2026 ⁄ 8 ⁄ 25
Dear Mr. #Volker_Türk,
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
I am fully aware that, in the highly polarized and increasingly militarized political climate created by the policies of the United States Government, appeals for the protection of human rights may struggle to receive the attention they deserve. Nevertheless, I expect you, to the fullest extent possible within your mandate, to make clear to the international community that the principal victims of what the United States describes as its “crushing and unprecedented sanctions” are the people of Iran. Unlike governments and state institutions, ordinary citizens do not have privileged access to financial reserves, alternative economic channels, or other means of insulating themselves from the consequences of such measures.
U.S. officials have repeatedly stated, openly and explicitly, that one of the purposes of imposing #sanctions is to place such severe pressure and Suffering on the Iranian population that people will take to the streets in pursuit of the political objective sought by the United States, namely the overthrow of the Iranian government.
If civilians are deliberately subjected to economic deprivation and unbearable hardship in the hope that they will become instruments of political change, then the distinction between political pressure and the collective punishment of a population becomes deeply troubling from a human rights perspective. Ordinary people should never be treated as leverage in the pursuit of geopolitical objectives. No political disagreement, however serious, can justify policies that knowingly transfer the burden of confrontation onto an entire civilian population.
This is, in my view, among the most morally indefensible and The ugliest forms of political conduct in the contemporary international order. I, therefore, urge your office to address this issue not merely as a matter of geopolitical confrontation, but as a question of fundamental human rights, human dignity, and the protection of civilians.
I respectfully ask you to ensure that the suffering of the Iranian people is not rendered invisible amid geopolitical calculations. Their rights and dignity must remain at the center of the international human rights discourse.
Yours sincerely
Emadeddin Baghi
Author and human rights defender from Iran, and recipient of numerous international human rights awards.

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