Mr. Mansoor Osanloo, Chairperson of the Union of Bus Drivers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (�Sherkat-e Vahed Syndicate�), an affiliate of the International Transport Federation, had been detained incommunicado for over seven months at the Evin Prison, in Tehran. Mr. Osanloo had been arrested on December 22, 2005, following a protest by his union�s members against the non-payment of wages, poor working conditions and the company�s refusal to recognise the union, established in May 2005.
According to the information received by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), the authorities have set a 150 million toman ($US 165,000) bail on Mr. Osanloo�s release. Mr. Osanloo�s union colleagues, friends and relatives have had to commit their private property as collateral in order to secure his release from Evin prison.
The Observatory recalls that Mr. Osanloo�s arrest took place against a background of systematic obstacles to trade union freedoms in Iran, attempts to establish independent trade unions being severely repressed and their members systematically harassed.
The Observatory urges the Iranian authorities to put an immediate end to all kinds of harassment against Mr. Osanloo, including through the use of the judicial system, and to guarantee trade union freedom in all circumstances. More generally, the Observatory calls upon the Iranian authorities to comply with the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 9, 1998, in particular its article 1, which states that �everyone has the right, individually or in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international level�, and article 12.2, providing that �the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually or in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration�.
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