AhlulBayt News Agency: A leading academic and scientific civil institution in Iran has strongly condemned the US-Israeli criminal attacks on scientific, educational, and cultural institutions across the country, urging international action to stop such egregious violations of international law.
In a letter to secretary-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Islamic Association of University Professors of Iran expressed its profound concern over the attacks, which have so far claimed the lives of hundreds of defenseless students, including nearly 200 schoolgirls from an elementary school in Minab, Hormozgan province.
“The have endangered the safety of teachers and staff working in these institutions and inflicted irreparable damage upon the nation’s scientific and cultural heritage, as well as its educational infrastructure,” the letter said.
The association said the US-Israeli attacks on educational centers “constitute a clear and egregious violation of all international covenants and conventions, particularly the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, as well as UNESCO’s Charter concerning the protection of academic freedom and education.”
The bombing of scientific centers represents a systematic attempt to destroy the foundations of knowledge, culture, and the future of Iran’s younger generations, it said, adding that the effort will ultimately fail.
The value of these institutions goes beyond their physical structures; the letter said, they are the cradle of knowledge production, the nurturing ground of enlightened individuals, and the birthplace of scientific achievements in service to humanity.
“Their destruction amounts to an assault on the very essence of science and human progress.”
The association emphasized that scientific institutions must be protected under all circumstances as a peremptory norm of international law.
It further called on UNESCO, as the body entrusted with safeguarding the world’s scientific and cultural heritage, to fulfill its moral and legal responsibilities as enshrined in its Constitution, to issue a strong condemnation of these crimes and take immediate measures to protect Iran’s scientific institutions.
The Islamic Association of University Professors proposed UNESCO take the following measures.
- Draft and adopt an urgent resolution explicitly condemning the aggressors and demand the immediate cessation of any operations targeting scientific institutions.
- Dispatch an impartial international fact-finding mission to conduct on-site assessments of the damage incurred and to document these crimes against scientific heritage.
- Establish a dedicated monitoring mechanism under UNESCO’s supervision to oversee and ensure the lasting security of all university and cultural centers in the region.
- Impose scientific and cultural sanctions on the institutions and individuals involved in the planning and execution of these attacks.
- Allow urgent international assistance for the reconstruction and re-equipping of the affected institutions.
“We firmly believe that the security of universities and cultural centers must be guaranteed irrespective of political or military considerations,” it further stressed.
“Turning a blind eye to such actions would amount to legitimizing attacks against knowledge and culture worldwide and opening the door to a dark era of violence,” the association warned.
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