By Amr Gohar
Paris, France – A coalition of 78 Nobel Prize laureates has issued an urgent appeal to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, calling for immediate international action to address what they describe as an escalating human rights crisis in Iran.
The signatories, representing the fields of Peace, Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Literature, and Economics, warned of “widespread, systematic, and ongoing” human rights violations, including a rise in executions, mass arrests, and the suppression of political dissent following nationwide protests in January 2026.
According to the statement, dozens of political prisoners have reportedly been executed in recent months, while more than 4,000 people have been arrested on security-related charges. The laureates expressed concern over what they described as an expanding crackdown targeting protesters, civil activists, and individuals accused of links to opposition groups.
“With every passing day that this silence endures, another noose is tightened around another human life,” the statement said, warning that international inaction risks encouraging further repression.
The Nobel laureates called for an immediate halt to executions, the unconditional release of political prisoners and detained protesters, unrestricted access for international monitoring organizations to Iranian detention facilities, and a reassessment of diplomatic and economic engagement with Tehran that places human rights and the abolition of the death penalty at the center of international relations.
The statement also emphasized that Iran’s future should be determined by its own people without foreign military intervention or a return to dictatorship. The signatories voiced support for democratic change and highlighted the Ten-Point Plan proposed by NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi as a framework for a peaceful transition toward democratic governance.
The appeal was issued ahead of June 20, 2026, the Day of Martyrs and Political Prisoners, and comes amid growing international scrutiny of Iran’s human rights record.
The 78 Nobel laureates signing the appeal are: José Ramos-Horta, Pierre Agostini, Harvey J. Alter, Victor Ambros, Oscar Arias, Alain Aspect, Robert Aumann, Barry C. Barish, Moungi Bawendi, Georg Bednorz, Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, Mario Capecchi, Thomas Cech, Aaron Ciechanover, Steven Chu, Elias Corey, Johann Deisenhofer, Gerhard Ertl, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Jerome Friedman, Reinhard Genzel, Sheldon Glashow, John Lewis Hall, Peter Handke, Oliver Hart, Alan Heeger, Richard Henderson, Avram Hershko, Geoffrey Hinton, Jules Hoffmann, Bengt Holmström, Gerard ’t Hooft, Michael Houghton, Robert Huber, Tim Hunt, Louis Ignarro, Kazuo Ishiguro, Elfriede Jelinek, Brian Josephson, Takaaki Kajita, Brian Kobilka, Roger D. Kornberg, Ferenc Krausz, Robert Lefkowitz, Jean-Marie Lehn, John Mather, Oleksandra Matviichuk, Michel Mayor, Craig Mello, Hartmut Michel, Patrick Modiano, Paul Modrich, Edvard Moser, May-Britt Moser, Herta Müller, Konstantin Novoselov, William Phillips, John Polanyi, Peter Ratcliffe, Charles M. Rice, Richard J. Roberts, Shimon Sakaguchi, Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Richard Schrock, Gregg Semenza, Dan Shechtman, Vernon Smith, Wole Soyinka, Jack Szostak, Joseph H. Taylor Jr., Olga Tokarczuk, John Walker, Arieh Warshel, Eric Wieschaus, Torsten Wiesel, Jody Williams, Robert Wilson, and David J. Wineland.
At the same time, according to Ali Safavi, a member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a major rally and march by Iranian opposition supporters is scheduled to take place in Paris on June 20, 2026. Safavi said the event, organized by the NCRI and expected to draw approximately 100,000 participants, is intended to demonstrate to the international community that there is a democratic and organized alternative to the current government in Tehran.
He added that governments should officially engage with this alternative in order to break what he described as the futile cycle of either appeasement or war. The gathering is expected to bring together Iranian expatriates, political leaders, lawmakers, former government officials, and human rights advocates from around the world in support of democratic change in Iran.
Observers say the unprecedented size and diversity of the Nobel laureate coalition, combined with the upcoming Paris rally, underscore growing international concern over Iran’s human rights situation and place additional pressure on the United Nations and democratic governments to respond to the reported wave of executions and political repression.
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