Urgent Appeal for Global Action to Defend Stateless Children in Sistan and Baluchistan
202
Signatures
500
Goal
Thursday, 30 October 2025
“No child should remain nameless, voiceless, and without schooling.”
Introduction
In the suffocating silence and indifference of power structures within the Islamic Republic of Iran, thousands of children in Sistan and Baluchistan — and other marginalized regions of the country — live in the shadows: without birth certificates, without the right to education, and without legal identity. From birth, they are denied not only the right to learn but even the right to be seen.This is among the most glaring and painful forms of human rights violations in contemporary Iran. Children who remain unregistered are, in effect, erased from society from the moment they are born. They do not exist in official records and are deprived of the most basic human rights, from schooling to healthcare, from social protection to citizenship. This systemic exclusion constitutes an institutionalized form of discrimination, perpetuated by the silence of Iran’s political and administrative apparatus.
Violation of International Law
Under international human rights law, this situation represents a direct breach of Iran’s binding obligations, including:• Articles 7 and 8 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which affirm every child’s right to a name, nationality, and identity.• Article 28 of the same Convention, which guarantees the right to equal and non-discriminatory education.• Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which require states to ensure equal access to education for all.Although Iran is a signatory to these instruments, thousands of children in Sistan and Baluchistan, Khuzestan, and Kurdistan remain deprived of their most fundamental human rights. This glaring contradiction between Iran’s international commitments and the lived reality on the ground amounts to the systematic violation of children’s rights within the country’s governance structure.
Our Declaration
As a coalition of social, cultural, and civil activists, and defenders of children’s rights, we declare that the crisis of stateless children is no longer a local or bureaucratic issue. It is a national and humanitarian emergency that demands immediate intervention by the international community. Silence in the face of this injustice is complicity in a structure of discrimination.
We Call for Immediate and Binding International Action
We urge international organizations, democratic governments, and all conscientious people of the world to compel the Islamic Republic of Iran to uphold its obligations and to guarantee the rights of these children.Our Immediate Demands:1. Registration of all births and issuance of emergency identity documents for stateless children in Sistan and Baluchistan and other peripheral regions of Iran.2. Immediate and unconditional access to schools for all undocumented children, and the presence of independent human rights organizations to monitor the right to education in Iran.3. Establishment of a joint monitoring committee with the participation of UNICEF.4. Launch of a global campaign to document and publicize violations of children’s rights in Iran’s border regions.5. Diplomatic and political pressure from the European Union, the United Nations, and international child protection bodies to compel the Iranian government to fulfill its international commitments.
A Human and Global Imperative
Children left nameless and unschooled in Baluchistan today will become tomorrow’s forgotten citizens of the world. This tragedy must end — now.We call upon political, cultural, academic, and civic figures, international institutions, free media, and all people of conscience to sign this statement and declare with a unified voice:“No child, anywhere in the world, should be denied the right to education and identity because of geography, ethnicity, or administrative barriers.”Restoring stateless children to the classroom is not merely a humanitarian request, it is a moral and global necessity.
Initial Signatories:
Marjan Arvandi / Behrooz Asadi / Narges Eskandari / Eqbal Eghbali / Lawdan Bazargan / Fariba Baluch / Mohsen Borhanzahi / Shohreh Pakravan / Atena Daemi / Shohreh Zamini / Nasrin Sotoudeh / Siwan Soleimani / Abbas Sadeghi / Manzar Zarabi / Esmail Abdi / Negin Azimi Hashemi / Mahbubeh Farahzadi / Soran Lotfi / Narges Mohammadi / Shahnaaz Morattab / Pirooz Nami
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Recent events
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See where all the votes are coming from
Province Number of signatures Alborz 17 Ardabil 0 Bushehr 1 Chahar Mahaal and Bakhtiari 1 East Azerbaijan 3 Fars 5 Gilan 2 Golestan 0 Hamadan 1 Hormozgan 0 Ilam 0 Isfahan 2 Kerman 1 Kermanshah 0 Khuzestan 1 Kohgiluyehv And Boyer Ahmad 0 Kurdistan 2 Lorestan 0 Markazi 1 Mazandaran 0 North Khorasan 1 Qazvin 1 Qom 0 Razavi Khorasan 1 Semnan 1 Sistan and Baluchestan 6 South Khorasan 0 Tehran 19 West Azerbaijan 0 Yazd 0 Zanjan 0 This petition has received 202 signatures so far. Approximately 87% of signatures come from Iran. Approximately 13% of signatures come from outside of Iran. Learn how Daadkhast generates signature maps. -
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امضا میکنم زیرا برای من حقوق کودک بلوچ همان اندازه اهمیت دارد که حقوق سایر کودکان ایرانی.
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Signed via Telegram
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Signed via Telegram
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A group of children's rights activists in Iran started this petition
I sign because the rights of Baluch children are just as important to me as the rights of other Iranian children.