ITUC submits to the UN Universal Periodic Review

Brussels, 1 September August 2009: The ITUC lodged a submission detailing Iran’s violations of fundamental workers’ rights to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review, a high-level UN procedure on human rights. Iran will be discussed at the 7th session of the UPR Working Group from 2 - 10 February 2010.

The ITUC and Global Union Federations have been calling for years for full democratic rights for all Iranians, including freedom of association and freedom of assembly; a halt to all violent repression; the release of all imprisoned trade unionists; recognition of all independent workers’ organizations in Iran; ratification of and respect for all the core labour standards; a halt to all anti-union repression; and the reinstatement of unfairly dismissed workers.

The UN Universal Periodic Review was established by the UN General Assembly in 2006, at the same time as the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). It conducts four-yearly reviews of human rights in each of the 192 UN member states, and is designed to “prompt, support, and expand the promotion and protection of human rights”.

Along with the international trade union movement’s actions at the International Labour Organisation to press Iran to respect fundamental labour standards, the ITUC submission to the UPR sets out a catalogue of serious violations of these standards, and calls for Iran to respect its international obligations, both with respect to the ILO and under the UN’s International Covenant on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights, Article 8 of which provides for the right to form and join unions, and the right to strike.