• To demand that on the Iranian government to release all political prisoners, including journalists, immediately and unconditionally and to revoke the sentences against them;
• To demand that the Iranian government to release all prisoners who were involved in the protests immediately;
• To unequivocally condemn the threat and the use of the death penalty as well as the effective death penalty sentences that have already proceeded, and demand that the Iranian government and courts revoke all death sentences and abolish the death penalty in its entirety to support democratic civil society actors from Iran in their work in Europe;
• To increase support and protection of democratic opposition activists, including human rights defenders and journalists from Iran in Europe and to take consistent action against Iranian agents in Europe by expelling them;
• To grant the necessary protection to Iranians from the fields of culture, science, media and civil society, who are particularly at risk of political persecution, by issuing humanitarians visas;
• Call on the EU, its member states and all non-EU countries to make humanitarian visas easily accessible and available to all Iranian protesters facing prosecution;
• To advocate at the Council of Europe for a revision of its neighborhood strategy in view of the current repressions by the Iranian regime and the provision of protection for the Iranian diaspora in its member states.