The Australian Baha’i Community has welcomed a resolution passed by the UN General Assembly yesterday which expressed “deep concern at serious ongoing and recurring human rights violations” in Iran.
The resolution called for Iran to “emancipate the Baha’i community, to release the seven Baha’i leaders held since 2008 and to accord all Baha’is, including those imprisoned because of their beliefs, the due process of law and the rights that they are constitutionally guaranteed”.
Australian Baha’i Community spokesperson Venus Khalessi said it was very pleasing to see that that Australia was one of the 47 countries which co-sponsored “this most welcome resolution”.
“Among seven Baha’i leaders unjustly imprisoned in Iran are two with siblings in Australia,” Mrs Khalessi said.
“In fact, more than 100 Baha’is are in prison solely because of their religion, and the community as a whole continues to suffer officially sanctioned attacks on their human rights,” she said.
The UN resolution devoted several paragraphs to the “continuing persecution” of Iranian Baha’is, including
• targeted attacks and murders, without proper investigation to hold those responsible accountable
• arbitrary arrests and detention
• the restriction of access to higher education on the basis of religion
• the continued imprisonment of the leadership of the Iranian Baha’i community
• the closure of Baha’i-owned businesses
• the de facto criminalisation of membership in the Baha’i faith.
Although the resolution welcomed recent promises by Iran’s new president to improve human rights, it cited alarm over unjustified executions, the use of torture, limits on freedom of assembly and expression, and ongoing discrimination against women, ethnic minorities, and religious minorities, including members of the Baha’i Faith.
The General Assembly also expressed its concern about discrimination against Arabs, Azeris, Balochis and Kurds and their defenders, as well as about the severe limitations and restrictions on the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief affecting Christians, Jews, Sufi Muslims, Sunni Muslims and Zoroastrians and their defenders.
Mrs Khalessi said the Australian Baha’i Community was pleased to see that the international community wanted Iran to live up to its recent promises on human rights as well as to its sworn commitments under international law.
“The Baha’is in Iran, members of the country’s biggest non-Muslim religious minority, have seen no change in the officially directed systematic persecution of their community, and for many it has become worse.”
For further information, read the story from the Baha’i International Community.