Iran (IMNA) - The High Council for Human Rights of the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns in the strongest possible terms the direct and deliberate attacks by the armed forces of the Zionist regime and the United States on the scientific and academic centers of Iran during the recent aggression against Iran. These attacks, which constitute a manifest violation of the fundamental principles of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law, have resulted in catastrophic damage to the nation’s scientific and educational infrastructure.
According to precise reports compiled by the High Council for Human Rights, during this act of aggression, thirty (30) universities and higher education institutions across various parts of the country were subjected to direct strikes by enemy aircraft and missile systems. As a result of these atrocities, five (5) distinguished university professors and more than sixty innocent students, who were engaged in study and research, have been martyred. Furthermore, one hundred and fifty-four (154) scientific sites, including educational buildings, laboratories, libraries, lecture halls, and student dormitories across twenty-one universities, institutes, and higher education centers of Iran’s Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, have sustained total or partial damage and destruction. According to the latest expert assessments, the value of the damage incurred to the scientific and educational facilities and equipment of these centers exceeds forty thousand billion Rials.
The High Council for Human Rights of the Islamic Republic of Iran underscores that intentional and indiscriminate attacks against civilian objects, particularly universities and educational institutions, manifestly qualify as war crimes under international humanitarian law and represent a fundamental breach of peremptory norms (jus cogens).Article 52 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions (1977) explicitly affords absolute protection to civilian objects and installations, including scientific, cultural, and educational centers, and prohibits any deliberate attack upon them. Furthermore, Article 8(2)(b)(ix) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court defines "intentionally directing attacks against buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes, provided they are not military objectives," as a war crime.
The High Council for Human Rights of the Islamic Republic of Iran, invoking the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, as well as Additional Protocol I of 1977, declares that the deliberate attacks on Iranian universities and scientific centers not only constitute a breach of the international obligations of the United States and the Zionist regime but also represent a clear instance of "spreading terror among the civilian population" within the context of war crimes. This assessment is grounded in the fact that such attacks were perpetrated with the intent to instill fear among the civilian population and to paralyze the scientific and research system of an independent sovereign State.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, while reserving its inherent right to pursue legal recourse for these crimes before international forums, including the International Criminal Court, calls upon all human rights monitoring bodies of the United Nations, in particular the Human Rights Council, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNESCO (as the custodian body for the protection of scientific and cultural heritage), and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, to officially condemn these attacks as gross violations of international humanitarian law and to identify the military and political officials of the Zionist regime and the United States responsible for these attacks as designated war criminals.
The High Council for Human Rights of the Islamic Republic of Iran further warns that the continuation of this criminal policy entails direct international responsibility for the aggressor States, and that Iran reserves its inherent right to legitimate self-defense and to demand full reparation and compensation.
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