Open Letter: Protect Scientific Institutions in Iran and Ensure Accountability for Aggressors

To the United Nations Secretary-General, the Director-General of UNESCO, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the governments of all parties to the conflict

We, the undersigned academics, researchers, students, and members of the global scholarly community, express our grave concern over at least 21 attacks that have damaged laboratories, universities, hospitals, and other scientific institutions during the ongoing unprovoked USA – Israel's aggression on Iran. The latest instances were three attacks on 28, 29 and 30 March 2026 on Isfahan University of Technology in Isfahan and Iran University of Science and Technology and Amirkabir University of Technology in Tehran. In another strike on 31 March, one of Iran’s largest pharmaceutical R&D centers, Tofiq Daru, a major producer of anesthetics and treatments for MS and cancer, was targeted and severely damaged. As an aftermath, Iran also threatened to retaliate on American and Israeli campuses in the region.

Scientific and educational institutions are civilian spaces essential to public health, knowledge, and human survival. Their destruction endangers researchers, students, medical personnel, and the broader public, while causing lasting harm to science and society.

We call on all parties to immediately cease attacks on civilian scientific and educational sites, including laboratories, universities, hospitals, research centers, libraries, and archives.

We further call on the United Nations, UNESCO, and relevant international bodies to document damage to these institutions, protect affected scholars and students, and support independent investigations into violations of international humanitarian law. Those responsible for unlawful attacks on protected civilian sites must be identified and held accountable through impartial legal mechanisms.

Science is not a military target. Universities and laboratories must not become battlefields.

We urge the international community to act now to protect scientific infrastructure, defend academic life, and uphold the principle that knowledge-serving institutions must never be treated as expendable in war.

Signed,
Academics, researchers, students, and members of the global scholarly community

The full list of signatories can be found here. To add your name click here.