On this 11 February, the somber anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, we—healthcare professionals and representatives of healthcare organizations—are appealing to our colleagues around the world. Guided solely by our professional ethics, we call on healthcare workers to join us individually as well as through professional bodies, trade unions, and institutions in supporting the campaign “Hands Off Iranian Healthcare Workers.”

Since January 2026, the Iranian people have been subjected to a wave of brutal repression orchestrated by the mullah regime. Among the atrocities committed, healthcare workers—including physicians, pharmacists, nurses, nursing assistants, paramedics, and others—have been killed, arrested, imprisoned, sentenced, and threatened with death. Medical clinics have been deliberately targeted and prevented from operating.

Their “crime”?

They have carried out their professional duties in accordance with medical and caregiving ethics, which require them to provide care to every person in need.

Let’s launch this campaign together, which will call on all healthcare workers worldwide to publicly sponsor our Iranian healthcare colleagues to better protect them.

By joining us, each healthcare professional and/or healthcare organization commits to:

• monitoring the situation of one or more healthcare workers who are at risk, threatened, or imprisoned;
• calling on the Iranian authorities to immediately release all Iranian healthcare workers who are being prosecuted;
• urging professional regulatory bodies and the authorities of our respective countries to intervene with the Iranian authorities;
• Promote the campaign and, in particular, display its logo in all campaign communications

Practical details:

The campaign will be officially launched on Thursday, 19 February 2026, at 4:00 p.m. (Paris time) during an international online press conference.

For joining the campaign, please contact us on [email protected].

We’ll provide you with portraits, sample letters, logos and punchlines for your social media. The public dissemination of your visuals will begin on Friday, February 20, 2026 in the communications of our respective organizations. 

Our ambition, our duty

Our ambition—our duty—is to demonstrate that the global healthcare community stands in solidarity with its Iranian colleagues. To achieve this goal, we must mobilize hundreds, thousands of people from across the world and all five continents. The world must take action.

It is specified that this campaign is politically neutral and seeks solely to mobilize healthcare professionals to protect other healthcare professionals. We nevertheless wish to emphasize that Iran is a country and a people who have contributed many outstanding physicians and healthcare workers to medicine. We will not abandon them.

And we address this message to their torturers: you may need them tomorrow.

For this reason, we now call on the Iranian authorities to immediately release all healthcare workers who have been arrested or harassed.

Hoping to count you among us by the launch of the campaign,

Contact us : [email protected].

We extend our collegial regards,

Sophie BAUER, Chirurgienne thoracique et cardiovasculaire, Chairwoman SML (Syndicat des Médecins Libéraux)

Arya BASTI, Interventional cardiologist, Switzerland, Chairman of SIMA (Swiss Iranian Medical Association)

Richard Van Etten, MD, PhD, University of California, Irvine Professor of Medicine, Director, Comprehensive Cancer Center

Claire PONDI, Nurse anesthesist, Cameroon